The Deal : one advertisment visual = one metaphysical Philandering.

The question : Why, o Why do Erykah Badu and sister Nayrock sport such incongruous Balaclavas on the last Gap fad to have invaded Paris' streets. Hold on a sec! With hindsight, it appears that the Nu-Soul darling tots every possible kind of scarfs completely covering the three quarters of her head with the notorious exception of her haughty face on each and every of her promotional pictures. So what ? She must have a permanent cold or her photographer might have a strong turban fetiche, even worse, A&R peeps at Universal gone completely towel-crazy all at once? Enough for the dubious, the key was hidden in plainsight : three quarters, now, doesn't that ring a bell?

Even yer down-the-road High school drop out would know that Earth is covered on three quarters of its surface by oceans, seas, lakes and mud pools. Unlike him, we are able to explain the connection with the crazy headdress. Within obscure US sect, "the Five Percent Nation", that features Badu among its harduous zealots, Man is represented by God, A.L.L.A.H (Arm.Leg.Leg.Arm.Head) or the perfect 7 number whereas women are commonly refered to as Earths and hence logically covered on three quarters of their body surface by whatever garments they find suitable.

If you ever considered dropping out of high school yourself, you already know enough to enjoy the thrills of complete days falling trhough you as you watch MTV non-stop, sarcastically decrypting the evil conspiration of covered heads displayed daily in urban video clips. However if you feel ambitious enough to make it to the bottom of this page, "let's kick the real facts!" .

LET ME BREAK IT DOWN FOR YOU!

The Five Percent Nation is a dissident branch of the notorious NATION of ISLAM -i.e. Muslim inspired Black empowerment party founded by Elijah Muhmmad according to the teachings of Farad. Like NOI it was [extremely] freely inspired from traditional Islam and adapted to the reality of America or in the case of the "five percenters" to the reality of the streets. Founded by dissident CLarence 13X within Harlem's 7th NOI temple, the 5% Nation aimed at bringing NOI teachings and values closer to the youth and especially to the most turbulent or forsaken among them. Within the racially tense environmnent of the times and building on the disanchentment feeling caused by the civil rights movement's failure, Clarence fosters their self-respect by unveiling the divine nature of the Black man -God-, his preexistence in prehistorical arabic civilization to the white man or "caveman" and the five percenters duty towards the "cattle" or eighty five percent of the population that submits to the dominance of ten percent of exploiters.

WORD !

Though seemingly doubtful, the relevance of those who have sometimes been dubbed "jive percenters" -i.e. as a criticism of their heretic take on orthodox Islam- is not the point here. No, the point is that The Five Percent Nation invented Hip Hop. Because they had to teach the most troubled out of the streets, the five percenters became the illest emcees on earth. Gathered in parks or round the corners for break parties -even before anybody had heard of the term- the used vivid images puns -"break down"- and street linguo to convey their faith to their audience. Many neologisms created by five perecenters have thus become universal language in Hip Hop. For instance, "Word!" that salutes wise utterances from those gathered or "What's up G?" as in What's up God ? -I.e Black Man- the five perceneters' greeting that was turned into What's up Gangsta ? by West Coast artists.

Earths & 7s

Just like Badu, many Hip Hop bands have made the Five Percent Nation their own -including all time Greats such as Gang Starr or Wu Tang Clan. Though the idea of an hard to fathom sect diffusing its message through today's most dominant form of urban music might be detrimental, it's also comforting to know that, even in as mainstream a firm as Gap, it is still possible to resist the direction of A&R execs to listen to one's Guru instead.