Sunz Of Man are the most mysterious group to come from the lands of Brooklyn NYC. Headz have been blessed briefly with their excellent skillz, but their debut album has been awaiting release since 1993. Simply entitled 'Sunz Of Man', the work that Killah Priest, Prodigal Sunn, 60 Second Assassin and Hell Razah have put into this album is sure to satisfy even the most weary Hip-Hop listener.
The Sunz Of Man are a large part of the Wu-Tang Clan, they are probably the closest members of the Wu-Tang Family, fully representing the culture and follow the most important rule of the Wu - dope beats & dope lyrics. In the beats sector, Sunz have no flaws, super-beats from 4th Disciple, the man who did excellent work on both Wu-Tang Forever and Killarmy's 'Silent Weapons For Quiet Wars'. Production also comes from The RZA, who really needs no introduction, RZA has been producing some of the greatest beats Hip-Hop has known, he makes no exception with the Sunz Of Man. As for lyrics, each Sunz Of Man member has their own individual style, they've been hitting us with extremely dope lyrics since they began, but we'll feel their real lyrical power on the album, after 4 years of work, that is for sure.
The story of the Sunz Of Man is long and extremely detailed, the Sunz have far deeper roots than most headz would realise, but their first 'Incarnation' was on Ol' Dirty Bastard's debut album 'Return To The 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version', Killah Priest was officialy the first Sunz voice to be heard, but 60 Second Assassin was originally featured in a promo-only (Never Released) track called 'Dirty N Stinkin' which was intended for ODB's album, but didn't make the cut. 60 Second performs well in 'Dirty N Stinkin', although that track did not appear on the album, the 60 Second Assassin had another appearance with Wu-Tang Clansman ODB, 62nd appeared with his fellow Sunz Of Man, Prodigal Sunn & Killah Priest on the track 'Protect Ya Neck II The Zoo'. Killer Priest had 3 appearances with ODB, on 'Dont U Know', 'Snakes' and 'Protect Ya Neck II The Zoo', from the beginning, Sunz Of Man were destined for success.
In the same year, Sunz Of Man blew up on Wu-Tang Records with their first single, 'Soldiers Of Darkness/Five Arch Angels', these 2 tracks left headz a little confused to say the least. At the time, people did not know anything about Sunz Of Man, they may have worked out that Killah Priest was a member, but other than that, they were clueless, this single didn't help much.
To begin with, 'Soldiers Of Darkness' was an excellent track, the production debut for 4th Disciple, but a number of 'Unknown' voices were heard, they turned out to be the Killarmy (who released their debut album in 1997 entitled 'Silent Weapons For Quiet Wars'), the B-Side to the single was even more confusing, entitled 'Five Arch Angels', it was another dope track, but it puzzled the listeners, who exactly was the '5th Arch Angel'?, And did this mean there were 5 members of SOM? - The '5th Arch Angel' turned out to be Shabazz The Disciple (known as Holy Psychiatrist in this track), and it also turned out that there wasn't 5 Sunz members, only 4. To the average Hip-Hop head, these problems seem trivial, but actually kept listeners confused up until Mid-1997.
Forgetting the confusion of the single, the 2 tracks were dope. 'Soldiers Of Darkness/Five Arch Angels' was a great single and an excellent debut for Sunz Of Man, but due to bad promotion, the single had virtually no-radio play and existed purely in the underground (where it was a hit). Following from this classic (but under played) debut, Sunz Of Man did a song on the 'One Million Strong' Compilation entitled 'Wicked Wayz', the lyrics weren't bad on this track, the chorus being "If your blind to the Wicked Wayz, the devil playz mad tricks on your mind", but the beats weren't that hot. As well as having a track on the compilation, Sunz member Killah Priest appeared with his good friend The RZA and a bunch of other Hip-Hop artists in the main track, 'Where Ya At?'.
The group remained very low-key until the beginning of 1996, Killah Priest really blew the Sunz up that year, essentialy with the release of The Genius/GZA's second album 'Liquid Swords', Killah Priest made 2 very large appearances, the first being '4th Chamber' where he did possibly the most famous Sunz verse to date, probably because it had huge rotation on MTV. The second Killah Priest 'Appearance' on 'Liquid Swords' was on the track 'B.I.B.L.E.', which was a solo Killah Priest track.
The Genius/GZA is VERY good friends with Killah Priest, he has been seen with him on multiple occations, mainly presenting on MTV. 1996 also saw the release of the Sunz Of Man's second single 'No Love Without Hate', it did better than the last, but was still a very underground record, the 'Soldiers Of Darkness' and 'Five Arch Angels' tracks were also featured on it.
From 1995 onwards, rumours were flying about the Sunz Of Man album, the first presumed title was 'Ain't Nuthin' New Under The Sun', then came 'The Last Shall Be First', despite the many rumours, there was no definite information about the album, in August of 96, the promo for 'Bloody Choices' was released, which was originally released for the album, but was later discarded. In early-1997 there were fears that the album would be delayed indefinitely when Sunz Of Man signed with Red Ant Records, but the album has actually progressed quicker in Red Ant than it did with Wu-Tang.
In November, the first single will be released, just a taster of what to expect from the Sunz Of Man album....
