i'm rick james, ukhti?

I totally didn't know this until Da (whose blog is called Crime of Aquinas) mentioned it in a comment to a Grenada entry. But yes, apparently Rick James did come to identify with Islam before he passed. Here is an excerpt from an old interview with Jigsaw at AllHipHop.com

AllHipHop.com: Are you Muslim?

Rick: I study Islam and prefer to call God, Allah. I have studied Islam for 7 years. I am a spiritualist, I believe in God but I prefer to call him Allah

AllHipHop.com: What attracted you to Islam?

Rick: Because Islam is one of the most powerful dedicated regimented religions that I have ever studied. And it opened up a whole new light for me.

AllHipHop.com: Did you study this on your own, or did you have someone….

Rick: Allah, or God, leads you towards what you are supposed to do, when I was thinking about my stroke, and my mother and stuff, the only person I could turn to was God. Christianity, I didn’t believe in. Islam is not interested in what you wear, and it doesn’t care for all of that.

AllHipHop.com: I had expressed converting to Islam, with a girlfriend of mines…

Rick: When you convert to Islam you have to be ready, you have to pray five times a day. You have to know what you are getting into.

AllHipHop.com: She was immediately turned off, now with mainstream and in accordance with situation in Iraq…

Rick: There has always been in every religion, warriors and soldiers, you have fanatics. Bin Laden, we are the Bin Laden terrorists of the world, we have killed more people than Bin Laden and Saddam put together with Adolf Hitler. We dropped bombs and killed millions of people in Japan.

AllHipHop.com: Do you consider the current war, a holy war?

Rick: No, it isn’t a holy war, it is a war based on money. The only reason we went over there was to kill Saddam to get the oil. It’s a shame, ‘cause Bush’s racist brother was stopping blacks from going to the polls.

AllHipHop.com: Have you seen Fahrenheit 9/11?

Rick: I loved it. What do you think? I mean, Republicans believe it’s not true, but it is fact based. The media seems to not be as critical of the President. The President does not have the ultimate power; the largest power seat in the US is Chairman of the House. Because you can’t f**k with him. That’s what Arnold Schwartzenegger is going to run for. Louis Stokes is my first cousin and he has been a congressman for over 50 years. Me and him talk a lot, and he told me that’s the most important position. People don’t know that big brother’s are going to be watching them.

The entire interview is in 6 parts and available at AllHipHop.com