One.Be.Lo

MC Nashid Sulaiman was first known on-stage as OneManArmy and then, eventually, One Be Lo. As OneManArmy, he was one-half of Binary Star, a duo that released the under-recognized Waterworld album in 1999. (Confusingly enough, the album was tweaked, retitled Masters of the Universe, and picked up for wider distribution in 2000.) The first One Be Lo solo album, Project F.E.T.U.S., surfaced in 2003, and a second album, S.O.N.O.G.R.A.M., came two years later. Since neither his sound nor his image are all that mainstream-friendly, he relied on tireless touring and word of mouth, something that gave him enough fan support to issue The R.E.B.I.R.T.H. in 2007 (though it was made more widely available to the public in early 2008). ~ Andy Kellman