Brand Nubian - In God We Trust (30th Anniversary)

The sequel nobody saw coming, and one of the most convincing reinventions in the history of East Coast hip-hop. When Grand Puba and DJ Alamo departed following the landmark success of One For All, the conventional wisdom was that Brand Nubian was finished. Lord Jamar and Sadat X had other ideas. Enlisting DJ Sincere and stepping fully into the creative leadership of the group, the duo emerged in 1993 with In God We Trust, a record that traded the warm, soulful grooves of its predecessor for something considerably harder, darker, and more uncompromising.

The transformation is drastic and entirely convincing. Where One For All had balanced party groove with polemical grit, In God We Trust strips away almost all of the former and doubles down on the latter, Lord Jamar and Sadat X delivering some of the fiercest and most intensely focused rhymes either MC has ever recorded. The Five Percent Nation philosophy that had run as an undercurrent through the debut is here front and center, infusing every track with a militant, purposeful energy that reflects a group with absolute clarity of identity and zero interest in mainstream compromise. The production matches the tone, harder-edged and more confrontational than anything on One For All, with a raw intensity that captures the spirit of the early 1990s East Coast underground at its most unrelenting.

The singles cut through regardless. "Punks Jump Up to Get Beat Down" is one of the defining hard rap anthems of its era, its hook as instantly recognizable today as it was thirty years ago, while "Love Me or Leave Me Alone" demonstrated that the new Brand Nubian could still deliver melodic range without softening their edge. Both charted on the Billboard Hot 100.

This 30th anniversary edition is pressed on double vinyl and includes a bonus 7" single, a fitting tribute to one of hip-hop's most surprising and most rewarding second acts.

Tracklist:

A1 Allah U Akbar
A2 Ain’t No Mystery
A3 Meaning Of The 5%
B1 Pass The Gat
B2 Black Star Line
B3 Allah And Justice
B4 The Godz…
C1 The Travel Jam
C2 Brand Nubian Rock The Set
C3 Love Me Or Leave Me Alone
C4 Steal Ya ‘Ho
D1 Steady Bootleggin’
D2 Black And Blue
D3 Punks Jump Up to Get Beat Down

Bonus seven-inch tracklist:
A Punks Jump Up To Get Beat Down (Single Mix)
B Love Me Or Leave Me Alone (Remix)