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The Five Percenters1 – founded in 1964 by the former Nation of Islam member Clarence 13X Smith, or simply Allah, as he is referred to by his followers2 – have been popularized and brought to wider attention by the many affiliated Hip Hop artists during the last three decades.3 The rich mythological background of Black American Islam, introduced in its cultural dimension by the Moorish Science Temple in 1913, politicized by the Nation of Islam, and distilled in its esoteric essence by the Five Percent Nation, added a fascinating secretive, enigmatic dimension to the music and the aesthetics of Hip Hop culture. As such, Five Percenter ideology has been referred to as a tradition of black hermeticism,4 popularized in the form of hip-hop Gnosticism.5 The impressive development of the movement from a handful of mainly underaged or teenage “first born” followers,6 recruited in the streets of Harlem – or Mecca, in Five Percenter terminology – can partly be explained with its degree of flex