Revisiting Jeru the Damaja’s ‘The Sun Rises In the East’: A 30-Year Retrospective

During the mid-90s, a resurgence in rap music took place in New York, the epicenter of hip-hop culture at the time. Described as the “Golden Age,” following the unprecedented success of the West Coast rap scene and the pending pronouncements from Southern rap hip-hop. New voices and producers emerged from the “concrete jungle” that would spark a wave of new music that would forever shift the landscape.  From 1992-1996, many seminal albums were released that would redefine the sound and texture of rap music for years to come. Of all the albums of that period, undoubtedly, one of the finest was The Sun Rises In the East by Jeru the Damaja. Born Kendrick Jeru Davis, his origin story began in Brooklyn, where he was born and raised in the East New York neighborhood. In the late 1980s, he formed the rap group Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and linked up with Boston native Keith “Guru” Elam, who adopted Brooklyn as his second home. Jeru would even appear in Gang Starr’s first video, “Words I Manifest,” in 1989 from their debut project No More Mr. Nice Guy. After honing his craft for years, Jeru was a featured guest on “I’m the Man,” a...