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From living with Tupac, surviving a plane crash, to becoming a devout Sunni Muslim, Oakland’s Saafir has been through a set of life-changing experiences that few rappers can feature on their resume. It’s even harder to set this life to music and make it sound good, but through the right mix of sincere songwriting, soulful collaborations and crisp production, the job has been accomplished on Saafir’s fourth solo album, Good Game: The Transition.

On the 17-track collection, the once-Saucee Nomad a.k.a. Mr. No No is more introspective than ever and exceeds the gems in his own catalogue: the underground classic Boxcar Sessions, the sophomore Trigonometry, and the most recent, The Hit List. Whether bringing listeners aboard the TWA Flight 841 crash landing on New York’s JFK Airport runway, on “One of the Hardest” or clarifying the meaning of an internal struggle with “Jihad,” Saafir is at top of his form. On “Devotion,” featuring crooner Mike Marshall of the Luniz’ smash hit “I Got Five on It,” he speaks with depth and conviction that can only come from unique set of experiences. The majority of the songs are produced by the jazz- and funk-influenced Josef “JL” Leimberg, a Los Angeles producer who has produced tracks for Snoop Dogg and G-Unit to name a few.

Early in his career, Saafir was part of the Bay area hip-hop scene that launched many careers. With much work in the streets and behind the mic since the early 90s - when he joined the rap game alongside the Bay’s Digital Underground - he met film directors the Hughes Brothers. You might remember Saafir’s memorable appearance as Cousin Harold in their film “Menace II Society.” Hollywood didn’t exactly call on Saafir from that point and vice versa, so he stuck to his rhyme regimen which included perhaps his best known collaboration, “Three Card Molly,” a super-group collaboration with Ras Kass and Xzibit as the short-lived group Golden State Warriors.

An artist of Saafir’s caliber found it tough to appeal to the pop-oriented music market of the late 1990s and early 2000s and had to survive by any means available. Always a bar spitter, he soon found himself behind a different set of bars but the experience proved to be anything but extraordinary. During this period, Saafir discovered Islam turning to the faith in search of the spirituality he felt lacking in his life.

Rededicated, he recorded Good Game: The Transition in mid-2005 in his hometown of Oakland, CA as a testament to his evolution. He best sums up his outlook on life on “In My Own Words”: If you worship money you’re a kafir, that’s a nonbeliever, I was that, slash a bastard.

There are numerous examples of introspective rhymes blended naturally with Saafir’s recognizable cadence and delivery throughout Good Game: The Transition. Away from the recording booth, he also gives relevant advice: “There’s two things that in this world that can send you to the hell fire the fastest - and that’s what’s between your jaws and what’s between your drawls.”
Now that’s Good Game.