jewnSABBATH

THEREBIRTH

by DAN GABEL

WHAT WERE YOU DOING WHEN YOU WERE 16? Jewn Sabbath was in hiding. Ten years later, he is now

the epitome of the saying “second chance.”

32 TNL MAY 2009

“i really want to have a voice,” says a laidback Jewn discussing the release of his album Absenthe Minded. “Music was natural to me. I can integrate my thoughts and use music as a catalyst for global, humanitarian work. It’s time to make a difference.”

This is the mindset Jewn admitted he was lacking for the first 16 years of his life. After living in Hawaii until the age of five, he moved to Los Angeles where he spent most of his adolescence. Jewn was always into music, but like many was sucked in by his surroundings. Starting at the age of nine, Jewn was involved with the Filipino mafia.

“That was my family. That was my everyday life. I was the youngest in the gang, and I got in because my cousin was on a high level. My parents knew something was up, but they didn’t talk about it. Imagine being 16 years old and making more money than your parents,” Jewn says with a smile as he casually recalls his past. “At first I did work like watching houses for hours at a time. Me and two other guys would get $500 for three hours of work.”

Because he was making so much money at such a young age, he was too clouded to see the harm he was inflicting on others. When he got older as a teenager he would perform bank, immigration and social security scams, then quickly advanced to more confrontational behavior. Jewn had developed a status at school, and he and his friends made their presence known. “I had power, respect; what more do you need?”

Jewn had everything he thought he needed at the moment, but the violence caught up with him, and he was hit with a serious situation at a very young age. This was the first of many brushes with coincidence Jewn would have.

Jewn’s gang had hospitalized a member of a rival gang, so they expected a retaliation, but no one knew when they would strike. But when the rival gang’s victim was lying in the hospital bed, a note was placed under his pillow. “This guy’s mother pulled a note out from under his pillow, and it was a list of people to kill. Guess who was at the top? So I was forced to drop out of high school with 12 of my friends. I needed to get out.”

Jewn left school, but was still in L.A. looking for a new school to attend. He was never one to abide by the education system, but he made an effort to go back. Due to his known past of gang affiliation, he couldn’t get in anywhere. Life then took a crazy turn for Jewn as he was awoken by a shock of reality at 4:20 a.m.

“I was sleeping, and my house got bombed. I guess my senses kicked in and two flames went though my bedroom window and

EVERYONE FACES HARDSHIPS, BUT TO BE ABLE TO DEAL WITH THE SITUATION AND PUT THE PAST BEHIND IS NEVER EASY. TO TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE AND START OVER AT THE AGE OF 16 CAN BE TRAUMATIC FOR WHAT MOST WOULD CONSIDER A CHILD, BUT JEWN SABBATH IS REBORN AND ON A MISSION TO MAKE ADIFFERENCE THAT WILL LAST LONG AFTER HIS LIFETIME.

I just ran out of there. My bed exploded, and when I opened the door smoke had already filled the house. I heard cars screeching away so I was just trying to get out of there.”

No one was injured in the incident, and for the first time in awhile Jewn and his parents were on the same level, realizing that the safety of he and his family were in jeopardy.

“My mom just kept saying, they’re gonna kill you, they’re gonna kill you baby,” he recalled after the attack. “That was something I always had in the back of my mind…when that happened I knew me and my friends had to leave. But as you know, you can’t just leave a gang. The only way for it to happen was for me to ask my cousin…we signed a blood contract.”

Jewn was overwhelmed with fear, and was dreading the sit down he had to have. His cousin is a very intimidating person,

33 TNL MAY 2009

and Jewn had slowly come to realize “how evil he really is.” Jewn said he is a very smart man, a manipulator, which would explain his status in the gang. But at that point nothing else mattered, and he knew what had to be done.

“I met him in a dark room with a red light on. My cousin looked like a G; he had the clothes, jewelry, everything. I was really nervous and I didn’t know what to say, so I figured we’d start by smokin’ the bong to loosen him up, you know? We were talkin’ about school, family shit, and I told him that me and my friends needed to get out. I was just praying he wasn’t gonna shoot me and he just said, ‘alright.’ During that conversation I was trying so hard to focus on the tiny part of good left in his heart, his weakness, and I found it.”

With a desire to reform his life and serve a more meaningful purpose, Jewn fled L.A and had to go into hiding. He then got in touch with religion and became a youth pastor. “I failed and I wanna make up for it,” he said. “During that time my conscience matured and I developed an independent mind. I converted from being a mafia soldier to God’s soldier.”

Although he was raised in a religious household, Jewn was never religious because he was too involved in the mafia. “My mother was a very pious Christian. I knew it all existed…I just got redirected.”

While in hiding Jewn not only changed his religious outlook, he also continued to develop his education. He did legal research, along with teaching himself political science, philosophy, metaphysics, quantum physics, and much more. Although he was always interested in education, he was again too impatient with the school system, causing him to often get singled out by the priests. Paranoia overwhelmed Jewn and it would often show during class. “Darkness was looming all the time. These kids didn’t have problems like I did. They would talk about the Devil in class; they’ve never faced the Devil, lived with the Devil, had it inside of him.”

Jewn remained motivated and worked through the pain, only contacting his family once in awhile. The priests’ outlook on Jewn soon changed, after another extraordinary event happened after class.

“The priest said to me, ‘I had a dream last night. God spoke to me and said that you are very influential, and you need to get involved in this Church.’ So I went around schools and made speeches, telling them my story, why I was where I was.”

At that point Jewn felt, and continues to feel, that he has a lot of positive things to bring to this world, and made it a goal of his to educate as many people as possible. While studying and traveling over the course of two years Jewn stumbled upon music, after taking a few beatings.

“THESE KIDS DIDN’T HAVEPROBLEMS LIKE I DID. THEY

WOULD TALK ABOUT THE DEVIL IN CLASS; THEY’VE NEVER FACED

THE DEVIL, LIVED WITH THE DEVIL, HAD IT INSIDE OF HIM.”

“I was heavily involved in Martial Arts: Muay Thai, Ju-Jitsu, Kung Fu. I was in a tournament and this guy beat me so bad I couldn’t walk for a week. After that happened I said, ‘Wow, I’m not gonna do this again.’ I had a great trainer from Thailand. He used to train me while smoking and drinking. He was a real edgy, gritty, intense guy. I would have nightmares about this guy beating my ass.”

While in recovery from the karate tournament, Jewn began to teach himself guitar. He was always into hip-hop growing up, a b-boy in L.A. who also idolized Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jimi Hendrix. Jewn took his influences of blues, reggae and hip-hop, and formed that knowledge into his own style, a style Jewn calls, “Roots rock and hip-hop.”

Now living back in L.A. with a new outlook on life, Jewn is 26-years-old and has put the past behind him. When asked if he was still paranoid, Jewn responded, “I was a kid back then, I’m a grown man now. They wouldn’t even recognize me if they saw me.”

With new views and a new calling, Jewn is ready to give to the world, starting with his first album. “I’m not trying to preach, I just have a lot to say. I want longevity; I think people are gonna like my music, but I think some people might sleep on it. I want those people to realize 10 years down the road, and then listen to it. I want to do something worth remembering and it starts with my music.”

“Absenthe Minded” drops in June, and Jewn gives a lot of credit to the help he got from Slim Kid 3 from the Farside, Tre Hudson, and Babble On.

34 TNL MAY 2009