SHAYKH HANIF

Shaykh Hanif is a rapper documented in Boston's South End — a neighborhood tie repeated across two Conversation With Brujo episode descriptions and, separately, Throw Up Magazine, which places his story on Massachusetts Avenue, between an open-air drug market and Harvard. After his release in 2019 (see chapter III), he reconnects with BoriRock, whom he'd met while still incarcerated, and joins BoriRock, Dun Dealy, and Top Hooter to form Feed The Family, the collective originally conceived by BoriRock per a Harvard Crimson profile.

In 2020 he releases the album Killing Nino Brown and the EP Broken Window Theory, alongside the single "Big Facts / No Cap" — his first output after his release. 2022 brings PYREX VISIONARY, his album featuring "Steel Sharpen Steel" (with OT The Real) and "Impact Player" (with Benny The Butcher and Last Days), among fifteen tracks total. That same year, the compilation FEED THE FAMILY is released, carrying his track "ART of WAR" alongside BoriRock and Dun Dealy.

Per his own statements to Throw Up Magazine, he served roughly ten years, from 2009 to 2019, and describes it as transformative: "The most positive moment in my life was when I went to prison... I had to go through the worst circumstances to learn who I truly was." He converted to Islam while incarcerated. His own 2020 album title, Killing Nino Brown, independently confirms he once rapped under the moniker "Nino Brown" during that time — the title reads as his own way of symbolically retiring that chapter on release.

Wilderness of North America (September 11, 2023), produced entirely by MichaelAngelo and released via the label Daupe, is his most press-documented work: twelve tracks featuring Crimeapple, Primo Profit, BoriRock, and Funeral Ant Bell, covered by Throw Up Magazine, a Substack feature, and documented on Discogs and WhoSampled. The label reissued the album on limited-edition vinyl and cassette on February 5, 2024.

The collective stays active: "PTT" (with Hood Alchemy and BoriRock) and "20 SUMMERS" (with The Raid) in 2023; in 2024, Feed The Family reissues its compilation on vinyl for the collective's two-year anniversary, per WBUR, and he releases "Cwtfb Freestyle" as his own single on his Apple Music page — a voluntary tie to the show, not just a guest slot. 2025 continues the pace of collaboration within the camp: "HIGHTECHNOLOGY" and "23PLATES" (with BoriRock and Dun Dealy), "SENSITIVETHUGS," and "Wave Affair" (with al.divino, The Hidden Character, and Estee Nack).

THE HAND THAT FEEDS (2025) and its title single (with Marc Andre) mark his most recent stage, alongside the single "Richerd Priors." His most recent video, "NACKSAW VS IRON SHAYKH" with Estee Nack, documents his continued activity within the Feed The Family camp.