The complicated Life and Mind of Pro Era’s Founder, Capital Steez
By Alex Gravelle
Jamal Dewar Jr, better known by his stage name, Capital Steez (sometimes Capital STEEZ) was one of the most interesting names in rap music in the early 2010s and had one of the saddest ends to a career as one could hear, but first I want to dive into what made Steez … Steez.
Steez was born in 1993 in Brooklyn to Jamaican parents, he became interested in music and rapping at a very young age. In elementary school, he formed a hip hop group with his friend Jahkari Jack, in which they called the, “3rd Kind”. They even released a mix-tape together in 2009 called, “The Yellow Tape”. Even at the age of 16, Steez knew that he wanted to be a rapper. He then went to Brooklyn’s Edward R. Murrow High School, which was a school that encouraged the Arts and Music and even gave students free periods (or as they called it optional time activities) where they were free to do whatever they wanted, whether that be to draw, to write, or if you were Steez and his newfound friends, you could cypher/freestyle in the hallways. Steez made friends with DJ and now producer, Powers Pleasant, along with rappers Joey Badass, and CJ Fly, who would go on to become the founding members of Steez’s initiative, Pro Era. Joey Badass was already rapping on his own though, he would upload videos to a YouTube channel under the alias, “JayOhVee”. Steez approached Badass in the Cafeteria one day, and showed him one of Joey’s videos and asked if it was him. Badass was ecstatic as he had already heard around school about Steez and his rapping ability. The four of them began hanging out a lot, smoking weed and free styling with each other almost everyday. Badass talked about the energy there was when they free styled, “Whatever it was, the vibe just felt so great. It felt so right with all of us rapping.”
Steez had grown up in a Christian household, where going to Church on Sundays was a routine, but as Steez grew up he started to move away from the religion. Steez started to think that all of the religion was based on lies. Steez believed that Jesus was actually black, which led him to became interested in Rastafarianism. Steez was a very spiritual person, and he was looking for answers as to what the world really was, which is very hard for most to figure out. Steez began believing that he was an, “Indigo”, which was a term used to describe children and young people who have very high intuition and are very intelligent. Indigos also usually have a disapproval of authority. Steez began watching a YouTube series called, “Spirit Science”. From this series Steez became very aware of his mind and more specifically, his chakra’s. Steez also began believing that he was a, “higher being” and that he was smarter than everyone in the world.
In February 2012, Joey Badass released the song, Survival Tactics on Youtube, the song featured Capital Steez. The two of them rapped about the government, inequality, along with some bars you would expect from teenagers, as Joey rapped,
“I got them girls next to the wood like they light-year, I’m right chea
Tryna get a buzz, tryna pollinate, STEEZ got that presidential shit time to inaugurate.”
While it was Joey’s song, Steez had the stand out verse. Steez showed how good he was with wordplay, and how smart he was, with the references he was making. Here’s my favorite bars from Steez on the song,
“Riding on hover boards,Wiping out motherboards. Started spitting fire cause my motherfuckin lung is scorched. King Arthur when he swung his sword
A king author I ain’t even use a pen in like a month or four.”
The song quickly started garnering attention, not only at school, but all around the world. The video, in which Steez, Joey, and their friends skate around Brooklyn, and Steez wearing a huge panda mask, accumulated 100,000 views in just a few weeks.
It was time for Steez to release his debut album, which he had been making for months, and the number 47 played a big part in the promotion of the album. 47 to Steez was the quintessential number in the world, it represented the fourth and seventh chakra, the 4th being the Heart, the 7th being the Brain. Steez titled the album, AmeriKKKan Korruption, giving a nod to Ice Cube’s 1990 debut solo album, “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted.” Steez decided that he wanted to print the number 47 onto stickers, but there was a twist. Steez wanted to put the numbers in a white circle with a red background, depicting what looked like a swastika (as you can see pictured above). Steez used the symbol as a symbol of peace, love, and balance in the world, and didn’t use it as term of hate like the Nazi’s. Steez began placing these stickers all over New York City, and he released the album on April 7th (47), 2012.
Around this time, Joey Badass and Pro Era (but mainly Joey Badass, which we’ll get into in a bit) signed a management deal with Jonny Shipes of Cinematic , who would manage the collective and help them with making music videos, setting up tours, etc … By the time Badass was ready to release his debut mix-tape, 1999, two music videos were already made and ready to go, while for Steez no videos were made, and none were released until September, over five months after the album had released. Steez began to feel like he was becoming the second in command to Badass,which started hurting Steez and his mental health. He felt like Cinematic cared more about furthering Badass’s career than they did the head of Pro Era. Shipes and others viewed Badass as way more like-able, and thus easier to promote. Steez was looked at as someone who you didn’t know what he was going to say, and they were scared of Steez lashing out, and saying things that could hurt the whole collective’s image. Steez mentioned his newfound jealousy of Badass in an interview with WNYU saying, “I don’t get hit up for interviews as much as I would like to,” he said. “Forgive me — like Joey, he gets free clothes. I wish I got free clothes!” To Cinematic, Badass was the easier choice, when performing Badass exudes a lot of energy and is very outgoing, but Steez is a little more reclusive and did not enjoy live performances as much. Cinematic announced a tour for Pro Era, where they would go around the country with headliners Juicy J and Smoke DZA. The thing that Steez noticed, was that on the tour poster they were introduced as, “Joey Badass and Pro Era.” This is when Steez began noticing that he was becoming an afterthought in the group that he founded.
After the tour, Steez became more reclusive and began going further down his spiritual journey. Steez began to believe that he was divine and that he was put on the world to save it, saying this on his Twitter account, “In 2012 they predicted that an Alchemist would rise, with the key to World Peace… Eye think it’s me.” Steez began to confuse his family and friends, as they had no idea what he was talking about sometimes, as his friend Jack described, “You would talk to Steez and not know half the shit he was talking about. He would say something, and you’d be like, What are you talking about?.” His mother became increasingly worried for her son aswell, as her sister says, “The other day I went to visit my mom and we broke down because every day she tries to calculate in her head, What the fuck happened to my son?”
Near the end of December, Pro Era released a collaborative mix-tape titled, “PEEP: The aPROcalypse”, but it did little for Steez as he was still feeling hurt by Cinematic for not promoting him as much as Joey Badass. It was also at this time that Steez became increasingly paranoid, especially when it came to the 47 stickers. He believed that he was going to get in trouble for the stickers he had put all around the city, and that the police were going to come after him, and during that time he believed the only way to solve the problem was to, “ hurt himself in some way.” Steez’s friends and Pro Era mates heard Steez mention that he was going to kill himself by jumping off the building where Cinematic had their offices. Then the next night, on December 23rd, Steez left his house, and his sister, mom, and friends had no idea where he had gone. Pro Era mates searched Prospect Park in New York for over an hour and a half trying to find Steez but he was nowhere to be found. Steez sent a message to his friend Shirley, writing “Eye love you ;)”. He sent one last tweet, which was sent while he was on top of a building in Manhattan, and it read, “The end.” Shortly after midnight, Capital Steez’s jumped off a Manhattan building and his body was found outside with him clutching a bible toward his chest. Steez died on December 23rd, 2012, and if you add the numbers up (12+23+12) it equals the number 47.
Steez was without a doubt a troubled man, he dealt with a lack of knowing what the world was really about, he dealt with racism from the government, with the implementation of the “Stop N Frisk” initiative in New York, and he never really found peace when it came to his music and his place in the music industry. Steez lives on through his legacy, as every year around April, Pro Era including founding members Joey Badass, CJ Fly, and Powers Pleasant, along with new members Dirty Sanchez, Kirk Knight, Nyck Caution, and many more throw a concert titled, “Steez Day”. All the proceeds of the Steez Day concerts go to the members of Steez’s family.
Capital Steez was one of the most interesting names in rap music, he was incredibly smart, he always seemed to look deeper into things that most people would not even think about, and he started a group of misfits in New York called Pro Era, and that group is still thriving to this day. At the bottom of this article I am going to include a list of someone hotlines you can use if you yourself are feeling lost or that there is nothing out there for you. I promise there are people in the world who are always ready to help. R.I.P Steez, I hope you've found your peace
Kids Help Phone: 1–800–668–6868
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1–800–273–8255
