Vinnie Paz Ritual of Battle, A History of Violence, The Unholy Terror and Solo Career (2007-2010)
What history o f violence did he have?
What history of violence did Vinnie Paz have?
Paz got together members of Army of the Pharaohs to release their second album, Ritual of Battle. It was released September 21, 2007 on Babygrande Records. The album's first single was "Bloody Tears", featuring Planetary, Doap Nixon, Demoz, Vinnie Paz and was produced by DJ Kwestion. The song was based on the Castlevania tune of the same name.  On November 11, 2008, Jedi Mind Tricks released their sixth studio album, A History of Violence (album). The album sold 4,451 units in its first week out. Just like most albums, it was released on Babygrande Records. The album followed multiple summer releases from the Jedi Mind Tricks camp, including the group's first DVD, titled Divine Fire: The Story of Jedi Mind Tricks, and the Vinnie Paz-executive produced projects Jedi Mind Tricks presents Doap Nixon: Sour Diesel, Jedi Mind Tricks presents King Syze: The Labor Union, and Jedi Mind Tricks presents OuterSpace: God's Fury.  In 2010, The Unholy Terror was released. It is the third studio album by Army of the Pharaohs. The release date was March 30, 2010, but the album was released early on March 19, 2010 on UGHH.com. It was released through Babygrande Records and through Paz's own Enemy Soil.  It was during this time Paz released his debut solo album, Season of the Assassin. Many critics said the album was a step forward for Paz as an artist. "Not only has he all-but perfected his grimy braggadocio, but he also exhibits unique storytelling abilities that will make critics who dismiss him as just another hardcore rapper bite their tongues clean off." said Sean Ryon, writer of HipHopDX. It was supposed to be called Assassin's Creed but Paz changed it due to legal issues with Ubisoft. The release date for the album was on June 22, 2010. A few months later, Paz released the Prayer for the Assassin EP. The EP contained four remixed tracks from Season of the Assassin and a music video for the track Keep Movin' on. It was only available for digital download and was released on 26 October 2010. CANNOTANSWER
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Vincenzo Luvineri (born October 5, 1977), better known as Vinnie Paz (formerly known as Ikon the Verbal Hologram), is a Sicilian American rapper and producer behind the Philadelphia underground hip hop group Jedi Mind Tricks. He is also the frontman of the hip hop collective Army of the Pharaohs.

He released his first solo album, Season of the Assassin, in 2010. This was 18 years after Paz had originally started rapping. He released his second album God of the Serengeti in October 2012. In 2013, Paz confirmed that he was working with Army of the Pharaohs to release In Death Reborn, which was released in 2014. October 22, 2013, marked the release date of his second EP, Carry On Tradition. Paz's third solo LP, The Cornerstone of the Corner Store, was released on October 28, 2016. He released his fourth solo album, The Pain Collector, in September 2018.

Biography

Early career (1992–1997) 
Paz was born in Sicily, Italy, where he lived for a short time before moving with his family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is of Sicilian/Italian heritage. He has both Italian and American citizenship. Paz originally started rapping with fellow Jedi Mind Tricks member Stoupe in his basement.

In 1996, Paz released the Amber Probe EP. This was the debut EP from the duo and it was released in 1996. It featured guest appearance from The Lost Children of Babylon. It was in 1997, Jedi Mind Tricks released their debut album; The Psycho-Social, Chemical, Biological & Electro-Magnetic Manipulation of Human Consciousness (often abbreviated as The Psycho-Social CD). The group only consisted of Paz and Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind at this time and featured Apathy, Jus Allah, and Black Thought.

From Ikon to Vinnie, forming AOTP, Violent by Design (1998–2002) 
In 1998, Paz formed Army of the Pharaohs. Paz formed the horrorcore outfit with the original roster of Bahamadia, Chief Kamachi, Virtuoso, 7L & Esoteric, plus Jedi Mind Tricks' other members Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind and Jus Allah. The group first released the "Five Perfect Exertions" and "War Ensemble" 12" on Paz's short-lived Recordings in 1998, but then the underground supergroup remained silent for several years. Together they released The Five Perfect Exertions.

In 2000, Paz, along with Jedi Mind Tricks, released his second album, Violent by Design. Stoupe and Paz recruited New Jersey rapper Jus Allah to join them on the album, and while he was never inducted into the group, it can be assumed he became JMT's third member on the release, as his contributions were not marked as "featuring Jus Allah", while other close group affiliates such as Army of the Pharaohs members Chief Kamachi, Esoteric and Virtuoso were marked as featured guests. On the album, Ikon the Verbal Hologram changed his name to "Vinnie Paz", naming himself after Rhode Island boxer Vinny Pazienza.

Visions of Gandhi, Legacy of Blood and collaborations (2003–2006) 

In 2003, Jedi Mind Tricks released their third studio album, Visions of Gandhi. The album title was inspired by Foxy Brown's verse on the song "Affirmative Action" from Nas' 1996 album It Was Written, in which she raps "They praise Allah with visions of Gandhi". Paz explained that it was "always something that stuck in my head but I never applied it to anything. Then I thought with everything going on in Palestine, the war with Iraq, Mumia's in jail. I just felt this is a time right now that the world and society need someone like Gandhi. So Visions of Gandhi just kind of reflects that." In the following year they released Legacy of Blood.

In 2005, Paz shifted his focus back on to the supergroup Army of the Pharaohs. They worked to release their debut album, The Torture Papers. It was released on March 21, 2006, on Babygrande Records. After the release of this Paz went back to his group Jedi Mind Tricks and worked on fifth studio album, Servants in Heaven, Kings in Hell. It was released September 19, 2006, through Babygrande Records.

In 2006, Vinnie Paz released his first solo album, The Sound & the Fury. It featured guest appearance from Apathy and OuterSpace. It was hosted by DJ Kwestion and had 19 tracks.

Ritual of Battle, A History of Violence, The Unholy Terror and solo career (2007–2010) 

Paz got together members of Army of the Pharaohs to release their second album, Ritual of Battle. It was released September 21, 2007, on Babygrande Records. The album's first single was "Bloody Tears", featuring Planetary, Doap Nixon, Demoz, and Paz, produced by DJ Kwestion. The song was based on the Castlevania tune of the same name.

On November 11, 2008, Jedi Mind Tricks released their sixth studio album, A History of Violence. The album sold 4,451 units in its first week out. Just like most albums, it was released on Babygrande Records. The album followed multiple summer releases from the Jedi Mind Tricks camp, including the group's first DVD, titled Divine Fire: The Story of Jedi Mind Tricks, and the Vinnie Paz-executive produced projects Jedi Mind Tricks presents Doap Nixon: Sour Diesel, Jedi Mind Tricks presents King Syze: The Labor Union, and Jedi Mind Tricks presents OuterSpace: God's Fury.

In 2010, The Unholy Terror was released. It is the third studio album by Army of the Pharaohs. The release date was March 30, 2010, but the album was released early on March 19, 2010, on UGHH.com. It was released through Babygrande Records and through Paz's own Enemy Soil.

It was during this time Paz released his debut solo album, Season of the Assassin. Many critics said the album was a step forward for Paz as an artist. "Not only has he all-but perfected his grimy braggadocio, but he also exhibits unique storytelling abilities that will make critics who dismiss him as just another hardcore rapper bite their tongues clean off." said Sean Ryon, writer of HipHopDX. It was supposed to be called Assassin's Creed but Paz changed it due to legal issues with Ubisoft. The release date for the album was on June 22, 2010. A few months later, Paz released the Prayer for the Assassin EP. The EP contained four remixed tracks from Season of the Assassin and a music video for the track Keep Movin' on. It was only available for download and was released on October 26, 2010.

Violence Begets Violence and God of the Serengeti (2011–2012) 

In 2011, Jedi Mind Tricks released their seventh studio album Violence Begets Violence. It is the first JMT album without the production help of Stoupe, as Paz and Jus Allah grew tired of waiting. Paz stated; "By now you have heard that this is the first Jedi Mind Tricks album we've made without Stoupe handling the production. The bottom line is that at some point after making our last album, A History of Violence, Stoupe lost his passion for making Hip Hop and wanted to try new things. Through our career, we've always waited on him to get inspired to make a new album, but this time around we got tired of waiting out his creative drought. He tried to produce some things for this new album, but we could tell early on that his heart wasn't in making JMT records anymore. He's moved on as a producer to work in other genres with his side-projects, Dutch and Vespertina, and we've moved on with a new crop of talented producers to make the hardcore Hip Hop we've always been known for."

Paz released his second studio album, God of the Serengeti, on October 22, 2012. This effort followed up 2010's Season of the Assassin. Nick Demolina (writer of XXL), said "While Paz's raspy flow and violent imagery are generally coherent and amusing enough, there are a few head-scratchers sprinkled throughout. Such as, "I don't believe in crying at all/I'm a manic depressive—never get excited at all," and, "The bible is gone/you are watching a Viking perform," on "Cheesesteaks". While God of the Serengeti doesn't blaze any new ground, it is a release that will hold up to the Paz's legacy on the underground scene and will surely satisfy long-time fans."

Digital Dynasty 23, Carry On Tradition, In Death Reborn, Heavy Lies the Crown and The Thief and the Fallen (2013–present) 
In 2013, it was announced that the Digital Dynasty would continue once more with another host from Philadelphia. Following from Digital Dynasty 22, which was hosted by Freeway, Digital Dynasty23 was hosted by Paz. It was released on January 31, 2013.

Army of the Pharaohs released two albums in 2014: In Death Reborn on April 22, 2014, and Heavy Lies the Crown on October 21, 2014.

In 2014, Stoupe returned to Jedi Mind Tricks while Jus Allah had left the group again. On June 2, 2015, they released their eighth studio album called The Thief and the Fallen, which was fully produced by Stoupe.

Ventures

Jedi Mind Tricks

Paz formed Jedi Mind Tricks with high school friend Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind, a producer and DJ also from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1993.  They released their first EP in 1996 called Amber Probe through the Label Superegular Records, which featured three original tracks, two remixes and one instrumental all produced by Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind. Jedi Mind Tricks' first official album came out the following year. It was called The Psycho-Social, Chemical, Biological & Electro-Magnetic Manipulation of Human Consciousness, The Psycho-Social CD for short.  The album originally sold 1000 vinyl copies through Superegular Records, but was re-released in 2003 to combine for 25,000 sales.  The album focuses mostly on astronomy, history and physics.

Army of the Pharaohs

Paz formed Army of the Pharaohs, an underground East Coast hip hop group featuring himself, Apathy, Celph Titled, Chief Kamachi, 7L & Esoteric, Planetary & Crypt the Warchild (OuterSpace), King Syze, Faez One, Jus Allah, Doap Nixon, Reef the Lost Cauze, Demoz, Block Mccloud, and Des Devious, although not every artist is on every track.

Heavy Metal Kings

Heavy Metal Kings is a group featuring veteran rappers Ill Bill and Paz. In 2006, Ill Bill was featured on the single "Heavy Metal Kings" by hip hop duo Jedi Mind Tricks, released through Babygrande Records. The single was released in a limited edition blue vinyl pressing, with every copy signed by group vocalist Paz. The duo came together after Ill Bill was featured on Jedi Mind Tricks single titled "Heavy Metal Kings" back in 2006.  The pair released their self-titled debut collaboration album in 2011, Heavy Metal Kings. More releases including Black God White Devil in 2017 and Heavy Metal Kings vs. DJ Muggs.

Solo albums
Paz released his debut solo album Season of the Assassin on June 21, 2010, which peaked at number 25 on the US Billboard rap charts. The album featured guest appearances from Paul Wall, Ill Bill, Clipse among others.

Paz was working on his second solo album God of the Serengeti, which featured production from DJ Premier, Psycho Les, C-Lance, among others. It was officially released on 22, October 2012. On June 21, Paz released the first video from the album, for the single "Cheesesteaks". The music video for "The Oracle" was released a month after the release of the album on 15, October 2012.

His second extended play titled Carry On Tradition was released on October 29, 2013, via his own Enemy Soil record label.

Record label
Paz owns an independent record label, Enemy Soil.

Themes and personal views
Paz is known for his raw and gritty lyrical delivery. His lyrics frequently contain references to religion, war, politics, mythology, conspiracy theories, and the paranormal. His more recent albums such as Servants in Heaven, Kings in Hell show a more obvious approach to politics and world issues. This gritty style of Paz became apparent with the release of Violent by Design, and has become progressively more defined since its release.Paz showed support towards Ron Paul during the 2012 U.S. presidential election, and has referred to the former congressman in his lyrics.

Paz has a number of aliases, such as: "Ikon the Verbal Hologram", "Louie Doggs", "Boxcutter Pazzy", "Pack Pistol Pazzy", "Hologram", "Paz", "Vinnie P", "The Pazmanian Devil", Odrama Vin Laden", "Ikon the Python", and "Pazienza".

Raised Catholic, Paz is now a Muslim, which plays a major role in much of his lyrics, often controversially, as on "Heavenly Divine", where he rapped "I'm with Allah 'cause he chose me, I broke into the Vatican, strangled The Pope with his rosary." Paz is also a heavy metal fan, and occasionally uses song titles and band names in JMT tracks and lyrics.

Discography

With Jedi Mind Tricks 
 The Psycho-Social, Chemical, Biological & Electro-Magnetic Manipulation of Human Consciousness (1997)
 Violent by Design (2000)
 Visions of Gandhi (2003)
 Legacy of Blood (2004)
 Servants in Heaven, Kings in Hell (2006)
 A History of Violence (2008)
 Violence Begets Violence (2011)
 The Thief and the Fallen (2015)
 The Bridge and the Abyss (2018)
 The Funeral and the Raven (2021)

With Army of the Pharaohs 
 The Torture Papers (2006)
 Ritual of Battle (2007)
 The Unholy Terror (2010)
 In Death Reborn (2014)
 Heavy Lies the Crown (2014)

With Ill Bill 
 Heavy Metal Kings (2011)
 Black God White Devil (2017)

With Tragedy Khadafi 
 Camouflage Regime (2019)

Solo albums 
 Season of the Assassin (2010)
 God of the Serengeti (2012)
 The Cornerstone of the Corner Store (2016)
 The Pain Collector (2018)
 As Above So Below (2020)
 Burn Everything That Bears Your Name (2021)

Extended plays 
 Raw Is War / Language Is Fatal (2000)
 Prayer for the Assassin (2010)
 Carry On Tradition (2013)
 Untitled EP (TBA) (with DJ Muggs)

Mixtapes 
 Pazmanian Devil (2005)
 The Sound and the Fury (2006)
 Before the Assassin (2010)
 Fires of the Judas Blood (2010)
 The Priest of Bloodshed (2012)
 Digital Dynasty 23 (2013)
 Flawless Victory (2014)
 Savor the Kill (2020)

References

External links

Interview with Vinnie Paz in the Vermont Cynic

1977 births
American former Christians
American male rappers
American Muslims
American people of Italian descent
American people of Romanian descent
Army of the Pharaohs members
Converts to Islam from Roman Catholicism
Horrorcore artists
Italian former Christians
Italian Muslims
Living people
People from Delaware County, Pennsylvania
Rappers from Philadelphia
Underground rappers
Hardcore hip hop artists
21st-century American rappers
21st-century American male musicians
Jedi Mind Tricks members
In ethics, questions regarding the morality of violence ask under what conditions, if any, the use of violence can be morally justified. Three prominent views on the morality of violence are (1) the pacifist position, which states that violence is always immoral, and should never be used; (2) the utilitarian position, that means that violence can be used if it achieves a greater “good" for society; (3) a hybrid of these two views which both looks at what good comes from the use of violence, while also examining the types of violence used.

Christian theologians have traditionally argued against the morality of violence, arguing that Christians should love their enemies as well as their friends. Benito Mussolini often spoke about the morality of violence, arguing that violence was moral, and that it had spiritual importance as an expression of human will. Noted community activist, Saul Alinsky, also argued for a similar stance in his book Rules for Radicals where he states "That Perennial question, 'Does the end justify the means?' is meaningless as it stands; the real and only question regarding the ethics of means and ends is, and always has been, 'Does this particular end justify this particular means?'" Alinsky's view can be considered a hybrid of the pacifist and utilitarian view of violence.

See also
 Anarchism and violence
 Just war theory
 Paradox of tolerance

References

Further reading

 
 

Violence
Violence Response-based therapy is the application of response-based practice (abbreviated as RBP) in the area of therapy.  The overall approach conceptualizes humans as active agents responding to and within richly complex social contexts.  It is informed by social justice, and human rights.  This approach leaves behind the radical, intra-psychic focus on the individual in isolation that is so common in psychology and psychotherapy.  The therapeutic approach is a relatively new psychotherapeutic approach for responding to people who are experiencing difficulties of any sort (e.g., marriage, grief, victimization, perpetration of violence, etc.).  The approach was developed in the 1990s by Allan Wade with some contributions by Nick Todd and Linda Coates. The approach involves analyzing social interaction, social context, social responses, and how the individual is responding to and making sense of this complexly rich psycho-social situation. 

The approach has been found to be extremely useful in working with victims and perpetrators of violence.  Allan Wade is an expert in social interaction and this background allowed them to analyze  what victims and perpetrator's actually do rather than accept wide-spread myths about what they are thought to do. Wade articulated the difference between mutual and unilateral acts and that violent acts are frequently misrepresented as mutual.  In keeping with this, victim's are falsely understood as passive recipients of violence whereas they actually actively resist it (c.f.,  "Small Acts of Living:  Everyday Resistance to Violence and Other Forms of Oppression".  However, after decades of practice and research, it has been shown that whenever people are mistreated, they resist.  

The approach uses a client-based encompassing definition of resistance to allow for the fact that victims resist mentally, spiritually, physically, and psychologically.  Resistance includes:  "Any mental or behavioural act through which a person attempts to expose, withstand, repel, stop, prevent, abstain from, strive against, impede, refuse to comply with, or oppose any form of violence or oppression (including any type of disrespect), or the conditions that make such acts possible, may be understood as a form of resistance. Resistance is prudent—victims correctly anticipate that resistance will be met with escalated violence and abuse and so they tend to resist covertly.  

This approach has been increasingly picked up around the world.  The Calgary Women's Emergency Shelter website for example states:  
"Whenever people are abused, they do many things to oppose the abuse and to keep their dignity and their self-respect. This is called resistance. The resistance might include not doing what the perpetrator wants them to do, standing up against, and trying to stop or prevent violence, disrespect, or oppression. Imagining a better life may also be a way that victims resist abuse." (Calgary Women's Emergency Shelter, 2007, p. 5).

In traditional therapies, professionals (and others) tend to focus on what the victim "didn't do" and blame the victims for being "passive" or failing to take certain actions (For example, not screaming for help).  These approaches fail to take into account the details of the social context that factored into the victim's actual response.  For example, a woman may be criticized for not crying out for help but when asked she explains she did not cry out for help because she wanted to protect children from witnessing the attack upon her.  

In response-based practice, the client is viewed as an "agent" who has the capability to respond to an act, and is acting in a social context.  RBP focus on what the victim actually did.  Example: the response-based therapist would not ask a victim "How did that make you feel?", but instead would ask "When [act of violence] was done to you, how did you respond?  What did you do?"

References

Related reading 
 Calgary Women's Emergency Shelter. (2007).  Honouring Resistance: How Women Resist Abuse in Intimate Relationships (formerly Resistance to Violence and Abuse in Intimate Relationships:  A Response-Based Perspective) Available from Calgary Women's Emergency Shelter, P.O. Box 52051 Edmonton Trail N., Calgary, Alberta T2E 8K9.
 Coates, L. & Wade, A. (2004).  Telling It Like It Isn’t:  Obscuring Perpetrator Responsibility for Violent Crime.  Discourse and Society, 15(5), 3-30.
 Coates, L. & Wade, A. (2007).  Language and Violence: Analysis of Four Discursive Operations. Journal of Family Violence, 22(7), 511-522.
 Maddeaux-Young, H. N. (2006).  Therapeutic Responses To Violence: A Detailed Analysis Of Therapy Transcripts.  Master of Arts Thesis, University of Lethbridge, Department of Sociology..
 Renoux, M. & Wade, A. (2008, June). Resistance to Violence: A Key Symptom of Chronic Mental Wellness. Context, 98, 2-4.
 Todd, N. and Wade, A. (2001). The Language of Responses Versus the Language of Effects: Turning Victims into Perpetrators and Perpetrators into Victims, unpublished manuscript, Duncan, British Columbia, Canada.
 Todd, N. & Wade, A. (2003). 'Coming to Terms with Violence and Resistance: From a Language of Effects to a Language of Responses', in T. Strong & D. Pare (eds), Furthering Talk: Advances in the Discursive Therapies, New York:  Kluwer Academic Plenum.
 Wade, A. (1997). Small Acts of Living: Everyday Resistance to Violence and Other Forms of Oppression, Journal of Contemporary Family Therapy, 19, 23–40.
 Wade, A. (1999).  Resistance to Interpersonal Violence:  Implications for the practice of therapy.  University of Victoria, Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Psychology.
 Wade, A. (2007a). Despair, resistance, hope: Response-based therapy with victims of violence. In C. Flaskas, I. McCarthy, and J. Sheehan (Eds.), Hope and despair in narrative and family therapy: Adversity, forgiveness and reconciliation (pp. 63–74). New York, NY : Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group. HF
 Wade, A. (2007b).  Coming to Terms with Violence: A Response-Based Approach to Therapy, Research and Community Action.  Yaletown Family Therapy:  Therapeutic Conversations.  
 Weaver, J., Samantaraya, L., & Todd. N.  (2005).  The Response-Based Approach in Working with Perpetrators Of Violence: An Investigation. Calgary Women's Emergency Shelter

External links 
 Centre for Response-Based Practice. 201 – 312 Festubert Street, Duncan, British Columbia, V9L 3T1, Canada.
 CounsellingBC.com directory:  Response-based therapy
 Flaskas, C., McCarthy, K., & Sheehan, J. (2007) Hope and Despair in Narrative and Family Therapy:  Adversity, Forgiveness and Reconciliation.  Publisher: Routledge.

Psychotherapies