From the Bay Area, Saafir first appeared on Casual's Fear Itself, Digital Underground's The Body-Hat Syndrome, and the Menace II Society soundtrack. With a deal from Qwest Records, the rapper recruited the Hobo Junction production team (J Groove, J.Z., Rational, Big Nose, and Poke Marshall) for his freestyle debut, Boxcar Sessions (1994). He appeared in the film Menace II Society and recorded an album (Trigonometry) under the alias Mr. No No before returning as Saafir in 1999 for The Hit List.