i was just listening to the new nas album after i posted something earlier about him being in the new source mag. i then started to think nas is very revolutionary but the labels need to sell a platinum record often has nas doing more radio/commericial friendly songs. but dead prez who's stic.man helped out on nas' effort really do not give a fuck i didnt read this but i cutted and pasted some stuff i found on them while they are currently on the rock the bells tour. i didnt get a ticket for the bay area show this saturday butt imma stil tryna pulla lick and come up on one
It's bigger than hip-hop, hip-hop, hip-hop...." Dead Prez's now-classic line has become an unofficial slogan for rebel rockers and disc jockers. Even the intro hook of the song in which it appears, "Hip-Hop," with its thunderous melodic bass line, has become an essential soundtrack for any over-the-top performer's entrance onto a stage. The lead single off the duo's 2000 debut album, Let's Get Free, it became one of the most unlikely Top 40 hits of the new millennium.
Comprising freedom fighters stic.man and M-1, Dead Prez released its initial salvo unexpectedly, before 9/11 and the worst Bush-isms, at a time of calmness and contentment. In stark contrast, their music spoke of revolution and of the empowerment of ghetto youths worldwide. They styled themselves as modern-day Malcolm Xs disguised under gunshot beats and heavy politically themed verses. With lyrics such as "The White House is the Crack House" and "Fuck the Bible/Get on your knees and praise my rifle," there was, and still is, no middle-ground reaction to Dead Prez. The music will either inspire you to throw a Molotov cocktail through a Starbucks window, or make you hide in terror. In short, the two are adored by many but feared by most.
Eight years after the initial volley, with two major-label releases under their belts (plus both members coming out with solo LPs), Dead Prez is back and ready to tackle the trials and tribulations of the advancing decade. Their third album, Information Age, is set to drop in November, just in time for the presidential elections. Asked if DP has an Obama endorsement up its sleeve, stic.man quickly replies, "People who listen to our music damn well know that answer." In another words, no.
Stic.man does predict Obama will win a landslide victory. But he's simply not buying this idea of change being sold to the public. "We can look at our history and see the facts. Folks thought as long as we got black police or a black mayor or a black judge, things would be different because we'd be represented, but eventually they just become part of the system. We need to change the system entirely!" he says. "The revolution doesn't happen overnight. It's a continual process of educating ourselves and others. That's what Dead Prez is all about — educating people to reach a new level of consciousness.... That's real change!" (EP
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