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Lets Get Free

by dead prez

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How did serious efforts to combat racism go outta' style in Hip-Hop Land? Who knows. But the battle ain't over. Dead Prez would rather defend free speech and poor communities than waste their Warholian 15 minutes obsessing over booze, blunts, and hos. Dead Prez's lacerating lyrical stance is unapologetically socialist and pro-black, recalling X-Clan and Paris. This album is a recorded challenge to hardrocks to renew their sense of activism---Insane Clown Posse diehards need not apply. Neo-Black Panthers stic.man and M-1 attack a full spectrum of politically charged issues. Check the antiflossing manifesto "Hip Hop" ("Would you rather have a Lexus or justice?") which works well over brooding bass lines and bounce beats. On "Police State" the duo offer their take on police brutality while the Pan-Africanist "African" serves as a fitting ode to the Motherland. Interestingly, their revolutionary tactics are not just political, but rather serve as a rallying point for the mind, body, and soul. For the pro-vegetarianism of "Be Healthy" the duo somehow coax the usually juvenile Prodigy (of Mobb Deep) to wax about the evils of eating processed foods. Revolutionary indeed. And searing critiques of the powerful and corrupt continue on "They Schools," where the education system takes a lyrical beatdown over some synthesized string arrangements. Let's Get Free is geared toward those who would rather rage against the machine than be eaten by it. --Dalton Higgins