When
your mother gets locked up for alleged drug dealing when you're eighteen
years old, chances are you're going to have some opinions about the social
system that landed her in there. M1, one half of socio-political US rap
group Dead Prez explains, "She's locked up due to the illegal drug
economy that's been imposed on our community. She's basically a victim of the
war against drugs in our community. Police containment and the strategy of the
police is to lock up as many people as they can. That's why the prison is one of
the biggest booming economies that's out there."It was 1990 when she was imprisoned and looks to be released in 2002. Her ten year absence certainly had a marked effect on the rapper, "It made me much stronger, much clearer, it made me support myself even much more, without the support system of my mum directly. It also made me understand that I've got to kill the government. This government has to go down, because I know that it is detrimental not only to my life but to my family's life, and I know how if effects our community as a whole."
It's an attitude that gets full vitriolic effect on Dead Prez's debut longplayer 'Let's Get Free', which was released earlier this year. The single 'Hip Hop' preceded the album, and was an incisive examination into the more unsavoury aspects of the music industry. Dead Prez's other mc, Sticman, is clear about his objectives, "We ain't coming into this game to compromise our music. Our lives are already compromised," he explains.
M1
concurs, "Everywhere I've been, the situation for African people has been
poor. Most of the communities I've lived in have been down-trodden. We knew who
the enemy was, and developped a science about how we were going to fight this,
so that made us bond together. Of their new-found status as a record company
'employees', they share a common attitude - "In battle, sometimes you
sacrifice things for greater advantage, and that's what we're dealing with right
now."M1 and Sticman spent their formative years in Tallahasse, Florida, where they met and started writing music together at 17. "When I met my homeboy Stic," M1 explains, "we shared the same kind of vibe. We knew who the enemy was, and developped a science about how we were going to fight this, so that's what made us bond together." It's a musical bond that's developped over ten years and continues to grow. They've just completed a UK tour and are now working on a follow up to 'Let's Get Free'. If you've not got their debut, make a priority on your next shopping trip. In the meantime, check out some Dead Prez philosophies...
M1 on the politics in their music: "It's always been political. The police have always been the enemy and I've always been resisting them, but right now it's a conscious, scientific, strategic aim to kill the people that are killing us. I want to give a big shout out to the Uhuru movement and people like Chairman Omali Yeshitela, who's on our album [check the opening track 'Wolves'] and Fred Hampton from the Black Panther party, as well as people like Marcus Garvey. They have shaped the views that make us the people that we are today."
Dead
Prez on the police:M1: "I know about being locked up in places like Rikers Island for little stuff, misdemeanours. Just being black, you're going to run into the police, and I know you have it in London too, with Stephen Lawrence and things like that"
Stic: "A lot of times, they've got this fake charge called "disorderly conduct", which is basically a free pass to lock you up. Enough times I've been in this situation. The sh*t I've been through with the police ain't nothing compared to the community as a whole."
Stic on Dead Prez's mission: "Change is the only thing we can count on. Right now, the mission is not to become oppressors, but to become free again, like we were before. We don't want to oppress the police, we don't want to oppress white people. We want to get rid of oppression. Being poor, you have to resort to a lot of ingenuity rather than a lot of technology, which is how we live, which is what hip hop is."
Stic on Africa: "We ain't been to Africa yet, but we've got a lot of love in Africa. Once we go to Africa, it's over. We're going to Namibia and South Africa soon. It's going to be crazy."
Stic
on the Dead Prez live experience: "You can expect a lot of energy, a
lot of visuals. It's like making love, it's based on the partner. The people are
the partners, so if they're real live, then we're real live, and if they're
feeling freaky then we're feeling freaky."Stic on selling out: "I can't sell out and be myself. If I sell out, I ain't me no more. I know the limitations. Ain't nothing I'm gonna get out of selling out that's worth what I'll get trying to get free."
M1 on the name 'Dead Prez': "We called ourselves Dead Prez because the initial statement we like to put in the air is dead the president. Dead the people who victimize and exploit our lives."