Let Mee Tell You about Dead Prez's Hip Hop

If you a fighter, writer, biter, crowd exciter or you wanna just get high, then just say it
But if you a lie, lie, wolf cry, pants on fire, agent with a wire then I'ma know it when I play it
-Dead Prez

You've heard that beat before probably, the one that sounds like congress between Moog and tuba, backed by a simple drum machine loop. Well it's been a while but Dave Chappelle used to walk out to each of his shows with that beat. What a perfect hip hop beat, it's small in scale but not in size, it makes you wanna dance but it also makes you think "what the fuck?!" It's the right beat for a political statement, which is exactly what Hip Hop is.

Generally every rapper has some level of social conscience. They might rap about selling crack or use the bitch word so freely but most got something to say that's worth your time. Then there's Dead Prez, followers of the no compromise political rap music pioneered by Public Enemy, the kind of rap that pretty much guarantee's you won't be partying like a rock star.

I'm not a big fan of DP but I do admit they "got some crazy shit" and there are few songs as perfectly crafted to their genre then this. The beat points to the past with its economy (LL Cool J's first album wasn't produced but "reduced" by Rick Rubin) but the lyrics are very much a product of the late 90's. The pain from the deaths of Biggie and 2pac was still being felt but people were also "Pissed off, cause Biggie and 'Pac just missed all this / Watchin all these cheap imitations get rich off 'em / and get dollars that shoulda been theirs like they switched wallets," to quote a certain blonde haired MC. Hip Hop is about the anger that the two greatest purveyors of the gangster subculture since Scorsese and Coppolla had been gunned down and that nobody knows shit although even the FBI suspects police involvement. I don't wanna get into it cause it's a fucking shame.

Hip Hop is about hip hop. This thing that anybody can do because it just requires your passion and a little inventiveness. Like punk rock in that way but without the necessity of rebellion, although when that shows up hip hop is at its best. I can't say anymore about this song and my epigram says it all anyways.