First published in Communist Student no.3

Hip hop and radical politics make unlikely bedfellows these days. Ted North looks at one exception to the rule, the band Dead Prez

Mainstream hip hop is dominated by hyper-commercialised sell-outs, whose subject matter revolves around topics as important as who has the biggest diamonds, who has had the most girls and who has the biggest house. Thankfully not all hip hop artists are intent on following the blinged up version of the American dream, where a chosen few are elevated from the ghetto to extreme wealth, in the process becoming propagators of bourgeois cultural hegemony. Dead Prez, consisting of MCs stic.man and M1, stand in stark contrast to this.

Their debut album Let’s get free (2000) stands, in my eyes at least, as one of the greatest hip hop albums ever produced. For people whose experience of hip hop consists of 50 Cents’ ‘In da club’, or perhaps Sisqo’s ‘Thong song’, Dead Prez will come as a shock. Dead Prez songs are littered with ideas of revolution, socialism, comradeship, opposition to police brutality, etc. In these ways they are hip hop’s equivalent of rock’s Rage Against the Machine. For example in the song ‘Police state’ they declare:

Bring the power back to the street, where the people live
We sick of workin’ for crumbs and fillin’ up the prisons
Dyin’ over money and relyin’ on religion for help
We do for self like ants in a colony
Organise the wealth into a socialist economy
A way of life based off the common need
And all my comrades is ready, we just spreadin’ the seed

In ‘They schools’ the American education system is attacked for its racism and defence of capitalism. Good stuff. The songs ‘Propaganda’ and ‘Psychology’ discuss respective ways in which the state controls the people.

More controversial, to white listeners at least, are Dead Prez’s racial attitudes. Their album has been called “anti-white”, because of the use of the word ‘cracker’: “I’m down for running up on those crackers in they city hall” (‘Hip hop’) and “I went to school with some redneck crackers” (‘They schools’).

I think their attacks on ‘whites’ are primarily in relation to the rich and should be seen in the context of the failure of America’s white majority to challenge what Stokeley Carmichael (later Kwame Ture) characterised as ‘institutional racism’. Words like ‘cracker’ are not comparable to white people’s use of ‘nigger’: indeed ‘cracker’ is an ambiguous term and is frequently used in popular culture: eg, by Chef in South Park. In reality, Let’s get free and Dead Prez’s other work reflect a bold stand against the racism still prevalent in America.

Many critics, having superficially listened to Dead Prez, characterise them as Pan-Africanists. A more accurate description of their politics is African internationalism. The latter correctly argues that only the working class are consistently democratic fighters for a radical new society. The neo-colonial elites of African states are the enemy and not part of some (in any case fictional) anti-imperialist alliance. Particularly important in developing these ideas was Omali Yeshitela, who criticises Marx’s and Engels’s alleged Eurocentric focus and Lenin’s idea that imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism. He argues that imperialism has characterised capitalism from its origins.

These views are associated with the Uhuru Movement – which includes the African Peoples Socialist Party, the International Democratic Uhuru Movement and the African Socialist International. Dead Prez make many references to Uhuru, which, despite its progressive side, nevertheless contains a muddled nationalist message. Whilst there is, of course, a difference between the nationalism of the oppressed and the nationalism of the oppressor, Communist Students argue against all manifestations of nationalism.

It is interesting that Dead Prez combine the socialist militancy of the Black Panthers – who moved away from black nationalism and towards a focus on socialism and thus engaged in alliances with representatives of all oppressed communities (gasp – even white ones!) – with the ‘black power’ ideology associated with Stokelely Carmichael/Kwame Ture. This combination of ideologies produces a somewhat contradictory outlook. Dead Prez must therefore be seen in the context of the failure of the revolutionary left and the ideological confusion of progressive forces.

Aside from the overtly political, the album has a considerable ‘cultural’ side. The song ‘Mind sex’ makes a considerable contrast with the degrading sexism of commercialised mainstream hip hop. ‘Be healthy’ stresses Dead Prez’s veganism:

I don’t eat no meat, no dairy, no sweets
Only ripe vegetables, fresh fruit and whole wheat …
No fish though, no candy bars, no cigarettes
Whilst I don’t agree with Dead Prez’s definition of dietary health, they are correct to say:
They say you are what you eat so I strive to eat healthy
My goal in life is not be rich or wealthy

Clearly the trash that the capitalist system compels working class people to eat has a degrading effect on health.

So far I have discussed the lyrics and politics of Let’s get free. What of the music? I guess this depends on whether you are a fan of hip hop or not. The beats and instrumentation are kept relatively simple, which helps bring out the full power of the lyrics. I would recommend all readers check out the album and make up their own minds.

Dead Prez stand in the tradition of socially conscious hip hop of 2pac and Public Enemy and, whilst this album may be a few years old, it remains important as a backdrop to the development of the alternative hip hop genre of recent times.