<http://schema.org/description>
"dead prez may have been slightly ahead of their time during their golden years, but that is definitely meant as a compliment. Sermonizing Black Nationalism, Pan-Africanism and the benefits of a healthy and just lifestyle during the height of the Bad Boy/Roc-A-Fella era of nihilistic excess in the late \u201890s, they also signed to a major label (Loud / Columbia) despite leaning much more towards the burgeoning indie aesthetics of the day. But this was a good thing \u2013 using major label muscle to wake up righteous hip-hop fans who might have fallen asleep at the wheel.\nThe group itself \u2013 consisting of MCs stic.man and M-1, who produced or co-produced most of the duo\u2019s music \u2013 was formed in Tallahassee, Florida in the early 1990s (M-1 originally hailed from Brooklyn). By later that decade, the duo had started making significant waves, having their music heard on the soundtracks to \u201CSoul In The Hole\u201D and \u201CSlam,\u201D as well as appearing on albums by Big Pun and The Beatnuts.\nBy 1998, they released their first official single, the serious, stark \u201CPolice State,\u201D on Loud, appropriately brought to the label by Lord Jamar of Brand Nubian. After building a solid rep over the next two years with fiery live performances, in 2000 they unleashed their debut album, Let\u2019s Get Free. The album was a welcome return to provocative and often radically political rhetoric that hearkened back to hip-hop forebears including The Coup, Public Enemy and KRS-One (as well as poetic descendants like the Last Poets and Watts Prophets).\nLet\u2019s Get Free was critically acclaimed and benefited from multiple singles, including the infectious, thick analog drive of \u201CHip-Hop\u201D (which became the de facto theme song for \u201CChappelle\u2019s Show\u201D); \u201CIt\u2019s Bigger Than Hip-Hop,\u201D with a remix co-produced by a young Kanye West; \u201CMind Sex\u201D (with Abiodun Oyewole of the Last Poets); and the poignant \u201CI\u2019m An African.\u201D\nBut the singles weren\u2019t the only worthy songs, as just about every cut here has deeper meaning than most full albums by their early 2000s peers. Highlights: the thought-provoking, anti-drug album opener \u201CWolves\u201D; \u201CWe Want Freedom\u201D (co-produced by frequent collaborator Hedrush); \u201CThey Schools\u201D and \u201CPropaganda\u201D (co-produced by Lord Jamar, one of five songs he assisted on).\nAll in all, this is one of the more underrated and possibly Top 5 fully-realized political hip-hop albums of all time. If you don\u2019t agree with the previous sentence, give Let\u2019s Get Free another listen\u2026 you might be surprised at how well it has held up over the years."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<https://www.fatbeats.com/products/dead-prez-lets-get-free-2xlp-reissue>