dead prez Let's Get Free (25th Anniversary) 2LP

Let's Get Free was the debut studio album by hip-hop duo dead prez, originally released in 2000. Critically acclaimed upon its release, Let's Get Free was called a "return to politically conscious rap" and, "the most politically conscious rap since Public Enemy"; the duo's messages also earned them favorable comparisons with Brand Nubian, The Coup, Def Jef and X-Clan. The album's lyrics, performed in front of sparse beats, are startlingly direct, militant, and confrontational. M-1 and stic.man excoriate the media, the music industry, politicians, and poverty, and urge their target audience to study socialism and ideas of black power. Rolling Stone gave the album four stars and lauded its equation of "classrooms with jail cells, the projects with killing fields and everything from water to television with conduits for brainwashing by the system."

Taking social activism to new heights, Dead Prez are the most revolutionary hip-hop group to emerge since Public Enemy lost their audience and N.W.A disbanded. SticMan and M1 chronicle a broad range of politically pressing issues which pertain to the black community — from the inadequacies of inner-city public schooling ('They Schools') to socially repressive bureaucracies ('Police State'). But Dead Prez are more then just agenda and rhetoric; the group's topical diversity is equally inspiring, seamlessly shifting from the mind-pillaging 'Psychology' into the conversational foreplay of 'Mind Sex.' Yet it is 'Animal in Man' that best illustrates just how innovative this group can be.

One of the most radical rap releases in history. Halfway between the carefreeness of the '90s and the apathy of the aughts, dead prez saw through the false promises of a crooked empire at its height. The music industry is just one of many targets of Let's Get Free, a statement of political consciousness so specific and carefully articulated that it's a wonder to think it received major distribution, and charted on the Billboard Hot 100.

Let's Get Free remains one of the most important socio-political statements in Hip-Hop history. A quarter-century later, its themes still resonate, reminding us that Hip-Hop is more than entertainment—it's a movement. Salute to stic, M-1, and the entire RBG crew for giving the culture a timeless masterpiece!