- Let's Get Free
Infobox Album |
Name = Let's Get Free
Type =Album
Artist =dead prez
Released =March 14 2000
Recorded = 1998-2000
Genre =Underground Rap
Length = 69:30
Label =Loud Records
Producer =dead prez Hedrush Lord Jamar Kanye West
Reviews = *Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:78420r2au48i link]
* Rolling Stone Rating|4|5 [http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/207357/review/6068052/lets_get_free link]
* The Source Rating|3.5|5 [http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=1110947&BAB=M link]
* "NME "Rating|4|5 [http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=1110947&BAB=M link]
*CMJ (B) [http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=1110947&BAB=M link]
Last album =
This album = "Let's Get Free"
(2000)
Next album = ""
(2002)"Let's Get Free" is the debut album by the
political hip hop duodead prez , released onFebruary 8 ,2000 (see2000 in music ) onLoud Records .Critically acclaimed upon its first release, "Let's Get Free" was called a "return to politically conscious rap" [http://www.poundmag.com/magazine/reviews/elpees/deadprez/deadprez.html] and "the most politically conscious rap since Public Enemy"; the duo's messages also earned them favorable comparisons with
Brand Nubian andX-Clan . The album's lyrics, performed in front of sparse beats that many critics derided as a "dull musical backdrop" [http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/d/deadprez-lets.html] , are startlingly direct, militant and confrontational. M-1 andstic.man excoriate the media, the music industry, politicians and poverty, and rap aboutAfrocentrism andBlack 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" [http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/cd/review.asp?aid=62149] .Overview
The record opens with a speech by Chairman
Omali Yeshitela , of the InterNational Peoples Democratic Uhuru Movement, describing a method of hunting which lures wolves to suicide, and makes the analogy to self-destruction fueled by crack in the black community.The duo's radical
pan-Africanism is brought up a notch on the album's first rap, "I'm a African", which contains the lyric "I'm aAfrica n/Never was aAfrican-American ". The same song explains their musical stance as "somewhere betweenN.W.A. and P.E.", referring to the two major hip-hop groups of late 1980s hip hop, West Coast's hard-edged, violent gangstas, N.W.A., and East Coast's militant activists, Public Enemy."They Schools" assaults the dominance of whites in the
public education system in theUnited States , from the accusatory title to the opening, "I went to school with some redneck crackers/right around the time3rd Bass dropped "The Cactus Album ", referring to an interracial, middle-class trio from the East Coast."Hip-Hop," the most well known song from the album clearly states their beliefs concerning the modern music industry being over-commercialized. They also illustrate their beliefs, stating "Who shot Biggie Smalls/If we don't get them they gon' get us all, I'm down for runnin' up on them crackers in they City Hall."
"Animal in Man" is a retelling of
George Orwell 's "Animal Farm " and begins with a sound excerpt from the movieBeneath the Planet of the Apes . "Behind Enemy Lines" namechecks Black PantherFred Hampton .Among the rallying cries for black liberation/socialism, Dead Prez include entreaties for self-respect/love: "Be Healthy" is about eating right ('Lentil soup is/mental fruit'); "Mind Sex" is about getting to know your lover and appreciate a person's mind as well as their body ('maybe later we could play a game of/chess on the futon'); "Discipline" is a how-to for achieving one's goals; and "Happiness" is about warm weather as a tool for the liberation struggle. Dead Prez also disclose their atheism in the track "Propaganda" ('I believe man created God out of ignorance and fear').
As well as hip-hop beats, many tracks contain live instruments, such as "Psychology", "Animal in Man", and "You'll Find a Way."
Track listing
ingles chart positions
Personnel
*stic.man — Lead vocals, production, executive producer, art direction
*M-1 - Lead vocals, production, executive producer, art direction
*Hedrush — Production, drum programming
*Lord Jamar — Production
*Kanye West — Production
*Tahir (of Hedrush) - Vocals
*Maintain (of Illegal Tendencies) - Vocals
*Indo (of People's Army) - Additional vocals
*Abu (of People's Army) - Additional vocals
*Keanna Henson — Additional vocals
*Ness (of A-Alikes) - Additional vocals
*Toya (of People's Army) - Additional vocals
*Divine (of People's Army) - Additional vocals
*Umi — Additional vocals
*Becca's Smoke and Candy Store — Additional vocals, keyboards
*Abiodun Oyewole (ofThe Last Poets ) - Additional vocals
*Prodigy (ofMobb Deep ) - Additional vocals
*Dedan (of Illegal Tendencies) - Additional vocals
*Nimrod (of Illegal Tendencies) - Additional vocals
*True Image — Additional vocals
*Mark Batson — Keyboards
*Christos Tsantilios — Recording, mixing
*Blair Wells — Recording
*Nastee — Recording
*Doug Wilson — Mixing
*Bernard Grubman — Guitar
*Pressure of Fambase — Keyboards
*Melvin Gibbs — Bass
*Laura J. Seaton-Finn — Strings
*Joshua — Horns
*Mista Sinista (ofThe X-Ecutioners ) - Scratching
*Sean Cane — Drug programming, executive producer
*Matt Life — Executive producer, A&R
*Schott Free — Executive producer, A&R
*A. Jabbar — Assistant A&R
*Malachi — Assistant A&R
*Lincoln Weir — A&R administration
*Tra Frazier — A&R administration
*Kyesha Bennett — Product manager
*Exodus — Management
*Stuart "Kamau" Lyle — Cover concept
*Kerry DeBruce — Art direction, design
*Lorraine West — Illustration
*Anthony Cutajar — Album photography
*Saba — Road photography
*Corbis — Archival imagesMiscellanea
* "Hip-Hop" was used as the introductory song for
Dave Chappelle and his hit show "Chappelle's Show ".
* "We Want Freedom" uses a sample fromThe Windmills of Your Mind , a song from 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair, and popularized further by Jose Feliciano. It is not clear which rendition of the song is featured as the sample on the record Let's Get Free.
* "Hip-Hop" is also in theskate. soundtrack.
* "Hip-Hop" was sampled by DJ Cinema in the song "The Martian" on theLil' Wayne mixtape "Starring in Mardi Gras".
* "Hip-Hop" is on the theLoud Rocks Album. [http://www.chappellecenter.com/?pg=faq]
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