Let's Get Free
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| Let's Get Free | |||||
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| Studio album by 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 |
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| Professional reviews | |||||
| dead prez chronology | |||||
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Let's Get Free is the debut album by the alternative hip hop duo dead prez, released on February 8, 2000 (see 2000 in music) on Loud Records.
Critically acclaimed upon its first release, Let's Get Free was called a "return to politically conscious rap" [1] and "the most politically conscious rap since Public Enemy"; the duo's messages also earned them favorable comparisons with Brand Nubian and X-Clan. The album's lyrics, performed in front of sparse beats that many critics derided as a "dull musical backdrop" [2], are startlingly direct, militant and confrontational. M-1 and stic.man excoriate media, the music industry, politicians and poverty, and rap about Afrocentrism and 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" [3].
Contents |
[edit] 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 a African/Never was a African-American". The same song explains their musical stance as "somewhere between N.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 the United States, from the accusatory title to the opening, "I went to school with some redneck crackers/right around the time 3rd 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 movie Beneath the Planet of the Apes. "Behind Enemy Lines" namechecks Black Panther Fred 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."
[edit] Track listing
| # | Title | Length | Songwriters | Producer(s) | Performer (s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Wolves" | 2:16 | C. Gavin, L. Alford, V. Williams, A. Mair | dead prez | Chairman Omali Yeshitela |
| 2 | "I'm A African" | 3:19 | C. Gavin, L. Alford, V. Williams, A. Mair | Hedrush, dead prez | Stic.man, M-1 (additional vocals by Indo and Abu) |
| 3 | "They Schools" | 5:06 | C. Gavin, L. Alford, V. Williams, A. Mair | Hedrush, dead prez | Stic.man, M-1 (chorus vocals by Keanna Henson) |
| 4 | "Hip-Hop" | 3:33 | C. Gavin, L. Alford, V. Williams, A. Mair | dead prez | Stic.man, M-1 |
| 5 | "Police State" | 3:40 | C. Gavin, L. Alford, V. Williams, A. Mair | Hedrush, dead prez | Stic.man, M-1 (opening vocals by Chairman Omali Yeshitela) |
| 6 | "Behind Enemy Lines" | 3:03 | C. Gavin, L. Alford, V. Williams, A. Mair | Hedrush, dead prez | Stic.man, M-1 (phone calls by Ness, Toya and Divine) |
| 7 | "Assassination" | 2:01 | C. Gavin, L. Alford, L. Dechalus | Lord Jamar, dead prez | Stic.man, M-1 |
| 8 | "Mind Sex" | 4:51 | C. Gavin, L. Alford | dead prez | Stic.man, M-1 (additional vocals by Umi, Becca's Smoke and Candy Store; poem by Abiodun Oyewole) |
| 9 | "We Want Freedom" | 4:33 | C. Gavin, L. Alford, V. Williams, A. Mair | Hedrush, dead prez | Stic.man, M-1 |
| 10 | "Be Healthy" | 2:34 | C. Gavin, L. Alford, V. Williams, A. Mair | Hedrush, dead prez | Stic.man, M-1 (additional vocals by Prodigy) |
| 11 | "Discipline" | 1:37 | C. Gavin, L. Alford | dead prez | Stic.man, M-1 (phone call by Dedan and Nimrod) |
| 12 | "Psychology" | 5:56 | C. Gavin, L. Alford, L. Dechalus | Lord Jamar, dead prez | Stic.man, M-1 (additional vocals by True Image; poem read by Umi) |
| 13 | "Happiness" | 3:48 | C. Gavin, L. Alford, L. Dechalus, C. Mayfield, G. Askey, M.J. Blige, S. Combs, J. Claude, P. Oliver, A. Devalle |
Lord Jamar, dead prez | Stic.man, M-1 |
| 14 | "Animal in Man" | 4:31 | C. Gavin, L. Alford | dead prez | Stic.man, M-1 |
| 15 | "You'll Find a Way" | 3:13 | C. Gavin, L. Alford | dead prez | *Instrumental* |
| 16 | "It's Bigger Than Hip-Hop" | 3:55 | C. Gavin, L. Alford, K. West | Kanye West, dead prez | Stic.man, M-1, Tahir |
| 17-43 |
*silence* | 0:04/each | |||
| 44 | "Propaganda" | 5:14 | C. Gavin, L. Alford, L. Dechalus | Lord Jamar, dead prez | Stic.man, M-1 (additional vocals by Becca's Smoke and Candy Store, ending vocals by Huey Newton) |
| 45 | "The Pistol" | 4:25 | C. Gavin, L. Alford, L. Dechalus | Lord Jamar, dead prez | Stic.man, M-1, Maintain |
[edit] Album singles
| Single information |
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"Police State"
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| "Hip-Hop" |
"It's Bigger Than Hip-Hop"
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"I'm an African"
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| "Mind Sex" |
[edit] Chart positions
[edit] Album chart positions
| Year | Album | Chart positions | ||
| Billboard 200 | Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums | |||
| 2000 | Let's Get Free | #73 | #22 | |
[edit] Singles chart positions
| Year | Song | Chart positions | ||
| Billboard Hot 100 | Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks | Hot Rap Singles | ||
| 1999 | "Hip-Hop" | - | - | #49 |
| 2000 | "It's Bigger Than Hip-Hop" | - | - | #43 |
[edit] 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 (of The Last Poets) - Additional vocals
- Prodigy (of Mobb 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 (of The 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 images
[edit] Miscellanea
- "Hip-Hop" was used as the introductory song for Dave Chappelle and his hit show Chappelle's Show.
- "Hip-Hop" is also in the skate. soundtrack.
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