Saturday, May 16, 2009

Dead Prez - Hip Hop

I am embarrassed to say that the first time I heard this song was in the Michel Gondry-directed concert documentary "Dave Chappelle's Block Party." As far as concert documentaries go, "Block Party" is probably the best I've seen (it constitutes 50% of the total concert documentaries I've seen), and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It so perfectly captures a great moment in hip hop culture, filmed before Chappelle ran off to South Africa, but released afterwards. It also featured John Legend as one of Kanye West's backup singers, before he got pretty big.
As to this song: it is difficult to put on when company's over, because it's easy to come off as an idiotic white guy co-opting black culture, especially when you sing along with "This real hip hop/And it don't stop/'Til we get them crackers off the block." But I suggest putting those feelings aside and really allowing yourself to enjoy the song, and taking the opportunity to think critically about your own relationship to racial politics. I'm so serious.

1 comment:

Eric said...

Dead Prez tend to be pretty fucking annoying, but they don't (really)suck.

Also, I watched that...movie on Canal+, with French subtitles (which were, at times, hilarious), and it is pretty awesome.