Dead Prez is an American hip hop duo composed of M-1 and stic.man, formed in 1996 in New York City. They are known for their confrontational style, combined with lyrics focused on both militant social justice, self-determination, and Pan-Africanism. The duo maintains an ethical stance against corporate control over the media, especially hip hop record labels.
Tamer Nafar is a Palestinian rapper, actor, screenwriter and social activist of Israeli citizenship. He is the leader and a founding member of DAM, the first Palestinian hip hop group.
RBG: Revolutionary but Gangsta is the second studio album by hip-hop duo Dead Prez. It was released March 30, 2004 on Sony Records.
Dave Chappelle's Block Party, also known as Block Party, is a 2005 American documentary film hosted and written by comedian Dave Chappelle, and directed by Michel Gondry.
Def Wish Cast are an Australian hip hop group from Western Sydney.
Kareem Dennis, better known by his stage name Lowkey, is a British rapper and activist from London. He first became known through a series of mixtapes he released before he was 18, before taking a hiatus from the music business. He would return in 2008, with appearances on BBC Radio and at various festivals and concerts including the BBC Electric Proms, Glastonbury, T In The Park and Oxegen in the buildup to his first solo album Dear Listener, as well as collaborating with other British musicians to form the supergroup Mongrel. He released his second solo album, Soundtrack to the Struggle, independently on in 2011.
Khnum Muata Ibomu, better known by his stage name stic.man and more recently as stic, is an American rapper, activist and author known for his work as one half of the political hip hop duo dead prez with M-1.
Can't Sell Dope Forever is a collaborative mixtape by American hip hop groups dead prez and Outlawz. It was released in 2006 through Affluent Records. Production was handled by both of dead prez members stic.man and M-1, and Outlawz member E.D.I. Mean, as well as Chuck P, Eddie Coldfingers, New Muzik and Tai Rotan. It features guest appearances from Chae, Erica Fox, Layzie Bone, Malachi, Messy Marv, Scott Lo, and stic.man's mother Ms. Nora. The album did not reach the Billboard 200, however, it peaked at number 99 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart in the United States.
Turn Off the Radio: The Mixtape Vol. 1 is a mixtape by political hip hop duo Dead Prez. The mixtape was released on November 19, 2002. It was released under the pseudonym DPZ due to a contractual conflict Dead Prez had with their former record label.
Confidential is the debut solo studio album by American rapper M-1. It was released on March 21, 2006 through Sotti/Koch Records as a DualDisc with a DVD side featuring a twenty-minute documentary on the making of the entire album in stereo sound. Production was handled by Fabrizio Sotti, Agallah, Black Jeruz, Butter, Eric "Ibo" Butler, LT Moe, Spoo Noodles and Tahir. It features guest appearances from Raye, Bang Double, Bazaar Royale, Cassandra Wilson, Ghostface Killah, K'naan, Q-Tip, Scrap Daddy, stic.man, Stori James, Styles P and Young Dre the Truth.
Political hip hop is a subgenre of hip hop music that was developed in the 1980s as a way of turning hip hop into a form of political activism. Political hip hop generally uses the medium of hip hop music to comment on sociopolitical issues and send political messages to inspire action, create social change, or to convince the listener of a particular worldview. It was inspired partially by politically-focused 1970s artists such as The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron, as well as the Black Power movement and revolutionary politics of the 1960s and 1970s. Various hip hop artists emerged in the late 1980s espousing political messages and providing social and political commentary with KRS-One and his group Boogie Down Productions and Public Enemy in particular establishing themselves as some of the first predominantly political hip hop groups with albums in 1988. Soon to follow in 1989 and following years were other Political rappers, or known as "Conscious rap" including such groups as X-Clan, Poor Righteous Teachers, Paris (rapper), Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and others The genre has helped to create a new form of social expression for subordinate groups to speak about their exclusions, injustices, and lack of power.
Guilty or Innocent of Using the N Word is a 2006 British documentary short film directed by British director Bhavna Malkani. The documentary explores questions and issues surrounding the word nigger that many feel constrained to discuss, as it is often categorized as a taboo word. The twenty-eight-minute film investigates the word chronologically, discussing the history of the word from its origins all the way to rap's influence on the acceptance and commercialization of the term.
Palestinian hip hop reportedly started in 1998 with Tamer Nafar's group DAM. These Palestinian youth forged the new Palestinian musical subgenre, which blends Arabic melodies and hip hop beats. Lyrics are often sung in Arabic, Hebrew, English, and sometimes French. Since then, the new Palestinian musical subgenre has grown to include artists in Palestine, Israel, Great Britain, the United States and Canada.
Soroush Lashkari, known professionally as Hichkas, is an Iranian rapper, singer, and songwriter. Credited with popularizing Persian hip hop to the Iranian people and other Persian-speaking countries such as Afghanistan and Tajikistan, Hichkas's national success and acclaimed works are widely regarded as having broken the barriers that were in place by the Islamic regime for the acceptance of rappers in popular music. Hichkas is considered one of the pioneers of Iranian hip hop and is nicknamed "Father of Persian Rap" by his fans. He became a representation of the Iranian underclass and reflected the angst of the young Iranians. He has been influential for many artists of various genres and is often cited as one of the greatest rappers of Iranian hip hop.
Shadia Mansour, also known as "the first lady of Arabic hip hop" is a British-Palestinian rapper who performs in Arabic and English. Much of her music revolves around Middle Eastern politics.
Wissam Khodur, better known as Eslam Jawaad, is a rapper of Lebanese-Syrian origin. His debut album, The Mammoth Tusk, was released in 2009. The album was considered an international advancement for local Arabic hip-hop as it featured support from a number of high-profile acts including Damon Albarn (Gorillaz/Blur), De La Soul, The Rza / Gza / Cilvaringz, Focus..., Rude Jude / Lord Sear, and 'Arap' band-mate Shadia Mansour.
Ansar El Muhammad, better known by his stage name Askari X, is a hip-hop artist from Oakland, California. He has released 3 albums, is on numerous compilation albums, and has been a guest on several albums. Stic.man and M-1 of Dead Prez refer to Askari X in their music and credit him as one of their main musical influences. Askari X advocates Black Power, Black Liberation, and Islam in his lyrics. His sound is characterized by slow drum beats and a verbal flow similar to Tupac Shakur. Askari X is philosophically aligned with the African People's Socialist Party and the Uhuru Movement. His style may be considered as conscious rap.
Run-DMC was an American hip hop group from Hollis, Queens New York City, formed in 1983 by Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, and Jason Mizell. Run-DMC is regarded as one of the most influential acts in the history of hip hop culture and especially one of the most famous hip hop acts of the 1980s. Along with Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, and Public Enemy, the group pioneered new-school hip hop music and helped usher in the golden age of hip hop. The group was among the first to highlight the importance of the MC and DJ relationship.
Marcel Cartier is an American hip-hop artist, journalist, filmmaker, writer, and political commentator based in Germany. His music features themes such as anti-colonialism, socialism, feminism and imperialism. He has reported on Kurdish nationalism and recording the experiences of anti-ISIS fighters belonging to the YPG and YPJ militias during the Rojava–Islamist conflict. His first book Serkeftin became one of the first major accounts by an English-speaking journalist to gain access to the civil structures created by Kurdish militants in Rojava. In Spring 2017 he witnessed the Syrian civil war while travelling with an international delegation to Syrian Kurdistan, his journey facilitated by filmmaker Mehmet Aksoy who was killed by ISIS later that same year. While in Kurdistan he heavily interviewed and collected the experiences of anti-ISIS fighters belonging to the Women's Protection Units and People's Protection Units.
"Hip-Hop" is a song by American hip hop duo Dead Prez, released on March 30, 1999 as a single from their debut studio album Let's Get Free (2000). Produced by production group Hedrush and Dead Prez, it is the duo's best-known song.
