DEAD PREZ Returning To NZ For A One-Off
DEAD PREZ Returning To NZ For A One-Off Auckland Show
Dead Prez, the underground political duo
regarded by many as one of Hip-Hop’s most challenging and
thought-provoking acts and a highlight of the recent Big
Day Out return to New Zealand for one show only at
Auckland’s Zen Nightclub on Thursday January
28th.
With their confrontational style, Dead Prez, consisting of Stic.man and M-1, have built a reputation for delivering knowledge, wisdom and social consciousness in a way their audience can still party too. Inspired by US movements such as the Black Panther Party, Dead Prez are considered possibly the most politically-conscious group since Public Enemy.
They signed to Loud Records (home to Wu Tang Clan and Mobb Deep), and steadily built a strong following based on their over-the-top live performances.
In their biography,
Sticman explained, "We always have a new sound vision
where we want to fuse certain things. We think about music
that we like and certain artists from back in the days to
right now whether it be Dr. Dre or Lil' Jon or Trick Daddy
or Sade or Portishead. We take all these different things
and we fuse elements from that and we feel like it captures
what we're trying to capture." Summing up the group's
aesthetic, Sticman says, "A man gotta be balanced. You
can't just be about the pleasures."
Their debut album Let’s Get Free was released in 2000, and an instrumental version of the single Hip Hop from the album features as the opening music for Dave Chappells’s Comedy Central show. They also appeared in Dave Chappells’s Block Party documentary film in 2006. In 2002 they released the first in a series of Turn Off Your Radio mix tapes, the most recent of which Pulse Of The People: Turn Off Your Radio Vol. 3 with DJ Green Lantern was released in 2009. In 2004 Columbia Records releases Revolutionary Gansta and a live album followed in 2008. Their next album proper, Information Age is pending release.
ENDS