NEWS: Riot At Dead Prez Concert

I'm a little bit in between Eskay's glee and SoulBounce's pessimism on this one. A riot broke out at last night's Dead Prez's Evergreen State College. There's definitely some chuckle-worthy elements to this story, and really 'F*ck The Police' is quite an excellent song (listen below).

Kiro TV reports: "Police said a band called the Dead Presidents was playing at Evergreen State College when a fight broke out within the crowd at about 1:30 a.m. As a campus police officer responded and tried to make an arrest in the brawl, she was surrounded by a crowd of concert-goers. Police said as she struggled to remove the man from the crowd, the band onstage started playing a song called “F___ the Police,” and the audience became increasingly agitated and combative. Washington State Patrol Trooper Brandy Kessler said the crowd surrounded the officer’s car, demanding for the arrested man to be released. The officer called for backup. Thurston County deputies responded and removed the campus officer from her car and released the arrested man. When a deputy’s car failed to start, the crowd overturned it, breaking out windows and ripping the car apart. Officers were pelted with rocks during the melee. Officials said a deputy's laptop computer and a radar gun were stolen. No weapons were lost. One officer was hurt by pepper spray in his eyes." (Source)

Eskay comments: "Call me irresponsible, but these kinds of stories make me smile. dead prez were performing at a college in Olympia, Washington last night when a brawl broke out in the crowd. When a campus cop tried to arrest one of the people involved, the shit hit the fan. [...] When the officer was trying to leave the venue with the suspect, dead prez started performing "Fuck The Police." I love it. (Full post)

Soulbounce comments: "This will surely be another blow to Hip-Hop, as pundits like O'Reilly and his ilk will once again paint all rap artists with the same, tired, brush." (Full post)

Dead Prez - F*ck The Police (Audio Only)

NEWS: J.A.M. Awards Tribute To Jam Master Jay

It killed me to not be able to attend this due to birthday obligations (my own) last night. Mobb Deep, M.O.P., Jim Jones, Papoose, De La Soul, Dead Prez, Everlast, Raekwon, Snoop Dogg and others performed at the J.A.M. Awards, a tribute to the late Jam Master Jay’s vision of Justice, Arts & Music. This sounds it would've hit the old school sweet spot: "EPMD took the stage to perform classics including “You Gots to Chill,” “So Wat Cha Sayin” and “Headbanger.” LL Cool J joined them for a verse, putting his fist in the air for JMJ." (More over at RS)


Related: Inspired by the recent murder of Sean Taylor and other violent crimes recent, P. Rosenberg wrote an interesting, long and worthwhile post about violence, hip hop culture and responsibility here called 'We Must Change This Ourselves'.

VIDEO: Dead Prez Performs In Kenya

Dead Prez performing 'Til We Get There' at the British Council in Nairobi, Kenya. Livest.crowd.ever.


Via the British Council blog.

LISTEN: Zimbabwe Legit - Evil That Men Do ft Prince Po & Stic.man

DOWNLOAD Zimbabwe Legit - Evil That Men Do ft Prince Po & Stic.man (MP3)
STREAM Zimbabwe Legit - 3 More Songs (MySpace)

Prince Po of Organized Konfusion and Sticman of Dead Prez are featured on this great track off of Zimbabwe Legit's upcoming album House Of Stone. Surprisingly strong throwback beats referencing the early 90's with relevant lyrics and just the right amount of high-profile guest MC's.