Review: Dead Prez live at KOKO’s

Words: David Barros

Images: ROHDD

Last Friday, revolutionary hip hop duo M-1 and stic.man, more commonly known as Dead Prez performed live at Camden's KOKO's.

Dead Prez at Koko's, images by rohdd I've mad respect for Dead Prez: to hip hop they're the equivalent of Public Enemy for this generation, their production is banging and they're pro-active when they're not making music - the reason they haven't made a studio album in five years? Because they're been travelling to the Middle East or setting up fitness clubs.

With Dead Prez in the UK for only two shows, catching them as they passed through London was a rare opportunity to see them live, as many underground groups don't get to tour the world, let alone ones as influential and successful as them.

Klashnekoff was the warmup act, but was only given 10 minutes to do his set, something he made sure the stage manager was aware of. Making the best of the bad situation, he told his DJ to spin each record for a verse or two before changing to the next track. He still managed to get in at least six songs in this allocated time!

KOKO's was full of a lot of hardcore hip hop fans that night, not backpackers following a trend. People all around me were hanging on to every word M-1 and stic.man had to say throughout the night, and a lot of Dead Prez's choruses are like anthems, just look at their past albums.

Dead Prez can really put on a show too. The moment they dropped tracks like Hell Yeah and Hip-Hop the air was sizzling with an electricity that I can only describe as "you had to be there." People were bouncing up and down like in a mosh pit throwing their fists up in the air for support. Had I been old enough to go to a Public Enemy or Ice Cube concert in the early 1990s, I imagine that is just what it would have felt like.

Even if their Malcolm X influenced lyrics might not be immediately relevant to all listeners, their music still manages to hit the nerve that hip hop has forgotten, and what people who have been abandoned by hip hop music look for. They're underground at heart, yet manage to pull in platinum selling artists like Krayzie Bone and Jay-Z to feature on their records.

Sunshine, from Pulse of the People

The thing is, preaching might have overstepped the line to get the audience on their side. I can feel they were anti President Bush: their first two albums were released during his reign in office, but I thought their anti-Obama stance and playing to the audience's "it's the same over here, right?" sympathy was a bit preachy-preachy because of the differences in our politics.

It shouldn't detract from the enjoyment of the night, no, but I was thinking we can stick our middle finger up for the institution, but surely President Obama is better than President Bush?

But what are Dead Prez without sticking their middle finger up at some sort of authority? At least their not afraid of saying what they feel, and their nonconformist style does need to be recognised: socialists, strict vegans and health fanatics, their hip hop commentary is important to remind us that only we can be revolutionaries.

For more information on Dead Prez’s philosophy, listen to the Radio Genesis interview at in the related links section at the top of this review.

Dead Prez at Koko's, images by rohdd Several new songs were also dropped throughout the night, including tracks from their DJ Green Lantern mixtape Pulse of the People, showing they're as on point as when Let's Get Free dropped in 2000, with production as high as their second album, RBG.

Overall, it was a very good concert, amazing vibe, and to show it’s all love, the night ended with Dead Prez getting the audience to join them in singing Motown classics before leaving.

What’s more, when you left you really felt like you were part of a revolution.