Let's Get Free Explained

Let's Get Free
Type:	studio
Artist:	dead prez
Cover:	DeadPrezLet'sGetFree.jpg
Released:	^[1]
Recorded:	1998–2000
Genre:	Political hip hop
Label:	Loud
Producer:	Dead Prez Hedrush Lord Jamar Kanye West
Next Year:	2004

Let's Get Free is the debut studio album by hip-hop duo dead prez. It was released on February 8, 2000, on Loud Records.

Critical reception

Although the production was derided by some critics as a "dull musical backdrop",^[2] Let's Get Free was called a "return to politically conscious rap".^[3] Rolling Stone gave the album four stars and lauded its equation of "classrooms with jail cells, the projects with killing fields and everything from water to television with conduits for brainwashing by the system".^[4]

Album singles

Single information
"Police State" Released: October 27, 1998 B-side: "Police State" (without intro)
"Hip-Hop" Released: March 30, 1999 B-side: "Selling D.O.P.E."
"It's Bigger Than Hip-Hop" Released: December 7, 1999 B-side: "Hip-Hop"
"I'm a African" Released: 2000 B-side: "The Pistol"
"Mind Sex" Released: August 15, 2000 B-side: "Happiness"

Personnel

• stic.man – lead vocals, production, executive producer, art direction
• M-1 – lead vocals, production, executive producer, art direction
• Hedrush – production, drum programming
• Lord Jamar – production
• Kanye West – production
• Tahir (of Hedrush) – vocals
• Maintain (of Illegal Tendencies) – vocals
• Indo (of People's Army) – additional vocals
• Abu (of People's Army) – additional vocals
• Keanna Henson – additional vocals
• Ness (of A-Alikes) – additional vocals
• Toya (of People's Army) – additional vocals
• Divine (of People's Army) – additional vocals
• Umi – additional vocals
• Becca Byram – additional vocals, keyboards
• Abiodun Oyewole (of The Last Poets) – additional vocals
• Prodigy (of Mobb Deep) – additional vocals
• Dedan (of Illegal Tendencies) – additional vocals
• Nimrod (of Illegal Tendencies) – additional vocals
• True Image – additional vocals
• Mark Batson – keyboards
• Christos Tsantilios – recording, mixing
• Blair Wells – recording
• Nastee – recording
• Doug Wilson – mixing
• Bernard Grubman – guitar
• Pressure of Fambase – keyboards
• Melvin Gibbs – bass
• Laura J. Seaton-Finn – strings
• Joshua – horns
• Mista Sinista (of The X-Ecutioners) – scratching
• Sean Cane – drums, executive producer
• Matt Life – executive producer
• Schott Free – executive producer
• Stuart "Kamau" Lyle – cover concept
• Kerry DeBruce – art direction, design
• Lorraine West – illustration
• Anthony Cutajar – album photography
• Saba – road photography
• Corbis – archival images

Charts

Singles

Title	Year	Chart positions
		US Rap
"Hip-Hop"	1999	49
"It's Bigger Than Hip-Hop"	2000	43

Notes and References

1. https://deadprez.com/blogs/2/let-s-get-free
2. Web site: Dead Prez: Let's Get Free – PopMatters Music Review. https://web.archive.org/web/20040618110530/http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/d/deadprez-lets.html. 2004-06-18.
3. Web site: Pound Magazine Review: dead prez – Let's Get Free. https://web.archive.org/web/20041208173832/http://www.poundmag.com/magazine/reviews/elpees/deadprez/deadprez.html. 2004-12-08.
4. Ex, K.. RollingStone.com: Let's Get Free : dead prez : Review. . dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20050218023941/http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/_/id/207357. 2005-02-18.