This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.

dead prez
Lets Get Free
Loud Records
2000

This album could easily be the most revolutionary album of the year. With references to Mao Zedong and quotes from the Black Panther Party, they take their experiences and apply lessons learned from history to produce a truly revolutionary message.

When you buy this album it will have a black sticker on it saying "this artwork has been censored by the powers that be, due to its political content." The image on the sleeve is a photograph of African youth raising rifles in the air. The label felt it was inappropriate due to the recent Columbine High School shooting. What Africans rising up against an oppressive government have to do with high school kids shooting their classmates is a mystery. Inside there are cool drawings depicting each of the songs on the album. There is also blurb inside discussing the victimization of the Black nation by the drug war and the criminal injustice system in general.

The first track, I'm a African, contains one of the few points where MIM disagrees with dead prez's politics. The song says "I'm an African, never was an African-American." This, MIM wholly agrees with, as we draw a strong line between the oppressor nation of white Amerikans and the oppressed nations within the united $tates. (1) The Black Panther Party's leadership correctly supported struggles around the world by communicating with those struggles and reporting back to their people, while focusing their work on serving the needs of the Black nation in the united $tates. Track 2, 'They' Schools, is a song that addresses the issue of community control of the education system. "They ain't teaching us nothin' related to our problems, they ain't teachin' us how to get crack out the ghetto, they ain't teaching us how to stop the police from mudering us and brutalizing us, they aren't teaching us how to get our rent paid That's why niggers be droppin' out that shit, cuz it don't relate. You go to school, the fucking police searching you like it's a military compound." The fact that "the same people that control the school system control the prison system" is an important point. A nation cannot have self-determination until it controls it own education and is able to address the people's needs. Hip Hop is a catchy single that addresses the repetitive crap that comes out of corporate owned hip hop. The song asks, "You'd rather have a Lexus or justice? a dream or some substance? a beamer, a necklace or freedom?" dead prez deals with the real issues that face Blacks in the united $tates such as the prison system and cops. In Police State they point out that not only are the pigs oppressing people but they are using up resources for that oppression that could be used to serve those people's needs. The chorus goes, "You have the Black male live a third of his life in a jail cell, cuz the world is controlled by the white male, and the people don't never get justice, and the women don't never get respected." While a lot of bands and artists out there can make a good criticism of the current system, dead prez is more advanced in their offering of real solutions to the problems. An indication of where they're coming from is in the chorus of one of the bonus tracks, Propaganda, when they say, "31 years ago I would have been a Panther. They killed Huey cuz they knew he had the answer." In other songs they indicate their true likeness to the ideals and approach of the Black Panther party. In Police State they say, " organize the wealth into a socialist economy, a way of life based off the common need." This of course is one of MIM's basic goals, to create an economic system that serves the people. That song also opens with a quote by Omali Yeshitela which paraphrases Lenin's State and Revolution, in which he wrote that the police, prisons and courts aren't necessary until the economic system creates groups of haves and have-nots. In the song We Want Freedom they say, "We gonna organize a People's Army, and we're gonna get control over our own lives." Without a People's Army an oppressed nation has no way of defending themselves from the great military strength of the imperialists. Dead prez understands that liberation cannot occur without revolution. Inside the album jacket they write about the need for Black people to come together and organize. With plans like creating their own education system that deals with the people's need, dead prez also seems to recognize the need to build independent people's institutions as part of the struggle as well. "We Want Freedom," and dead prez is serious about it as indicated by the line in the song, "Could you take the life of somebody you know or have feelings for, if necessary? I have cousins in the military, but as far as I'm concerned they died when they registered." Here they recognize the sacrifice that comes along with revolution and pronounce their willingness to do what it takes to free their people. This revolutionary spirit combined with true scientific understanding are what make up a strong movement that can achieve the goal of ending all oppression.

Notes:
MIM Theory 7: Revolutionary Nationalism. p. 40.
For MIM's opinion of Omali Yeshitela's line, see,
MIM Theory magazine #8, p. 102.

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