New Q&A With Stic Man of Dead Prez
Sitc Man
Recently we had some time to exchange dialogue with the super ”conscious but gangster” Stic Man of Hip Hop Duo dead prez. Simply put… the conversation was nothing short of enlightening. Dead Prez is known not only for their music but using their cultural and historical consciousness to educate the community on anything from politics to a holistic lifestyle. There most recent records, Stimulus Plan and Runnin’ Wild are amongst some of their most socially aware work. We asked Stic Man about some of the purposeful decisions made to not fall into the shallow river of mainstream Hip Hop but swim in a pool of consciousness and edification. He gave us some great insight.
Is “Hip Hop” dead? Or is it just underground?
Hip hop is a reflection of the power and lack of power in our communities. If we wanna see more liberation consciousness in Hip Hop, It has to start in the same communities that produce the rappers.
It’s been said that a big part of your political and social ideologies comes from an early influence of the Black Panthers. The late 80s early 90s sparked the formation of the NBPP (new Black Panther party). Do you guys have any involvement with them? What’s your take their ideologies vs. the original Black Panthers?
I am familiar with the NBPP and have seen the comrades at work in the streets for many years organizing and striving to do the work the way they feel is most effective. I salute their sincerity and dedication to fill the void of leadership in our hoods. The original Panthers wisdom and analysis could surely benefit the new formation if there are ways the two eras can see to coincide to move forward it would be ideal. There is always a need for new approaches and fresh ideas but also balanced with tried and true experience from those who have ‘paid the cost to be the boss’ so to speak. Long live the Panthers in spirit and in deed and free the Panthers that are U.S. political prisoners like Hrap Brown, Sundiata Acoli, Mumia Abu Jamal, Mutulu Shakur and many others, wrongly locked up to this very day!
They say if you do what you love, you’ll never work another day. It seems as though you guys are definitely doing that. Literally speaking your mind from a major platform (Music). What would you say to a nation full of people who instead of searching for their true calling spend their time consumed with greed and material things?
That’s a loaded question but I say Poor people have a long overdue right to have daily needs met, to provide nice material needs for their families just like rich folks have. The material aint’ the problem. It’s the denial of the wealth that the system and the ruling class steals from the masses of poor people everyday that is the problem. We should all have. Not just a few of us, ya dig?
Making Life Poetic
A walk in the park, a seemingly never-ending talk over the phone with an old friend, a "departure kiss": all poetic scenarios that we only seem to read about in books or see on TV or even movies. But these same meaningful instances are the makings of a beautiful, poetic life. Hollywood depicts them so eloquently and almost in a step-by-step fashion, as if we're supposed to emulate and apply them to our lives...and now that I'm thinking about it -- and writing about it -- I think that we should. These are the moments that most touched us when we watched movies like Casablanca, or even during the series finale of our favorite sitcom; no matter how action-packed, dry, dull, exciting, or even just plain sucky a feature was, the "poetic moments" that kind of just brought the tension down -- probably made some men feel uneasy and just made women melt -- were the most seismic and emotionally-affecting scenes of the entire feature.