Hip-Hop’s most rebellious and out-spoken duo came, saw and conquered at the Gaelic Theatre on their Big Day Out sideshow. The underground, political nature of Dead Prez came to entertain, and preach, to a crowd which was much larger than expected. 

One of the few Hip-Hop DJ’s Australia can be proud of, DJ Ology, welcomed the early birds with the type of tracks that people who really love hip-hop would want, and expect, to hear. Classics from A Tribe Called Quest, Busta Rhymes, and KRS-One set the mood for what was to come and reminded people why they don’t listen to the radio anymore.

Next up was Nate Wade, at least on the timetable it said it was him; however, Nate Wade is a singer whereas we were greeted with an average rap trio who clumsily stumbled over 808-heavy, southern-esque beats and left me extremely unimpressed. 

‘Dzcyple Last’ did not pick things up; he was barely noticeable on stage as he gave us a few lackluster tracks and an off-beat freestyle which included a reference to Nas’ famous ‘I’m out for presidents to represent me’ line.

The Last Kinection was the final support act for the evening and proved to be the most competent, even though they were still pretty average. Demonstrating some decent stage presence and a good ability to get the crowd ‘into it,’ the trio from Newcastle managed to get the crowd jumping and shouting along with them as the time for Dead Prez approached. 

Rushing the stage with much anticipation, M-1 and Stic.man (Dead Prez) immediately sent the crowd into frenzy and gave us some of that passionate, energy-inducing, underground political hip-hop that their fans are all too familiar with. The charisma and stage-presence of both members, particularly M-1, really showed as they each delivered their verses perfectly over bass-heavy beats. 

My personal favourite ‘Hell Yeah (Pimp The System)’ made an early appearance in the set and garnered a huge reaction from the crowd as many of the audience rapped along to Dead Prez’s suggestions on how we can ‘pimp the system.’ 

Topics such as the incompetence of the United States’ schooling system, staying fit and eating more natural food (instead of foods like “crap donalds” and “pizza gut”) were brought up via poetry in motion whilst the crowd were mesmerized by the duo. If that wasn’t enough, the much-anticipated ‘Hip-Hop’ closed an excellent set and the crowd went wild. Dead Prez stay true to what they came to represent, and they are definitely ‘revolutionary but gangsta.’