Every now and then, you encounter an album that stops you dead in your tracks. An album so powerful and affecting, it demands your complete, undivided attention. 'Lets Get Free' is such an album.
Like most, the first thing I heard from it was the single '(It's Bigger Than) Hip Hop', which cunningly belies the potency of the record. The song was played to me by a friend who'd just bought it, and my first reaction was annoyance because the bassline was very similar to one I'd come up with for a track I'd recently put together (I ended up shelving the track because people would think I just ripped it off). However, it wasn't until a few years later that I heard the rest of the album whilst visiting another friend, and this is when the message of the album truly hit home.
There was a time when rap music was polemical and strident, with the likes of Public Enemy, KRS One et al delivering messages of empowerment and a call to change. Predictably, rap was infiltrated and subsequently declawed, now all we are left with today is drawling, materialistic pabulum. 'Let's Get Free' then is arguably one of the last earnestly political rap albums ever made.
Not so much an album as a political manifesto, 'Let's Get Free' forces you to sit up and listen. Like the best art, it challenges; it will make you think, make you uncomfortable, make you question, and of course, make you bob your head. Whoever you are, you will feel something when you hear it. By the sheer virtue of its power, LGF made an impression that has remained with me ever since I first heard it back in 2000.
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