DEAD PREZ
Artist: Dead Prez
Venue: Lodge Room (L.A.).
Date: Dec. 10, 2025
Dead Prez celebrated 25 years of Let's Get Free at a sold-out Lodge Room. A night for real hip-hop. Legends in the crowd, legends on stage, organizers filling the room. Historic doesn't cover it.
Opio from Souls of Mischief opened with that '93 boom bap, pulling from the golden era that still sounds sharp decades later. Daru Jones, the two-time Grammy-winning drummer who's played with everyone from Jack White to Pete Rock, brought fire to his kit. Dead Prez took the stage and didn't let up. M-1 and stic.man shared stories from the early days, the formation of the group, the making of Let's Get Free. M-1 talked about his repatriation to Senegal, homeschooling his children, living off the land.
Then came the moment. "I see a lot of keffiyehs out in the crowd," M-1 said. "So let's hear it: FREE FREE..." The crowd roared: "PALESTINE." He did it again. Then: "But I like this one the most from my brother Bob Vylan. DEATH DEATH..." The crowd knew. "TO THE IDF." Legendary.
Ras Kass, the West Coast lyricist whose "Soul on Ice" set the standard for conscious rap in '96, came out for a surprise set. Later, Dead Prez brought Imani Archer to the stage, D'Angelo's daughter. They played a song in his honor. D'Angelo had passed just two months before. The room held it. Poet Aja Monet was in the crowd watching it all, soaking it in. She'll be back at Lodge Room in a week.
This wasn't just a show. This was the lineage on display: conscious hip-hop, boom bap, bigger than hip hop. For the culture.
