M-1

(May 2006)

Interview by Daniel Brody

“I took a page from the book of Martin Luther, and decided that it’s better to hug you than to shoot you,” M-1 raps on his new solo joint, Confidential.  Dead Prez fans may worry that their man might be going soft—after all, Dead Prez blasted into Hip-Hop consciousness with lyrics advocating assassination, rebellion, and a vigorous distrust of the white devil.  But there’s more than one way for the chickens to come home and roost, and M-1 is using all the extra rapping space on his solo debut to try some gentler techniques to bring about the changes he raps about. 

But first, know that Dead Prez are still together as a rap duo and also best pals.  His partner Sticman guests on the song “Easy,” and is also planning a solo album of his own.  The decision to make their own records was an attempt to branch out.  “We wanted to catch the industry off guard,” M-1 says.  “People have this idea of what Dead Prez represents, and we wanted to expand our repertoire and express ourselves as individuals.”  The result in M-1’s case is a much warmer and soulful sound, as well as a lyrical bent focused on structuring his angry activism in seemingly more constructive ways.

M-1 still lives in the mostly black neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn; he notes that Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, of which Dead Prez was a part, happened right up the block from his crib.  It is from this home base that M-1 organizes and rallies for a number of organizations.  Among these are the Grassroots Artists Movement, which aims to provide underground rap artists with benefits in an organization similar to a union, and the New African People’s Organization, a black nationalist group that has recently performed benefit concerts for Hurricane Katrina victims and underfunded school districts.

The Pan-Africanism and socialist politics of Dead Prez’s music has led M-1 on many an international journey.  This is reflected by the guest rapper on the single “‘Til We Get There,” a Somalian hip-hop artist named K’Naan.  A refugee from the ever-present warfare in the region, he had difficulty getting a visa into America for a while, so the two met up in Venezuela after a mutual friend turned M-1 onto K’Naan’s work.  M-1 has much praise for Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, and went as far as to say, “If you love justice, then you will love Hugo Chavez.”  He also favorably compared him to Fidel Castro, and commended both for their “firebrand leadership.”

As catchy as a song like “‘Til We Get There” may be, M-1’s uncompromising political attitudes remain unchanged, and in an era where conservatives turned on the Dixie Chicks for one sentence uttered at a concert, it may not matter how funky and less militant M-1 now seems.  This music is for all the black nationalists, socialists, anti-imperialists, and various other garden variety protest warriors who we saw as we expressed solidarity with the immigrant community on May 1.  As much as M-1 talks of the “revolutionary movements of African people,” his actions organizing in various groups around his neighborhood speak to a much different—and even less sexy—approach: changing minds through concrete actions, one person at a time.  And solidarity through hugging sounds pretty sweet, too.