On the 10th of February 1925, a great man penned his well known “First Message to the Negroes of the World From Atlanta Prison”, wherein he made his famous proclamation: “Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm, look for me all around you, for, with God’s grace, I shall come and bring with me countless millions of black slaves who have died in America and the West Indies and the millions in Africa to aid you in the fight for Liberty, Freedom and Life.
That man was Marcus Garvey. A Jamaican political leader and orator who was a staunch proponent of the Black nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements. Garveyism inspired others, ranging from the Nation of Islam to the Rastafari movement, which proclaims Garvey as a prophet. It’s a shame so few people remember or even know about Marcus Garvey and the Black Star Line, today. Before Martin and Malcolm ever made their marks, there was Marcus.
Lil Dee is one of the very few new rappers out there that seem to be tracing Marcus Garvey’s footsteps with pride and integrity. This is a real man that has something to say about the world and doesn’t just rehash the same youth and gang struggles that mainstream rappers continually brandish to their fans.
Lil Dee tells stories of struggles, injustice and real issues that not a lot of rappers out there would even attempt to address nowadays. He also does it in such a clever fashion that it is undeniable that this emcee understands the world in a much broader sense than your average rapper. I will admit Lil Dee is not the easiest artist to listen to at times, his voice and personality takes some warming up to if you haven’t listened to his music before, but once you do, it is just smooth sailing from there on because this man is one of the best things to come out of the underground rap movement in quite a while.
Over at the Rapmonster.com website we stumbled across “The Lions Den,” an album by Lil Dee, that hosts a collection of 39 whopping tracks. “Liberty Or Death” which kicks off the fireworks, has an opening verse that reads:
“we have the greatest lost of people thru human history niggers dont know about kemetic school of mystery many people done lost their nation hood alot of damn people have been conquered and abused yet our lost was so great man its hard to recover everytime i turn around we fighting each other we opressed you my brother and we both suffering the white man is to blame that aint up for discussion…”
Making it clear from the outset that Lil Dee, lays it down straight and doesn’t any cut corners in his messages. He raps with wit and conviction that propels as the album goes on. His flow is awesome, and he can easily switch up at almost any time with no sign of slack.
Once again, Lil Dee really knows how to paint vivid pictures filled with social commentary and real positive messages despite the use of explicit language on the occasion; but there is a lot of substance on this album and his lyrics are so thought provoking that the cursing is simply just in context.
The thing that makes Lil Dee and the album so great is because this is what real hip hop is supposed to be about. Nowadays you hear rappers exclusively rapping about stuff like cars, women and drugs. Rap music has become quite stale recently, but it’s albums like this that are keeping it alive. The Lions Den sends positive messages as opposed to talking about the futile stuff mentioned earlier and goes way beyond the beats.
Lil Dee is one of those unique artists that is really able to talk to the people and send a message about society in his raps.
i listen to this joint all the time.. its educational in it's own way
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