That video was about as CHEESEY as it gets. The bad thing is the beat is tight and they flow good. The video was cleaverly and creatively shoot but the message was more cheap, thoughtless and cliche' than any I've seen yet.
The debate as to whether it's intended to promote racism or a reality check could be endless. But, the bottom line is, their reaching out to adolescent males, obviously minorities and promoting crime, crime and crime. You can argue, "So, I watched it, so am I going to go out and rob a white family now." Pat yourself on the back if your bigger than that, but you can't tell me that a lot of young, immature, lil' gang banger wannabes don't see this shit only to get influenced and pumped up to immitate.
It's human nature, you can't deny this. Youth look to artist as and for role models. Always have, always will. As a role model, you can do whatever the hell you want. Alot of people make money in rebeling, bucking the system, being a bad ass for mear spectical. The Dead Prez portray this, "Don't give a Fuck" attitude, and probably don't, but this is what they choose to "sell". So, who isn't doing that these days, they took it to the next step and portrayed straight "Race Crime" in a recreational manor. Weren't they trying to look cool doing it. "Ain't no thing, right?"
All I'm saying is, believe it or not, people immitate what they see. The ol' saying "Monkey see, Monkey do" wasn't said for nothing. It works both ways, the lil' white kids see Ozzy wearing a pentagram and bite heads off animals. Next time you look up, they're wearing all black and sacraficing lil' furry creatures for satan. None are commendable but encouraging racial crime crosses the line. If Dead Prez wants to be role models and influence race crime, they're only promoting the decay of their race. I couldn't see it acceptable if the nationalities were swapped and in fact would probably be faced with multi million dollar lawsuits by Mr. Cochran.
The fewer people who see that one, the better. Especially the young, manipulatable minds of minorities looking up to these rappers lifestyles as role models.
BTW, they sound good, they just need to come with something different than all that, this is my cheesey, stereotype lifestyle shit.