A typical Dead Prez concert is always full of some odd contradictions. Looking around at the packed out Koko crowd on this rainy Friday night, you can spot a mix of hip hop heads and rudeboys bobbing their heads and white, flannel shirted hipsters pounding their drunken fists in the air and shouting “uhuru!” It’s all rather amusing and fun. M1 and stic.man are pretty adept at keeping the party jumping but every now and then pause to lay some heavy shit on us, “I know everyone in America’s all drunk off this Obama shit” proclaims M1. “But I ain’t I buying it. I ain’t sippin’ on that Obama juice. I ain’t drinking that Obamalade.” He laughs then they proceed to rumble our colons with a massive bass line. There are more more amusing quips. When stic.man plays a joint from his solo album, Manhood, M1 asks, “Who loves stic.man’s Manhood?”

Their set is a healthy mix of old classics and tunes from their new Green Lantern collaboration, Pulse of the People. Predictably, when Hip Hop drops, the place explodes like I’ve never seen happen at a rap show. There’s a mosh pit and some hippie looking kid is freaking out so hard on the balcony that he keeps threatening to topple over the rail and nose dive into the crowd below. Throughout, they maintain a similar energy level and manage to keep the political denunciations to a minimum. When they do get on the soapbox, they are astute and charming, though this crowd would probably cheer even if they started advocating mass rape.

Dead Prez are good at walking the line between making good hip hop and pushing their rather radical world view on listeners. I just wonder how many people subscribe to it and actively believe in the message. When M1 asks if there are any revolutionaries in the house, there is an affirmative roar from the crowd, but I’m not convinced. I see a lot of drunk people. The duo plug on regardless, preaching on the important tenets of self discipline, moderation and love and respect for others. They then end their set somewhat ironically. First with a blistering remix of Jay Z’s Death of the Autotune, renamed, Death of America, with vocals from their DJ, Mike Flo, and then with a lovely rendition of Al Green’s Let’s Get Together. Everyone’s singing along, couples are linked arm in arm, Israeli’s holding hands with Palestinians, then the music stops, M1 raises his fist in the air and screams: “Fuck the police!”