Dope Poet Society - Too Many Years/ Don't Give a Damn!

Tracks

Side 1

		Track Name	Length
	1	Too Many Years (Cooked)
	2	Too Many Years (Raw)
	3	Too Many Years (Instrumental)	04:28

Side 2

		Track Name	Length
	1	Don't Give A Damn! (Cooked)	04:06
	2	Don't Give A Damn! (Raw)	04:06
	3	Don't Give A Damn! (Instrumental)

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Information/Write-up

The Dope Poets society are a Toronto based hip-hop group whose focus is aimed more to political & humanitarian issues than the usual jigginess found in most rap music. Rather than singing about rolling down Jarvis in their benzos while the women chase them up the street, the dope poets have decided to do something uncommon in hiphop - tell the truth. Rather than brag about money and wealth, this track shows the honesty and passion that the dope poets have put in their music. Fuck Mike Harris is not a trick title, it's a song all about the evils of Ontario's Fuhrer, Mike Harris. This song kicks all ass. If things were fair, MuchMusic would be dedicated to playing tracks like this 24hrs a day. This song opens up with some samples of single mothers and welfare recipients. Throughout the song the poets rhyme very specifically about the lies perpetrated by the Canadian KKKonservatives. It's nice because it's not just whining about the Harris regime. These guys drop precise examples about what Harris has done during the past 5 years. All of this on top of a phat beat. Throughout the whole song they slide all kinds of rvvvolutionary samples into the mix. All in all, this is a bomm song. This is the way political rap should sound. Intelligent with a phatt beat.

The Dope Poet Society is a politically charged hip hop group from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Their music is characterized by clever and sometimes controversial lyrics. Professor D is the lead vocalist of the group, known for his tongue twisting, “rapid fire” rap style. The group has been active since 1995 and has toured around the world. They have also performed and collaborated with some of the most influential artists in Hip Hop including Public Enemy, Dead Prez, Jeru the Damaja, Boot Camp Click among others.

Their debut disc, Dangerous Days (1997), was credited by Now Magazine as being one of the first albums to bring Toronto’s fragmented and competitive Hip Hop scene together (Now Magazine, Poets’ Hip Hop Mission). Their second album, Hipolitics (1999), spawned their first major hit, “Fuck Mike Harris!” Now Magazine wrote, “If Dalton McGuinty or Howard Hampton [Ontario provincial opposition leaders of the time] wanted to really make their point with the youth, they'd adopt the lead cut on this five-song EP as their campaign theme song.” (Now Magazine, Hipolitics Review) The song became a huge hit on college radio across the province. However, to the group’s surprise, it was also a hit across the country and beyond. Public Enemy frontman, Chuck D, began playing the song on his internet radio show on bringthenoise.com and began a relationship with the group which lead to mentorship and collaboration.

The Dope Poet Society is known for quickly responding to political events with critical material. In 2000, they became the first group to release a song “dissing” George W. Bush, and condemning him as a “terrorist.” Though some considered this premature and controversial at the time, today many would say history has vindicated them. Two weeks after the events of September 11, 2001, the group released their CD, “9/11 World Trade.” In the title track they allude to Malcolm X’s famous/infamous quote in response to the assassination of JFK, and imply that September 11th was another case of “the Chickens coming home to roost.” In 2003, in response to the US’ invasion of Iraq, The Dope Poet Society immediately released the single “War of Terrorism.” The song was debuted at Toronto’s Metro Hall to a crowed of 80,000 anti-war protestors on February 15, 2003. The UK’s New Internationalist wrote, “The Dope Poet Society's song 'War of Terrorism', challenged the moral righteousness of the war and echoed many anti-war activists' concerns that far more insidious motives were driving it.” (Sounds of Dissent, New Internationalist) The Centre for Political Song at Glasgow University notes, "The Dope Poet Society’s track War of Terrorism, expressed a fundamental conjecture of anti-war protestors: the root of the conflict is oil." (Make Music, Not War) The title of the group’s latest album, “ProIntelPro: Promote Intelligence Program,” is a play on the FBI’s infamous CoIntelPro, as the group’s self proclaimed aim is to “promote intelligence rather than counter it”.

Dope Poet Society is one of the most consistent and compelling groups ever to emerge from T.O.’s hip hop scene. Lead vocalist Professor D, is able to grab the mic anywhere and spit from his seemingly unlimited arsenal of lyrics. Belladonna delivers her rhymes with a unique flavour that is hard-hitting yet immensely poetic, and DJ Spinister holds down the crew by cutting & scratching self-produced beats. For their UTV performance they will bejoined by their affiliate The Red Menace. The Red Menace is a follower of Chuck D and Trotsky, Gil Scott- Heron and Huey P. Newton and is an MC whose mandate is to add his voice to the struggle.

The group have performed internationally in places such as Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Cuba (where lead vocalist D. Sajnani was featured on Cuban national TV and shared the stage with Fidel Castro). They regularly lend their name to political events, such as Coalition Against Police Brutality and the World Economic Forum (both in NYC), Days of Action student protests, Toronto anti-Iraq War rally and others. These hip hop heavyweights have opened for De La Soul and Dead Prez, performed onstage with Wyclef Jean & Brand Nubian and toured, recorded and performed with the great Public Enemy. Chuck D. has gone on record, citing the Dope Poet Society as the number one independent hip hop group in the world. They have released three critically acclaimed CD’s, including the 2001 EP “911 World Trade,” which was a response to the 9/11 attacks, and which attracted attention to the group’s strong anti-war stance. Their latest single “War On Terrorism” is a piercing critique of America’s war on Iraq, and is the perfect antithesis to all the bling-bling, misogynist hip hop ruling the charts.

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