Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury

Full performer name: Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy. Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy: Michael Franti (vocals); Rono Tse (percussion, sounds). Additional personnel: Charlie Hunter (vocals, guitar, bass); Simone White (drums). Recorded at Razor's Edge, Komotion, and Pete Scaturro's Studio, San Francisco, California. Often berated as the group that it is OK for non-rap fans to like, the Disposable Heroes' solitary album proper represents much more than that might imply. Shades of Michael Franti and Rono Tse's previous incarnation, as part of the Beatnigs, resurface in the collision of samples, noise and breakbeats. Tse's technique is exemplary. However, it is Franti's fiercely intelligent narratives that carry the day. Where bombast and finger-pointing had been the order of the day in hip-hop, Franti includes his own inadequacies (notably calling himself a 'jerk' in 'Music And Politics') in his diagnosis of the problem. Characterized by challenging, overtly political lyricism and non-traditional production that incorporates live guitar lines, the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy introduced an intelligent, socially conscious form of West Coast hip-hop. On their critically-acclaimed debut (also their one and only) album, HIPOCRISY IS THE GREATEST LUXURY, lyricist Michael Franti attacks the evils of environmental devastation ("Everyday Life Has Become a Health Risk"), racism ("Socio-Genetic Experiment"), homophobia ("The Language of Violence"), and mass media mind control ("Television, the Drug of the Nation").