Professor D.us — The Dope Poet Society

Canadian political hip-hop pioneers the Dope Poet Society have received the highest of accolades: props from Public Enemy. With THIRD WORLD WARriors, front-man Professor D.us discusses Canadian and world politics from the point of view of a concerned Canadian using his constantly morphing flow, at one moment hitting unusual line breaks and the next dropping tongue twisting flows. Even guest MC Maestro flips his style on "Success.” Professor D.us takes advantage of a worldly collection of MCs, reggae toasters, singers and musicians, resulting in an album rooted in hip-hop but open to a variety of sounds. The one big drawback is the abundance of samples from political speeches, documentaries and news programs. Sure, the technique is a common tool amongst political rap artists like Paris and PE but here it’s used just a little too often in the opening and closing of tracks, as well as for the intro, outro and an interlude. I’d rather hear Professor D.us spit it. Still, that’s a minor gripe about a group willing to step up and mix hip-hop and politics (in Canada, no less) at a time when the two rarely seem compatible.