Luck-One and Dekk – Beautiful Music

I’ve been sitting on this for a while, and I think you guys are really gonna like it. Hanif Ta-Nehisi, known as Luck-One, started rhyming back in the late 90′s and soon after started Seventh Science rap collective. Right as they were about to drop their first release, Ta-Nehisi was arrested and sentenced to 6 years in jail for armed robbery. Luck-One instantly became an activist within the system.

According to his label, Architect Entertainment:

While serving time, Ta-Nehisi voiced his critique of the prison system that held him
hostage. He orchestrated food strikes and organized prisoners, divided along racial and
political lines, to rally around common causes. Throughout his sentence, Ta-Nehisi
continued to sharpen his social awareness by study and observation, and through the
diligent use of his time, taught himself a second language, composed thousands of songs
and studied marketing in a self-motivated effort to emerge from the Eastern Oregon
Correctional Institution a savvy businessman. (www.architectentertainment.com)

While he was in prison some of the Seventh Science collective fell apart, but his own talent was still there. He was finally released in July of 2008, and released this album Beautiful Music last February with producer Dekk. Luck-One is exactly where you want to see conscious hip hop going, he’s the next step from guys like Common, following a young revolutionary culture somewhere between militant and hippie.

I can’t decide if he’s experimenting with his own style, or just showing us that he can do a lot. That also brings us to Dekk. The reason Luck-One is able to show off his versatility is because Dekk keeps all the beats fresh and original. Luck-One is pointing out problems that some hip hop artists overlook. He knows the gem among hard rocks is the one who “abolishes the misconception of her race, underachieving simply because underachieving is their place.”

I personally am a big fan of this EP and hope it expands sometime soon into a full album. You can get the download here.