Listen to the 'The Last Jimmy: A Hip-Hop Musical' Soundtrack, Featuring New Music by Dice Raw

Listen to the soundtrack to Karl "Dice Raw" Jenkins' hip-hop musical 'The Last Jimmy.'

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Image via Complex Original
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Karl “Dice Raw” Jenkins isn’t afraid to get political. In fact, the Philadelphia artist has consistently dedicated his work to raising awareness about social issues affecting minority communities. Take his 2013 album Jimmy’s Back, for instance. The project, which was inspired by Dr. Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow, explores how race and socio-economics play a role in the broken political justice system, and how mass incarceration was essentially modern-day slavery.

The concept album was later turned into a stage production called The Last Jimmy: A Hip-Hop Musical. The show, written by Phillip Brown, examines the current court system through the eyes of the modern black man. Many of the songs featured in the musical were also included in the Jimmy’s Back LP, such as “Run,” “Animal,” “It’s Over,” and “Never Be a Gangsta.” Those songs were mixed in with new material—like “The Stats,” “Better Life,” and “The Last One”—which are only available on The Last Jimmy soundtrack. But make no mistake, the album and play’s messages are still the same.

“The main thing I want people to get from the play—and the album—is a call to action and to wake up anyone who doesn’t know what is going on about mass incarcerations, privatized prisons or how hard it is for these street experts to get re-entry into society,” Dice Raw explained to Philadelphia Weekly. “You know the way that it is with these small laws—the marijuana or even cocaine laws or handgun laws, when he basically lives in a war zone. These are the necessities that you use to survive, so if you are put in a position where you have to fight and you have to live a certain way, then you live that way and you get arrested for it, then you [come to realize] it was a mistake, and you want to function as a full member of society, it is harder for you to do that now. Eight million fellas lost the right to vote just a couple weeks ago. That’s what I want people to take away from it.”

The Last Jimmy soundtrack is available to stream on Spotify. To learn more about the play, go to Dice Raw’s official website

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