For the People

For the People is a politically and socially charged album by Spectac with production by DJ Shakim. His first release in three years after 2010’s Almost Famous finds the South Carolina–born hip-hop activist more charged than ever; “Emancipation” sets the stage with lyrical lambastes of privileged youth, the conservative right, the Kardashians, and inner-city thugs—all over a clever looping of what sounds like a pitched-up version of The Isley Brothers covering Chicago’s “If You Leave Me Now.” In the following “F.A.C.E. (Football, Arts, Comics, Etc.),” Shakim does a continuous figure eight with Glen Campbell's "By The Time I Get to Phoenix" alongside some retro turntablism as Spectac does hyper-phrased rhymes about a laundry list of inner-city community trials and tribulations—the poignant sentiment here follows along the same heartfelt trail blazed by the late, great Marvin Gaye in his 1971 masterwork What’s Going On. Skyzoo, Warren Wint, Sha Stimuli, and Senor Kaos pass the mic in “Moment of Truth,” a standout cut that picks up the torch of justice from Gil Scott-Heron.