"Hypocrisy is the Greatest Luxury" by the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy

You think you know Michael Franti... and then you find out he released one of the most incisive and engrossing hip hop albums from the Bay.

The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy
Hypocrisy is the Greatest Luxury (1992)
4th & Broadway / Island Records

Since I grew up in the Bay and have lived most of my life here, I of course knew the name Michael Franti. But if you’d asked me last year what I knew about him, all I could have said was, “I think he has dreads… and he’s in a jam band?”

Embarrassingly, I had no idea that he was born in Oakland, that he was of mixed ethnicity (Irish, German, Belgian, Black, and Native American), and that in 1992 he released a fiery hip hop album laying waste to the blatant and inexcusable hypocrisies of the materialistic, militaristic, TV-addled state that is America.

Recorded in San Francisco, Hypocrisy Is the Greatest Luxury has more in common with Public Enemy than the Dr. Dre-led G-funk that would soon dominate west coast hip hop. It’s slower and more relaxed than the Bomb Squad’s dizzying, atonal productions, but Franti’s lyrics and delivery are as bold as Chuck D’s. There’s one moment which is what I imagine Spearhead sounds like (“Music and Politics”) but there other surprises, like the cover of “California Über Alles” by SF punk band Dead Kennedys.

Even the album is nearly three decades old—too little has changed. Some of the issues may be more well-known in the mainstream, but we need more action. Maybe give the album a spin and see what we can change.