Dead Prez + Boots Riley Tonight @Black Dot

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RBGz at YBG: dead prez @G4G's solar-powered concert

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Outside Lands, Shmoutside Lands. The hundreds of folks who came out to Yerba Buena Gardens to see dead prez and Mistah F.A.B. perform for free yesterday may have gotten a better deal than the tens of thousands who shelled out $90 to see M.I.A., Lucinda Williams, the Dead Weather, and Tenacious D. I'm not saying that just because - full disclosure - I worked the PR for this event, a solar-powered hip-hop concert presented by Grind for the Green. Nah, for realz, the sun even poked through just in time for DPz' "Summertime," which is more than I can say for that other event in Golden Gate Park. And while M.I.A.'s militant hit "Paper Planes" might have fired up the OL crowd for a brief instant, making them forget the plunging mercury and the absence of the Beastie Boys, if there's a better revolutionary anthem out there than DPz' show-closing classic "(It's Bigger Than) Hip-Hop," I've yet to hear it.

M-1 and stic.man will be in the Bay for a couple of days (artists: if you're tryna link up with them for verses, now's the time to holla), and tonight from 6-9pm, they appear at Oakland's Black Dot Café for a FREE lecture, discussion, and Q&A facilitated by none other than Boots Riley of the Coup (who made his festival debut at OL with Street Sweeper Social Club). It's like a "Behind the Music" episode with a red, black, and green tint: Find out more about DPz' involvement in the green hip-hop movement, their participation in Cuba's Black August celebrations, and why the revolution is bigger than hip-hop.