Mike Ladd Welcome To The Afterfuture

Reissue packaged with a special booklet complete with exclusive pictures, lyrics and literature from prominent writers and critics as well as an MP3 download of the album and exclusive vinyl only bonus tracks.

We are extremely pleased to present a timely re-issue of Mike Ladd’s crucial and seminal work ‘Welcome To The Afterfuture,’ an L.P. that is included in the book ‘1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die’ and describes Ladd’s masterstroke as “a powerful statement on the concept of justice in a godless land.” The albums “unique voice from a tobacco-raspy philosopher capable of arch comedy, social insight, and emotional impact in the same line” is an essential “grounded trip” that also features the esteemed and much missed Company Flow, Big Juss, Mr. Len and El-P (Run The Jewels). Summoning b-lines, electronic spatter, jazz wig-outs, hard hip hop, Indian ragas and soundtrack ephemera, Mike Ladd chooses a different voice (and sometimes an absence of voice) for each tune. He runs hyper-literate, pun-stuffed rap against pitched-down crooning, Pif-punk call-and-response against uninflected reportage, preacher’s cadences against poetry. Something that particularly resonates on this now 15 year old album are two very specific references to Amadou Diallo and his murder where today, 15 years on, we’re still going through these same issues with police brutality and police killing. This special Va Va Records edition is packaged with a special booklet complete with exclusive pictures, lyrics and literature from prominent writers and critics as well as an MP3 download of the album and exclusive vinyl only bonus tracks.