Michael Franti is a survivor. For over a decade the San Francisco radical has been a fixture of the American hip-hop scene, inspiring a whole generation of college students with his musical polemics against colonialism and other forms of oppression. Since he's joined the collective Spearhead, however, Franti has loosened up a little and is now just as likely to be found rapping about basketball and cannabis. On Everyone Deserves Music, he comes close to striking the right balance. Slick, funky and dazzlingly clever, it blends sharp political commentary with some of the most straightforwardly entertaining music the veteran activist has ever made. So while you can certainly dance to these disco grooves and samba rhythms, you can also think about the lyrics on the way home (sample: 'We can bomb the world to pieces, but we can't bomb it to peace'). A welcome reminder that in hip-hop at least, the young pretenders don't have all the best ideas.
