With the world at large seemingly determined to head to hell in a handbasket, the latest edition of *Across 135th Street* finds our host [Egotrip’s](http://www.egotripland.com/chairman-mao-across-135th-street-message-to-the-world-audio/ "Egotrip’s") Jeff *Chairman Mao* digging through his vintage vinyl cache for a program of soul and funk tracks with messages as pointed as their grooves. *Net Wt. 14 Karat Black*’s self-explanatory early ’70s plea *We Gotta Make A Change* sets the tone, giving way to classics by *Eddie Palmieri*’s *Harlem River Drive*, *Lonnie Liston Smith*, *Harris & Orr*, and *Roy Ayers Ubiquity*, and no less than three separate laments entitled *World* (by *1619 B.A.B.*, *James Brown* and the *Whatnauts*, respectively). Fortunately, or unfortunately, the urgency of these topical tunes remains as timeless as ever decades after they were recorded and released.
