Released last year, Gabriel Teodros’ GT’s Ethiopium: A Jitter Generation Mixtape is that rarest of albums in the annals of so-called “conscious rap”: a socio-political treatise that doubles as intimate biography. The Seattle native (he now lives in Brooklyn) is equally comfortable with and adept at rhyming about his Ethiopian heritage and his left-wing leanings. Miraculously, he maintains a critical eye on both; thus, his songs never get soggy with misty recollections/explications, as so often happens when MCs have deep convictions but shallow politics. “Question what you believe/’Cause every religion comes with poisonous seeds,” he raps on “Sheba,” before firing off a cutting critique of his birth country: “I’m from the land where they normalize rape.” Fair and balanced reporting never had it so good. KEVIN CAPP

Mon., March 15, 8 p.m., 2010