who cares about krs one-----hyow come we are not talking about the latest speech by the president...i love it, barry is back....no more b.s from the republitugs....they lost , we won....our ideas should be implemented....
The Beyonce post isn't open, and blue-neck, KRS >>> this weak stimulus bill. Though I would've gone back to 'My Philosophy,' 'The Bridge Is Over,' or maybe Rappers are in Danger, MC's Act Like They Don't Know.
I don't think that KRS-One is any more "out there" now than he ever was. The difference is us. For many , now is the first time we have ever had reason to believe that government is actually working for us. If this was the nineties we would have been eating this 9-11 ish up! Hey crack epidemic??CIA. AIDS?? Experiment. Housing projects?? Old Experiment. The Tuskegee experiments??? Confirmed experiment.
KRS has always said some off the wall stuff to make people think. Back in the day we had an appetite for it. Now we don't.
KRS hasn't changed, we have.
Shan's on point - KRS has always been batshit crazy. j/p, sort of.
I don't know why these days, we (myself included) feel like he's the rambling old coot with the tinfoil hat... yet twenty years ago he was a prophet. Bottom line though is that he is just not making good music anymore. I got off the bus about halfway through his self-titled release in the mid 90s.
One of my favorite late-era KRS-One moments is, oddly, the intro of "Higher Level"; 1:00-plus where he's not rapping at all. "Take a second. Just take a second. Chill out for a minute. Just take a second and check this out. Just a mad cool out... and we're just chilling right here, in D&D Studios. It's about 5 o'clock in the morning... we're gonna talk about what you believe in."
Edutainment always strikes me as such an ODD record. Extremely dense subject matter, heavy politics, theology, rasta and black empowerment ideology mixed with humanism, spat out in complex, exact rhymes over sped up reggae loops and heavy drums. Imagine a star like Kris was then, cutting a record like that now. Inconceivable.
Takes me back to E.19th street Eugene OR. I haven't bought a record in more than five years. My new housemate is all about Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One... others whose names I can't remember.
The first week I think I need to find a different house, except the vacancy rate is about .5%. By the end of the month, I'm not a convert, but I have an ear.
id advise people not to read culturally or politically into KRS's conspiracy theories. He is not a "conspiracy theorist" so much as somewhat insane. My friend met him in person and the dude claimed he was Jesus Christ (in dead, unmistakable seriousness).
KRS-One might be nuts, but he's hip hop royalty, and a few years ago I saw him do a guest appearance at Rock the Bells and straight killed it, nobody gets HYPE like KRS-One, the crowd went nuts, what a performer....
I first got into KRS when I copped a cassette of Criminal Minded back in '88...got it through one of those Columbia Tape Club things, only way to get music when you lived in the sticks haha!
Anyway, grew up on that shit, but the KRS classic that I still bump the most is MCs Act Like They Don't Know...KRS...Primo...ill as fuck...
"MC's can only battle with rhymes that got punchlines
Let's battle to see who headlines
Instead of flow for flow let's go show for show
Toe for toe, yo, you better act like you know
Too many MC's take that word 'emcee' lightly
They can't Move a Crowd, not even slightly
It might be the fact that they express wackness
Let me show ya whose ass is the blackest
I flip a script a little bit, you ride the tip and shit
Too sick to get with it, admit you bit, your style is counterfeit
Now tone it down a bit
My title you will never get, I'm too intelligent
I'll send your family my sentiments, my style is toxic
When I rock and shock and hip hop it unlock your head, I knock it
It split quick from the lyric
Direct hit, perfect fit, you can't get with it"
"Some MC's don't like the KRS but they must respect him
Cos they know this kid gets all up in they rectum
Slappin' and selectin' em, checkin' em, disrespectin' em
Just deckin' em, deckin' em, deck-in' em"
Aw shit! damn, nobody gets HYPE like The Teacher...knock em out the box, Kris, knock em out Kris!
I'm sad to see KRS these days looking like a crackpot....I'm with TNC, I prefer to remember when he was relevant and actually had something intelligent to say.
Case in point, check the lyrics from his 'You Must Learn' Remix:
As a result, ignorance had swirled
Over Christian Europe and grateful Roman worlds
This went on for a thousand years
Of ignorance stupidity and tears
Now comes the seventeenth century hardness
Europe, began to come out of it's darkness
So J.F. Blumenbach, a German
Came out of nowhere and started confirming
White supremacy and men of colors
Before this time, all men were brothers
It was Johann, who went on to say
There are five different colors in the world today
That's caucasian, malayan, and mongolian
American-indian, and ethiopian
Yes, the ignorance gets scarier
He believed whites were superior
According to his idiotic fountain
The purest whites were from the Caucas mountains
As you may suspect by the timing of my comments I read the blog once and then scroll down commenting. In regards to the picnic thing, of course you were joking but who the hell is "Clarence 52X"? Like I've said before we have so little in common so this reference went right over my head.
Yeah, Krs-One has always been nuts. This is a guy who can have a shout "stop the violence in Hip-hop..whyyyyyoooo," drop an self destruction, an anti-violence allstars of rap record and then chin-check PM Dawn off the stage.
But he was my favorite for a long time(sorry TNC, but I liked him better than Rakim). I think the only difference now is that my critical thinking is much stronger now than when I was first introduced to BDP at the age of 12.
probably the realest "drug rap" ever. it's almost like donnie brasco in a way. it neither justifies, romanticizes, or glorifies the drug game. sums up the late 80s, early 90s drug era perfectly in about 4 and a half minutes.
Some are dry and some lubricated
Many companies make and made them
@gramsci: forgot that line, when you said sample i immediately went to voice sample.
Yeah, Kris has always been a bit of a shock jock with some comments, even back when he was still relevant. But I can't dis him too much he put me on to Malcolm X. I read The Autobiography of Malcolm X my freshman year of high school because of the My Philosophy video and the By All Means Necessary album cover. He and PE really helped form my worldview to an extent, or at least nudged me towards it, so he and Chuck have a perennial pass from me.
I went to YouTube today to look up Self Destruction, which I haven't watched in years but after you pointed to it for a while I had to see it again. And I'd forgotten this video too, but it's so supreme. Thank you for bringing this one back up too.
I can't help but think of KRS-One almost every time I go to work. I just can't help it. When I pass the Queensbridge Homes I say, MC Shan-like: "the the Bridge, the the Bridge, Queensbridge." And then, well, it's like the whole feud starts up all over again.
Here's a piece no one cared about. Meh, whatever, probably the most enjoyable article I did during my stint at TIME. Premiered a month before I got laid-off. The nail in the coffin? Ya think?
Here's me going after Al. I didn't so much have a problem with him, as I had a problem with media acting like this dude was the go-to guy for everything black.
This was my first real story at time. I was writing for the Business section, a real change of direction for me. At any rate, it's about Wal-Mart's attempts to colonize the inner-city. As much as I enjoyed this piece, I mostly enjoyed going out to Chicago, which is a beautiful, beautiful city.
This a piece I did about the cops just outside our nation capitol, in Prince George's County, a few years back. I wanted to offer a counter to the dumb, conventional wisdom that if you paint your police force black, you could eradicate police brutality. In fact, Prince George's--one of the richest, blackest counties in the country--also had one of the most brutal police force's in the country.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
If any musician should be the subject of a biopic, it's KRS. His life is just fascinating.
who cares about krs one-----hyow come we are not talking about the latest speech by the president...i love it, barry is back....no more b.s from the republitugs....they lost , we won....our ideas should be implemented....
I care about KRS. This was my favorite song for a long time. It's still one of my favorite videos.
The Beyonce post isn't open, and blue-neck, KRS >>> this weak stimulus bill. Though I would've gone back to 'My Philosophy,' 'The Bridge Is Over,' or maybe Rappers are in Danger, MC's Act Like They Don't Know.
I don't think that KRS-One is any more "out there" now than he ever was. The difference is us. For many , now is the first time we have ever had reason to believe that government is actually working for us. If this was the nineties we would have been eating this 9-11 ish up! Hey crack epidemic??CIA. AIDS?? Experiment. Housing projects?? Old Experiment. The Tuskegee experiments??? Confirmed experiment.
KRS has always said some off the wall stuff to make people think. Back in the day we had an appetite for it. Now we don't.
KRS hasn't changed, we have.
yeah, from now on everything's hunky dory
the ruling elites rotten corpses don't stink no more...
Uh Oh
Shan's on point - KRS has always been batshit crazy. j/p, sort of.
I don't know why these days, we (myself included) feel like he's the rambling old coot with the tinfoil hat... yet twenty years ago he was a prophet. Bottom line though is that he is just not making good music anymore. I got off the bus about halfway through his self-titled release in the mid 90s.
One of my favorite late-era KRS-One moments is, oddly, the intro of "Higher Level"; 1:00-plus where he's not rapping at all. "Take a second. Just take a second. Chill out for a minute. Just take a second and check this out. Just a mad cool out... and we're just chilling right here, in D&D Studios. It's about 5 o'clock in the morning... we're gonna talk about what you believe in."
Edutainment always strikes me as such an ODD record. Extremely dense subject matter, heavy politics, theology, rasta and black empowerment ideology mixed with humanism, spat out in complex, exact rhymes over sped up reggae loops and heavy drums. Imagine a star like Kris was then, cutting a record like that now. Inconceivable.
Takes me back to E.19th street Eugene OR. I haven't bought a record in more than five years. My new housemate is all about Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One... others whose names I can't remember.
The first week I think I need to find a different house, except the vacancy rate is about .5%. By the end of the month, I'm not a convert, but I have an ear.
Hey, KRS totally raised my consciousness. His music was always kinda weaksauce but talk about DROPPING SCIENCE! Whew!
Obama = KRS of early 90's
GOP = PM Dawn
id advise people not to read culturally or politically into KRS's conspiracy theories. He is not a "conspiracy theorist" so much as somewhat insane. My friend met him in person and the dude claimed he was Jesus Christ (in dead, unmistakable seriousness).
KRS-One might be nuts, but he's hip hop royalty, and a few years ago I saw him do a guest appearance at Rock the Bells and straight killed it, nobody gets HYPE like KRS-One, the crowd went nuts, what a performer....
I first got into KRS when I copped a cassette of Criminal Minded back in '88...got it through one of those Columbia Tape Club things, only way to get music when you lived in the sticks haha!
Anyway, grew up on that shit, but the KRS classic that I still bump the most is MCs Act Like They Don't Know...KRS...Primo...ill as fuck...
"MC's can only battle with rhymes that got punchlines
Let's battle to see who headlines
Instead of flow for flow let's go show for show
Toe for toe, yo, you better act like you know
Too many MC's take that word 'emcee' lightly
They can't Move a Crowd, not even slightly
It might be the fact that they express wackness
Let me show ya whose ass is the blackest
I flip a script a little bit, you ride the tip and shit
Too sick to get with it, admit you bit, your style is counterfeit
Now tone it down a bit
My title you will never get, I'm too intelligent
I'll send your family my sentiments, my style is toxic
When I rock and shock and hip hop it unlock your head, I knock it
It split quick from the lyric
Direct hit, perfect fit, you can't get with it"
"Some MC's don't like the KRS but they must respect him
Cos they know this kid gets all up in they rectum
Slappin' and selectin' em, checkin' em, disrespectin' em
Just deckin' em, deckin' em, deck-in' em"
Aw shit! damn, nobody gets HYPE like The Teacher...knock em out the box, Kris, knock em out Kris!
I'm sad to see KRS these days looking like a crackpot....I'm with TNC, I prefer to remember when he was relevant and actually had something intelligent to say.
Case in point, check the lyrics from his 'You Must Learn' Remix:
As a result, ignorance had swirled
Over Christian Europe and grateful Roman worlds
This went on for a thousand years
Of ignorance stupidity and tears
Now comes the seventeenth century hardness
Europe, began to come out of it's darkness
So J.F. Blumenbach, a German
Came out of nowhere and started confirming
White supremacy and men of colors
Before this time, all men were brothers
It was Johann, who went on to say
There are five different colors in the world today
That's caucasian, malayan, and mongolian
American-indian, and ethiopian
Yes, the ignorance gets scarier
He believed whites were superior
According to his idiotic fountain
The purest whites were from the Caucas mountains
with this article:
http://www.slate.com/id/2198124/
The man was ahead of his time, I just hope he gets it together.
As you may suspect by the timing of my comments I read the blog once and then scroll down commenting. In regards to the picnic thing, of course you were joking but who the hell is "Clarence 52X"? Like I've said before we have so little in common so this reference went right over my head.
Yeah, Krs-One has always been nuts. This is a guy who can have a shout "stop the violence in Hip-hop..whyyyyyoooo," drop an self destruction, an anti-violence allstars of rap record and then chin-check PM Dawn off the stage.
But he was my favorite for a long time(sorry TNC, but I liked him better than Rakim). I think the only difference now is that my critical thinking is much stronger now than when I was first introduced to BDP at the age of 12.
"They shot down one/they shot down two/now tell me what the fuck am I supposed to do?"
Rap at it's finest.
probably the realest "drug rap" ever. it's almost like donnie brasco in a way. it neither justifies, romanticizes, or glorifies the drug game. sums up the late 80s, early 90s drug era perfectly in about 4 and a half minutes.
Cause we be getting HYPED to the sound of da police!
Woop Woop!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VRZq3J0uz4
RE: You Must Learn
Yeah, that one. That's the one that made me open my ears ad start paying attention.
NWA and Bell Biv Devoe also built their respective biggest hits around sampled KRS lyrics.
i'm pretty sure "poison" was a kool g. rap sample.
Ahhh, yes, this is the KRS that I remember! This is when he really was The Teacher
GOP = PM Dawn
Wow, that made me feel old. Saw that and it hit me that it's been like 15 years since those dudes even crossed my mind. Jesus.
Lyric, todd, not song sample (which was Kool G. Rap). I'm talking about "big butt and a smile."
Jimmy Hats are now in style
Cuz You can't trust a big butt and a smile...
Good song - the music and backbeats are simplistic, say, compared with Kanye's Classic (where you've got Rakim, Nas, KRS-1 and Kanye).
KRS-1 sounds even better, on that track that he does in older tracks.
Some are dry and some lubricated
Many companies make and made them
@gramsci: forgot that line, when you said sample i immediately went to voice sample.
Yeah, Kris has always been a bit of a shock jock with some comments, even back when he was still relevant. But I can't dis him too much he put me on to Malcolm X. I read The Autobiography of Malcolm X my freshman year of high school because of the My Philosophy video and the By All Means Necessary album cover. He and PE really helped form my worldview to an extent, or at least nudged me towards it, so he and Chuck have a perennial pass from me.
No love for "Break the Chain" by Big Joe Crash (one of KRS-One's alter egos)?
I went to YouTube today to look up Self Destruction, which I haven't watched in years but after you pointed to it for a while I had to see it again. And I'd forgotten this video too, but it's so supreme. Thank you for bringing this one back up too.
I can't help but think of KRS-One almost every time I go to work. I just can't help it. When I pass the Queensbridge Homes I say, MC Shan-like: "the the Bridge, the the Bridge, Queensbridge." And then, well, it's like the whole feud starts up all over again.