KRS-One: The Hip Hop Legend Who Made Every Line Count
There are rappers you put on for a party, and rappers who make you stop what you are doing to catch the next line. KRS-One belongs in the second lot. The voice arrives before any introduction is needed: direct, unmistakable and absolutely certain that you ought to be paying attention.
Before the solo records, Lawrence Parker was part of Boogie Down Productions with DJ Scott La Rock. Their debut, Criminal Minded, came out in 1987 and sounded like it had no interest in asking permission. You could hear the New York streets in it, but there was craft in the way the rhymes landed against the beats. It still has that jolt when you play it now.
Scott La Rock was killed later that year. KRS-One carried on, but the music did not simply carry on as before. By All Means Necessary followed in 1988, with a cover that deliberately echoed Malcolm X. Put on “My Philosophy” and you can hear an artist making room for argument, history and a formidable amount of confidence in the same verse.
He could be funny with it too. The back and forth between Boogie Down Productions and the Juice Crew, known as the Bridge Wars, gave hip hop some of its most memorable battle records. MC Shan’s “The Bridge” was followed by BDP’s “South Bronx” and “The Bridge Is Over”. It was a fight about place, pride and who got to tell the story. You can enjoy the records without pretending the history is as simple as one side winning and the other disappearing.
After Scott’s death, KRS-One helped bring artists together for the Stop the Violence Movement. Its 1989 single “Self Destruction” put a collective message on record without making it sound like a lecture read from a sheet of paper. That balance matters. He was capable of teaching through a track because the track still had to work as music.
The run of albums that followed gives you plenty of ways in. Ghetto Music: The Blueprint of Hip Hop has the force of Boogie Down Productions still pushing forward. Edutainment makes no secret of its purpose. Return of the Boom Bap is a reminder that a voice and a beat can be more than enough. You do not have to agree with every position he takes to hear why people keep returning to the records.
He has spent much of his career arguing that hip hop is more than records and sales figures. That is an argument worth having, not a slogan to stick on a wall. KRS-One has never been short of words, but when the beat drops and he starts speaking, you understand why he insists the culture deserves serious attention.
We have a KRS-One Super7 ReAction figure at Old’s Cool. It is a small nod to somebody whose records took up rather more room than the figure will on your shelf. Start with Criminal Minded if you have not heard it for a while. Then see how long it takes before you put on the next one.