Hiphop Knowledge

You know.. life is funny..

If you don't repeat the actions of your own success

you won't be successful

You gotta know your own formula, your own ingredients

What made you, YOU..

1987 I was at the Latin Quarters

Listenin to Afrika Bambaata give the order

The call of the order was to avoid the slaughter

He said, "Record companies ain't got nuttin for ya!"

Without a lawyer, he taught The Infinity Lessons

In how hip-hop could be a, many a blessing

And that was great, so in 1988

there was no debate, we had to end the hate

The name of the game was "Stop the Violence"

and unity, knowledge, and self-reliance

We - started talkin bout Martin and Malcolm

Had these ghetto kids goin, "Huh, what about him?"

1989, Professor Griff speaks his mind

but his freedom of speech is declined

1990 came with the West coast

East coast, West coast, who is the best coast?

Lookin back now, of COURSE it was bogus

The whole argument was where we lost focus

We got hopeless; not with the lyrics and music

but with hip-hop, and how we used it

Or abused it, you know how the crew get

"You like it cause you choose it"

1991, we opened our eyes

with Human Education Against Lies, we tried

to talk about the state of humanity

But all these others rappers got mad at me

They called me "Captain Human", another message was sent

"Self Destruction don't pay the {fuckin} rent"

Remember that? Nobody wanted conscious rap

It was like - where these ballers at?

Where can they call us at? All was wack

Hip-Hop culture was fallin flat and that was that

So in 1992, I found my crew

They said, "Yo Kris, what you wanna do?"

I said, "Damn - why they wanna get with me?

If I bust they {shit} I'm contradictory.

If I play the bitch role, they take my shoe.

Tell me what the {fuck} am I supposed to do?"

So I did it, don't stop get it get it get it

All of a sudden these critics they wanna spit it

"Kay Are Ess One is con-tra-dic-to-ry"

Just cause I wouldn't let these rappers get with me

{Fuck} that, {fuck} you and {fuck} your pen

If a rapper wanna diss, yo I'd do it again

But I'm makin these ends, and I got my friends

And I really don't wanna have to sit in the pen

So I go back to the philosopher

1993 hip-hop is uhh.. wack

Go back, check the facts

1994, "Return of the Boom Bap"

It wasn't all about the loot

It was all about Harry Allen Rhythm Cultural Institute

Blowin up, 1995

Conscious rap is still alive

But nobody wanna play it, nobody wanna say it

Nobody okayed it, they'd all rather hate it

1996 it really don't stop

We put together somethin called the Temple of Hip-Hop

Not just DJin, breakin, graf and lyrics

But how hip-hop affects the spirit

"Step Into a World," that's what I did

1997 I was raisin my kid

or kids, but I, had to go

Cause New York DJ's changed the flows

to clothes and hoes, but that wasn't me

I'll be damned if I dance for the MTV

So in 1998 I began to debate

Should I go now, or should I really wait?

'99, I moved to L.A. you see

and took a gig with the WB

Started studyin philosophy full-time

To have a full heart, full body, full mind

But you know what the problem is or was?

DJ's don't raise our kids, cuz

they so caught up in the cash and jewels

How they gonna really see a hip-hop school?

How they gonna really see a hip-hop temple?

They don't even wanna play my instrumentals, but

big up Dr. Dre, Snoop, Xzibit

Especially Xzibit, he was there in a minute

Mic Conception, all of them, said

"Yo you need help? I should call them"

When I was in L.A., I held the crown

Bloods, Crips, they held me down

I could never forget Mad Lion, killer pride

with the gat in the lap in the low-ride

Oh I can't forget, Icy Ice, Lucky Lou

Julio G, that was the crew

Davey D, Ingrid, David Connor

The list goes on and on, let me tell ya

FredWreck, and my man Protest

Much respect, no less

To my spiritual and mental defenders

Big up to L.A., temple members

But in 2000, I seen how I wanted to live

I wasn't no executive

So I picked up the mic and I quit my job

Said to Simone I gotta get with God

She said, "Don't worry bout these dollars and quarters.

Record companies ain't got nuttin for ya."

Damn, she took me back to Bam!

Took me back to who I am!

Brought me back to the New York land!

Now I overstand!..

[interviewer]

Now KRS-One, now you've been quoted as saying that

rap is something we do, hip-hop is something you live.

[KRS] Yes!

[interviewer]

Explain that to us please.

[KRS-One]

Well, well, today hip-hop, we are advocating that hip-hop is not,

just a music, it is an attitude, it is an awareness, it is a way

to view the world. So rap music, is something we do, but HIP-HOP,

is something we live. And we look at hip-hop, in it's 9 elements;

which is breaking, emceeing, graffiti art, deejaying, beatboxing,

street fashion, street language, street knowledge, and street

entrepenurialism - trade and business. And uhh, that's where y'know

that's the hip-hop that that that we're about. We come from the uhh

the root of, of Kool DJ Herc, who originated hip-hop in the early 70's

and then Afrika Bambaata and Zulu Nation (mmhmm)

who instigated something called The Infinity Lessons

and added conciousness to hip-hop, and then Grandmaster Flash

with the invention of the mixer, on to Run-D.M.C. and then myself.

And uhh, we created the "Stop the Violence" movement, you may recall

a song, "Self Destruction" and and and so on. All of this, goes to

uhh uhh, the idea of LIVING this culture out and taking responsibility

for how it looks and and acts in society.