Hip Hop Lives - KRS-One & Marley Marl

...I considered KRS-One one of hip hop's most respectable, profound, and astute founding fathers. While he admittedly was never that great of a wordsmith (no, he wasn't), KRS-One's strengths always lay in his ability to talk about pertinent topics, introspection, and creativity. He founded the Stop The Violence movement and has gone a long way to promote peace through music.

But that was years ago.

Since then, KRS-One has ever ...
...book called "The Gospel of Hip Hop" to free from all this nonsense garbage right now."

Is he nuts? It's statements like this that make me want to rip out his dirty locks piece by piece. GARBAGE? Ha! When I listen to Hip Hop Lives, I realize this is one of those "pot calling the kettle black" situations.

The rap war between KRS-One's Boogie Down Productions and Marley Marl's Juice Crew in the mid ... more

At one time, I considered KRS-One one of hip hop's most respectable, profound, and astute founding fathers. While he admittedly was never that great of a wordsmith (no, he wasn't), KRS-One's strengths always lay in his ability to talk about pertinent topics, introspection, and creativity. He founded the Stop The Violence movement and has gone a long way to promote peace through music.

But that was years ago.

Since then, KRS-One has ever so slowly faded not only into obscurity, but borderline insanity. Having to read and hear such ludicrous statements such as claiming to be visited by an angel called "hip-hop", God being a female, and the "nine demandments" or whatever has been even less pleasant than swine flu. I was pushed over the edge when I discovered a couple of months ago that KRS-One actually went so far as to certify "The Gospel of Hip-Hop" as a religion. It's obvious to me that Kris Parker is off his rocker. In fact, take a look at this quote from AllHipHop.com about his upcoming book:

"I’m suggesting that in 100 years, this book will be a new religion on the earth... I think I have the authority to approach God directly, I don’t have to go through any religion or train of thought. I can approach God directly myself and so I wrote a book called "The Gospel of Hip Hop" to free from all this nonsense garbage right now."

Is he nuts? It's statements like this that make me want to rip out his dirty locks piece by piece. GARBAGE? Ha! When I listen to Hip Hop Lives, I realize this is one of those "pot calling the kettle black" situations.

The rap war between KRS-One's Boogie Down Productions and Marley Marl's Juice Crew in the mid 1980s is considered hip hop lore. A collaboration between these two one-time rivals was supposed to appeal to long-time hardcore hip hop heads and promote unity in the faltering hip hop community. Many consider me the hardest of the hardcore and even I don't give a damn; the beef was 20 years ago.

There is no need to even talk about each and every song on Hip Hop Lives because they feature the exact same played-out topics backed by Marley's mostly unimpressive production and KRS' piss-poor rhyming skills. The only thing that is talked about on this album is:

1. How great it was back in the day and how much it sucks now
2. How nobody nowadays has any creativity.
3. How KRS-One can destroy anybody's career if he wanted to (because he did it to Nelly right?)

The one major flaw that is more blatantly obvious than Kim Kardashian's love of dark meat is the fact that KRS-One spends a monumental amount of time preaching about how nobody has any creativity. How creative are you if all you talk about is how nobody else is creative? "Nothing New" is perhaps the most aptly titled track on Hip Hop Lives; there is NOTHING NEW here. Maybe they should've included a song called "Nothing Good" to go along with it.

But there are some songs here that are true bottom of the barrell, even by KRS-One standards. "I Was There" is a joke. You wanna talk creativity? How creative are you when you rhyme the word "there" for thirty-seven bars? KRS deserves castration by machete. The irony of KRS-One biting Jay-Z's "30 Something" (who is a KNOWN biter) on "Over 30" makes me chuckle. Why even do it? Why would you waste your time making an obvious rehash of a relatively recent song done by an artist lightyears ahead of you in terms of charisma and talent? DJ Premier appears to do the scratches on "The Victory", but don't be fooled. Marley Marl is responsible for this phoned-in beat, not Preme. "House of Hits" legitimately gives me upset stomach. What we have here is a song that sounds like left-over debris from Macho Man Randy Savage's Be A Man album. Raspy-voiced Chief Rocker Busy Bee Starski, who's biggest claim to fame may have been performing in front of King Tut, joins Kris the Dinosaur in a song that quite frankly makes me vommit. Both of these fossils need to go back to sleep in their respective sarcofaguses.

Arghhh, I can't STAND listening to this.

On Hip Hop Lives, KRS rapping poorly didn't surprise me as much as Marley's inability to draw me in with any composition with the exception of three. "Hip Hop Lives (I Come Back)", "Kill A Rapper", and "This Is What It Is" are the only songs I can get into, and that's 90% Marley and 10% Kris. The lead single, "Hip Hop Lives (I Come Back)" survives due to Marley's beautiful keys and sampling. KRS says on the song "every year I get newer", which, the more I listen to this album, the more incorrect that sounds. KRS gets props on "Kill A Rapper" for actually being creative, speaking about the dreadfully countless unsolved murders in hip hop music. Again, Marley's keys work. "This Is What It Is" reminds me of a solid turn-of-the-century KRS-One bump, with upbeat synthesizers and a decent performance by KRS (until the embarrassing second verse). While all three of these songs are definite pros on the album, NONE of them pull me back.

When my friend Headcase told me his dream is to hear a DJ Premier collaboration album with KRS-One, I laughed simply because that's the equivalent of spraying Lysol on a horse turd. KRS-One has failed to release anything close to being even decent since Kristyle, and even that was average when I look back. Hip Hop Lives is one of the most unlistenable, atrocious, and unreputable albums to ever be created. KRS-One went from being an artist that I respected to a grumpy old man who's been whining about the same thing for two decades, constantly relying on his past achievements to feed his ego and boost what little self esteem he has. Maybe he should worry about getting his crooked teeth fixed more than reminding us time and time again about how he took the bridge down in 1986. Both KRS and Marley need to go away or die. Hip Hop Lives is a dud.

Nas was right... Hip Hop is Bantha fodder.  

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