KRS-One

Featuring: Afrika Bambaataa

Producer: Gato (producer)

[Afrika Bambaataa]
We got to understand rap been here for a long time~!
When God talked to the prophets, he was rappin
And when the prophets talked back to God, they was rappin
And then if people wanna bring it up and get all up to the modern days and ages
We can start to goin in the 60's when you had Shirley Ellis
When she did "The Name Game" and "The Clapping Song"
We can go to the poetry rappin of of sister Son.. Sonia Sanchez
With uh The Watts Poets, or The Last Poets
We can get into the political or the message rap
Of The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, Malcolm X
Or The Honorable Elijah Muhammad
We can get into the the the the party and fun raps
Of Pigby Markam{?}, Marks Baby{?}
We can go back to the "Hi De Hi De Ho" with Cab Calloway
We can go back to the radio disc jockey or jocko
Eddie OJ, and all the others that did things
We can go back to the LOVE RAP of Isaac Hayes, Black Moses
To the LOVE RAP of Barry White out there
This is all part of rap
And if all you country people want to get into the country & western thing
We can take it to, Tony Joe White, when he did "Poke Salad Annie"
This is all dealin with the rap
Rap has always been there... {*echoes*}

The legendary MC from the South Bronx, New York, Lawrence “KRS-One” Parker has been steadily rapping since 1985. His name stands for “Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone”.

KRS came to rapping only by chance. In the Something from The Art of Rap documentary, he recalls watching an MC cypher when suddenly “a dude” randomly picked him out of the crowd and made fun of him. Feeling compelled to defend himself, KRS performed a little freestyle which impressed the crowd and eventually kicked off his rapping career.

His breakthrough onto the hip hop scene began with “The Bridge Is Over” – an answer record to the popular Queens rapper MC Shan’s song “Queensbridge”. From 1986 to 1992, KRS-One fronted the groundbreaking hip hop group Boogie Down Productions, scoring six top 20 hits on the US Rap Chart. In 1993, he began a solo career spanning three decades, racking up six more top 20 Rap Chart hits with “Sound of da Police”, “MCs Act Like They Don’t Know”, “Step Into A World” and “Men Of Steel” also achieving mainstream pop success on the Hot 100.

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