In the world of Hip Hop, few have garnered more respect than KRS-One. The 44 year-old emcee from the South Bronx has been a pioneer of the genre's music and culture over the past twenty-two years. Beginning as an emcee for the critically acclaimed Boogie Down Productions, KRS has been a apart of several classic albums from Boogie Down's Criminal Minded (the 1987 album credited with largely influencing East Coast hip hop) to By All Means Necessary (which derives its name from the Malcolm X quote, "By any means necessary") to nearly any of his solo albums.
The thing I like about KRS is that he is never afraid to speak his mind. In a world that has become too PC and rappers are concerned with their image in order to sell more records, KRS has never been afraid to vocalize his opinion (he even went so far as to call Barack Obama the same standard politician in new packaging). KRS is a huge supporter of hip hop, but has taken serious offense to trends in recent years (his 2007 collaboration with Marley Marl, Hip Hop Lives, was a protest against what many emcees, particularly Nas was saying, that Hip Hop was dead).
These two tracks, which conveniently popped up in my inbox today, come off of KRS-One's upcoming collaboration with Buckshot, a celebrated emcee in his own right, and is pure, vintage, new school/old school hip hop. "ROBOT" is the lead single and is a comment on the repetiveness of mainstream hip hop. The track is set over an amazing beat and production by the the legendary Havoc of Mobb Deep (peep the very dope video here).
"Survival Skills" is the intro/title track off of the album and is equally dope. If these tracks are any indication of the sound of the rest of the album (and I expect they are), Survival Skills is lining up to be an album of pure, unadulterated, pure hip hoppery (something that we need more and more these days). The album drops September 15th and promises to be one of the better albums of the year.
Buckshot, KRS, We F-R-E-S-H, fresh!
Peace, Love, & Hip Hop,
Noah
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