KRS-One, also known as The Blastmaster or The Teacha, has been one of the most respected emcees in hiphop since he got his start in the late '80s as one half of Boogie Down Productions. Since building his reputation on tracks like Stop the Violence and Sound of da Police, KRS has enjoyed a long and celebrated solo career, with over a dozen albums to his name.
That's why his new album,
Survival Skills, is such a big deal. In his first real collaboration since the BDP days, he's teaming up with Buckshot, an emcee who's got a pretty big reputation of his own. Buckshot was one of the main players in Brooklyn's hiphop supergroup
Boot Camp Clik, and a member of Black Moon. Together, they're on a mission to spread a bit of hip hop history to a new generation of fans, and teach everyone what it takes to survive in the rap game for as long as they have.
KRS and Buck talked to Suicide Girls about the state of hip hop and the aims of
Survival Skills.
Jay Hathaway: How do you feel about selling records to kids who have never heard of Grandmaster Flash or Roger Troutman?
KRS-One: As a historian, it's a straight privilege to be able to influence anybody to the historical and traditional heritage of hip hop. This is one thing we noticed also on the Rock the Bells tour. Everybody didn't know who we were. Some people knew Buckshot, didn't know KRS. Believe that. Others knew KRS, didn't know Buckshot. Some people didn't know either of us. To be out there talking about, "this ain't a diss to nobody's art / 'cause Afrika Bambataa gave you the start," and they barely know who
Afrika Bambataa is, this is part of work. This is our job, to educate the masses, let them know that there's an importance to the heritage that we are putting forward. We're not just music merchants. We're preserving our culture, we're preserving our way of life. Anybody who has a critique against preserving your own way of life, all you can call those people are cowards, there's no way around it.
JH: Do you think that a lot of people are going to copy you on this whole anti-autotune movement? Other than Jay-Z, I mean ...
Buckshot: We've moved on. We killed that thing already, and we've moved on. We run a hip hop military mindframe, and one thing we don't do, we don't glorify a kill. We get in and get out. The people don't want this no more, so we're going to represent the people. That's why you see
Survival Skills, 'cause we're on to the next lesson. Now we're going to show you what it takes to have survival skills. Buckshot and KRS said "fuck autotune," as far as saying "don't be a biter like everybody else," and then everyone else came to the table and said, "Yeah, you know what? Fuck autotune." So a leader is always going to be a leader, and a follower is always going to be a follower. That's always going to be what it is.
JH: So people are copying you when you say, "Don't copy?"
BS: It's not a person saying "I'm copying Buckshot." You can't copy me, and I don't promote that. What they're doing is they're getting a clearer vision of being able to say, "I didn't know there was an option, before Buckshot and KRS-One said it."
JH: KRS, I know you're The Teacha, but what did you learn from Buckshot by doing this album?
KRS: We always say that we never stop learning. It's not anything that I've learned, it is that I'm continuously learning. The experience is not one that I can put my finger on. It's really the inspiration. This is an opportunity for KRS-One to have a beginning again, to be grounded again. If I'm learning anything, I'm learning about the grounding of KRS-One, the need for KRS-One to be relevant in today's world. Before the Buckshot album, I was pretty much by myself. I did an album with my brother, Kenny, I did an album with Freddie Foxxx, but nothing as important as this album, and that's real. It's like you've traveled 10 miles and back again, and someone else says, "I've got a brand new car. Let's go do those 10 miles one more time." This time, you know the terrain, you know where you're going, but you're not in the same vehicle, and you're not driving with the same people. It's actually new, but it's old.
KRS-One has to constantly reinvent himself in the face of this debate that he may be too old to be rhymin'. Why are you rhyming? Why are you still touring? People ask these dumb questions, as if we're not getting thousands of dollars for doing it. Forget about "love the art," forget all that. As a 40 year-old, 30 year-old, 25 year-old man or woman, if you have a skill at DJing or emceeing, and you make more money than certain doctors or lawyers, why would you skip out on that? People don't think that far ahead, so they say, "You're too old for that." How can you be too old for 50 thousand dollars a show?
I urge all so-called old school artists or true school artists to find your guy from the nineties, your dude, this young kid in you, and do an album with him. Straight up and down, this could be a new business model for hiphop. It unites the young with the old, it unites the beginner with the seasoned vet. Buckshot's no beginner, and Buck is not a youngin' either [laughs] but our album represents that vibe. Buckshot's representin' today's emcee: young, fiery, ready to roll. I'm representin' the tradition heritage of hip hop, the foundation, the pillars.
JH: Buck, what's your favorite KRS-One track? And KRS, what's your favorite thing Buckshot's done?
BS: That's hard. It ain't gonna be political, I'm gonna just say KRS. That's like asking me what's my favorite part about my favorite emcee.
KRS: Right, that's a hard question. Each song hits you a certain way. There's not one song or moment in that sense. It's hard. That question's hard.
BS: Every song has a different aesthetic. Every song. That's why I cap it off by saying, Kris. Period. The answer to that question is KRS-One himself.
JH: When you've got two experienced, well-respected emcees like yourselves in a room together, do you get competitive with one another?
BS: No. I'm gonna say that in my heart. I'm so wrapped up in going, "This is Kris. He gets on the mic, he can't do no wrong." Meaning, fuck that, he can talk about trees and swaying in the wind.
KRS: [laughs]
BS: To be able to come behind Kris is a privilege. It's like ... volcanic gasses are needed, but not inside New York. Negative energy is needed, but it don't exist in our realm.
KRS: This union between Buck and I is so opposite to that, competition. Some people thrive on that. I think some individuals come together, and even though they love each other and respect each other, they thrive on the competition between each other. We're more like Voltron, like a sort of coming together. I'm relying on Buck onstage. Even at the Rock the Bells concert, he's doing my vocals. The album's so new, I didn't even have time to study my shit, Buckshot already studied the whole album. We're onstage in front of 5, 6, 700 people, and I'm freestyling, and Buck's trying to do the vocals. It's that kind of Batman-Robin Justice League-type morphing, becoming two versions of the same idea. That's what
Survival Skills is really about: here's a younger and an older version of the same idea, here's a Brooklyn and a Bronx version of the same idea, here's two different eras of hiphop with the same idea. Competition just doesn't come in.
JH: How have you managed to put out so many albums that people want to buy, and stay so relevant to a new generation of listeners?
KRS: A lot of people are starting to put out music that reflects a certain time and tone, and that time and tone was '91 to 2001, that whole 10-stretch. This generation is trying to see what that '91-2001 was like. If you didn't have respect in '91 to 2001, you don't exist today. And that's respect to all my dudes, man, I know dudes that are not around today for no other reason than that they just didn't go the route‚ like my man Tone Loc, that's my dude, no doubt, but where is he today? He's doing movies, he's doing voiceovers for cartoons, he ain't strugglin', but where is he today? Where is Young MC? Where are these guys that were coming up in my era? King Tee. Where are these guys?
Everybody had a plan, everybody was the man, everybody was God body. Everybody knew what they were gonna do, but only a few of us made it into the new millennium, and we weren't the record sellers either. Tone Loc was the biggest record seller of the '90's, and today young cats don't even know who he is. Groups like Wu-Tang didn't sell shit. Compared to the millions that hip hop was selling at that time, Protect Ya Neck was a hot single and that's about it. But now, 2009, you say "Method Man" to a 13 year-old, they're fuckin' in tears, ready to go pay 50 dollars to see Meth walk around and possibly bring Redman out. And why? Because Redman and Method Man gained some kind of respect in the '90s.
What keeps you relevant in the minds of people is stories they can tell about you. What you made them feel when they came to the concert, that kind of stuff. I don't see too many groups working on that these days. They're more interested in the girl, or the ice, or the car. They're not really interested in doing things for respect. The only reason I'm doing this right now is for respect!
And they're not even doing it for the cash, they're doing it for glamor. That's how pussy we got. Even in the '90s, it was all about the Benjamins. In the new millennium, it's all about pussy. That's all it's fuckin' about. Motherfuckers rappin' about pussy, niggas are pussy, niggas talkin' pussy.
BS: Motherfuckers have got so terrible that when they say the ice and the fame, if you take those chains to the pawn shop, they're not even real diamonds!
KRS: They're not even real! [laughs]
BS: We got so low that now it ain't about nothin' else but the pussy.
KRS: Oh, shit! That's all we got left! You either chasin' pussy or you are a pussy. That's the state of hip hop. Lowercase hip hop. Capital Hip Hop is over with
Survival Skills, and we ain't pussy. At the end of the day, that's what it really comes down to now.
JH: Who do you think is going to be around in the next 10 years?
KRS: Whatever this album does, me and Buckshot bought ourselves a ticket into the new millennium. There's a generation that now knows, heard, know our point of view. All we gotta do is stay consistent, and we walk right into another decade.
The usual suspects. L'il Wayne'll be around, but over the next 5 years, he has to do more community work. And I'm not saying that 'cause I'm an activist. The community gotta see you out there, even though you're a huge artist. I'd say Wayne. Just look at the people that you remember now. If you don't remember an artist now, you're not gonna remember him 10 years from now. Cats that you just don't think about anymore, those are the cats that are gone. They're on their way out. That could be some of your biggest artists. Wayne if he don't play his game right. That could be 50 if he don't play his game right.
Immortal Technique, if he stays consistent with what he's spittin', he'll make it into the next decade, because what he's saying is so shocking. On
Survival Skills, he says, "Fuck the commercial world, I'd rather stay underground." That is a strong statement. You're drawing the line and saying "I will forever scramble for mine. Even if you hand me a million dollars, I will reject you. I'm gonna go down with the ship."
BS: He said, "I'd rather stay raw," and raw means untampered. Unseasoned. Unflavored.
JH: Do you have to draw that line and make that statement to have credibility?
KRS: It's a survival skill. If you don't stand for something, you fall for everything. The line has to be drawn at some point in your life. If you're young, then you've got time to fuck around, play both sides, lie about your associations, say "I'm a gangster but I'm really not," say, "I'm conscious, but I'm really not." After 26, 27, you start hitting 30, and you have to keep it real with yourself, as a man or as a woman, or you're not going to be able to go to sleep at night. As a little boy, you can play that shit, but as a grown-ass man who's got a reputation to hold, you gotta draw the line. I ain't no bitch, let's draw the line. I'm not listening to commercial radio, let's draw the line. I'm not gonna sign up and laugh along with those who disrespect women, let's draw the line. When you draw the line, you ain't surrounded by no bitch-ass niggas. You're surrounded by real brothers, real sisters, real gods and goddesses. When you draw the line, people know what side of the fence you're on, and people can trust you. It's not for credibility or authenticity, it's so that you can sleep at night.
JH: Where do you draw it, personally?
KRS: Me? I draw the line between real and fake, right and wrong, good and evil, justice and injustice. That's it. I stand with God. I know we live in a godless time and more people every day are becoming atheists, and the church, the temple, the synagogue, the mosque all have failed people, but I still stand with God. I have no choice. My whole life is magical and mystical. I have one foot in the material world and the other in the spiritual world. Two of the people that I love dearly are guiding me right now: Scott La Rock and my son Randy. Both of them are in the spirit world guiding us right now. You can't talk like a pimp if you're a prophet. I draw the line on that. You can hang out with pimps, I do all the time. My nigga Freddie Foxxx will teach you somethin' about pimpin', yes he will. But at the end of the day, I'm the Teacha. There's stuff these cats don't realize about the real hood, about the real streets. The real streets respect teachers. They don't really respect that gangster shit, and we know this, but kids still wanna pop that shit. Them hardened cats in federal pen that's really doing hard time, they're listening to Buckshot and KRS.
BS: Word.
KRS: Real G's, real dudes, they're on their knees asking God for forgiveness for offing that dude last week, or selling that shit, or whatever ... every dude I speak to, they're like, "Yo, Teacha, I got this whole block on lock. Anything you want around here is you, but yo, I'm strugglin'." I could tell you some stories right now that would blow your mind.
BS: Hold on, hold on. Not to cut you off, Kris, but I spoke to
Sanyika Shakur, aka
Monster Kody. I speak to his sister and his kids on the regular. Real talk: this is an individual who was a product of what he grew up in, and tried his best to change it. He's not glorifying that. All the people like Tupac or Sanyika Shakur, who grew up in the struggle and had to say "Fuck you," loud, in order for people to hear it, ultimately said, "This is why I said 'Fuck you," so he wasn't just ignorant about it.
KRS: Right, right. Pac is a damn good example. Everybody claiming thug life, and Pac explained that shit outright, explicitly. When he says thug life, he's meaning, "Fuck this corruption, we gonna survive." And that's a survival skill, that real shit. That constant fake gangster shit is such a distraction.
BS: You get no benefit from it, even. It's one thing when you benefit financially, right? But cats can't even benefit financially from it anymore, so you just look like clowns. If I walk up to you onstage and say, "Yo, son, let me get a key of cocaine like you said on your record," you'd say, "Oh, shit, I don't do that! That was just for the record!" The guy who said, "I'm gonna be a gangsta rapper," there's a price to pay for that ...
KRS: Word.
BS: .. as long as you're willing to pay that price and play that position. If you look at everybody who came before you, they'll show you the price. It's either death or in jail.
Survival Skills is available Sept. 15th 2009
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