KRS-One, originally a member of the hip hop crew Boogie Down Productions, is known for setting the path for both hardcore rap and socially conscious political rap.
Youth and early career
Born Lawrence Parker in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn in 1965, the future KRS-One grew up with his brother Kenny and their single mother in assorted inner city neighborhoods of Brooklyn and the Bronx. According to interviews with The Source Magazine, one fateful day when he was 12 years old, he and his brother Kenny prepared a pan of flavored rice, which was to be the family's dinner for the evening. The hungry pair ate the whole thing, and when their mother came home from work, she kicked them out of the apartment in a fit of anger. They stayed away for two days before younger Kenny decided to go back home, while Lawrence opted not to return. He spent the better part of the next seven years homeless, much of it at local libraries.
In his late teen years, Lawrence Parker fell in with some illegal drug dealers and became a courier. Using a bread delivery truck as a cover, Parker and his partner drove around town to make drops. During one of their trips, a police car pulled up behind them with flashing lights. Parker's partner panicked, and led the cops on a chase for several miles which ended with the truck crashing and the two being apprehended. At the trial, the judge made the commentary that the only reason the police had initially tried to pull them over was because they had private plates on a commercial vehicle, there was no original intent to search for drugs.
Parker, still a minor, claimed he was a ward of the state, and got sent to a juvenile home for his sentencing, after which he was moved to a Covenant House youth homeless shelter. It was there that he met Scott Sterling, a recent college graduate who just started working at the shelter as a social worker. Parker discovered that Sterling moonlighted as a hip hop DJ under the name Scott La Rock. By this time, Parker had earned the nickname "Kris" from the relationship he had developed with local Hare Krishnas that evangelized near the shelter. Heavily influenced by Eastern philosophies, he was also an aspiring rapper, and practiced routines in verbal spars with the other shelter residents.
Parker and Sterling, along with two other fellows, decided to form a rap group together, initially calling themselves "Scott La Rock and the Celebrity Three". That was short-lived, however, as the two peripheral members quit, leaving Parker (now calling himself KRS-One) and Sterling. They then decided to call themselves "Boogie Down Productions". Success is the Word, a 12-inch single release on indie Fresh/Sleeping Bag Records (under the group name "12:41") did not enjoy commercial success. Soon after, the pair approached another NY indie, Rock Candy Productions, for a deal. As it turns out, the entertainment company was allegedly a front for a pornography operation, but Parker and Sterling convinced the boss to front them the money to record an album, under the newly created subsidiary label, B-Boy Records. After a few 12-inch single releases, the Criminal Minded album finally surfaced in 1987.
Criminal Minded featured many dis tracks that attacked other hip hop emcees and tracks about street crime ("wa da da deng wa da da da deng, listen to my nine millimeter go bang"). KRS One and La Rock appeared on the cover of the album holding firearms, a controversial precedent that would be followed by many rap artists in the years to follow. Musically, the album was based around James Brown samples and reggae influences. They also sampled hard-rock band AC/DC on "Dope Beat". During these years, KRS-One was also famously involved in a hip hop battle with MC Shan, of Queensbridge. KRS objected to MC Shan calling Queensbridge the home of hip hop, and attacked him viciously on a seminal battle rap, The Bridge Is Over.
Later career and emphasis on political issues
Following the fatal shooting of Scott La Rock in 1987, Boogie Down Productions (BDP) became increasingly political. KRS One was the primary motivation behind the HEAL compilation and the Stop the Violence Movement. KRS One attracted many prominent emcees to appear on the 12-inch single "Self Destruction." As Parker adopted this more conscientious, less violent approach, he stopped calling himself "The Blastmaster" (his battle rap nickname), and instead began calling himself "The Teacha", turning the nickname KRS-ONE into the backronym "Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone".
On his first solo album, 1993's Return of the Boombap, KRS worked together with producers DJ Premier (Gang Starr), Showbiz and Kid Capri. The catchy yet very hardcore track "Sound of da Police" is featured on this album. His second album, KRS One featured Channel Live on the track "Free Mumia", a political protest song about Mumia Abu-Jamal, an imprisoned African-American and Black Panther member who a vocal group of activists on the political Left claim is innocent of the crime of which he was convicted. Other prominent guest artists on KRS One included Mad Lion, Busta Rhymes, Das EFX and Fat Joe.
In 1997, Parker surprised many with his release of the album I Got Next. The record included a remix of the single "Step into a World" which featured a sample from the 1970s rock group Blondie by commercial rap icon Puff Daddy. "Heartbeat", featuring Angie Martinez and Redman, was based on the old school classic "Feel the Heartbeat" by the Treacherous Three. These collaborations with notably mainstream artists took many fans and observers of the vehemently anti-mainstream KRS One by surprise. However, in August 1997 KRS One appeared on Tim Westwood's BBC Radio 1 show and vociferously denounced the DJ and the radio station more generally, accusing them of ignoring his style of hip-hop in favour of commercial artists such as Puff Daddy.
In 1999, there were tentative plans to release an album called "Maximum Strength"; a lead single, "5 Boroughs", was released on The Corruptor movie soundtrack. However, KRS apparently decided to abort the album's planned release, just as he had secured a position as a Vice-President of A&R at Reprise Records. KRS moved to southern California, and stayed there for two years, finally ending his relationship with Jive Records with A Retrospective in 2000. The next year, he resigned his position at Reprise and in 2001 The Sneak Attack was released on Koch Records. In 2002, he released a gospel-rap album, Spiritual Minded, surprising many longtime fans. Parker had once denounced Christianity as a "slavemaster religion" which African-Americans should not follow. He founded the Temple of Hiphop, and released a new album, Kristyles, in mid- 2003, which was preceded by KRS-One: The Mixtape. In the summer of 2004 he released Keep Right.
KRS One's latest CD Life, was released in June 2006, and another CD, Adventures in Emceein on Koch Records is slated for later in the year. KRS has also confirmed for his next album of new material, expected to be out in 2007, he will be working with Marley Marl.
September 11 comments and ensuing controversy
In 2004, KRS engendered a controversy when he was quoted in a panel discussion hosted by New Yorker Magazine as saying that Blacks "cheered when 911 happened". The comment drew criticism from many sources, including a pointed barb by the New York Daily News that called Parker an "anarchist" and said that "If Osama bin Laden ever buys a rap album, he'll probably start with a CD by KRS-One."
Parker responded to the furor surrounding his comments with an editorial written for AllHipHop.com. In it, Parker said "I was asked about why hiphop has not engaged the current situation more (meaning 911), my response was 'because it does not affect us, or at least we don’t perceive that it affects us, 911 happened to them'. I went on to say that 'I am speaking for the culture now; I am not speaking my personal opinion.' I continued to say; '911 affected them down the block; the rich, the powerful those that are oppressing us as a culture. Sony, RCA or BMG, Universal, the radio stations, Clear Channel, Viacom with BET and MTV, those are our oppressors those are the people that we're trying to overcome in hiphop everyday, this is a daily thing. We cheered when 911 happened in New York and say that proudly here. Because when we were down at the trade center we were getting hit over the head by cops, told that we can’t come in this building, hustled down to the train station because of the way we dressed and talked, and so on, we were racially profiled. So, when the planes hit the building we were like, 'mmmm, justice'. And just as I began to say 'now of course a lot of our friends and family were lost there as well' but I was interrupted..."
As You Already Know
KRS-One Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴
Now y'all already know
I don't care who's first, or who last
But even though it's a new millenium
You still got to rock this at the drop of a dime baby
[Truck Turner]
Fuck y'all niggas want?! Is it Truck, well you got it
Get me started, come up against THIS, is you RETARDED~?!
I ain't shit on you motherfuckers yet, I only farted
Take the dopest nigga from my borough, that's Kris, put him on my shit
The hottest latino rapper Big Pun, up on this fly shit
G. Rap the sole survivor with Truck, kills all the nonsense
With Marley doin the track it's big, I mean jurassic
Like Coke this is a Classic, from the cradle, to the casket
Gonna blow from Bangkok to Brooklyn
Beijing to the Boogie Down, then back to my block
Cops follow the trail, that lead back to me
I'm waitin for 'em with 2 Glocks, blow they balls off like 2Pac
Go clutch, the holy drawers, can't save you
Still gonna be a holocaust, Truck TUrner show no remorse
Go 'head nigga, FLOSS~!
We gon' be around when the sun go down to rob you
Then gun you down, the fo'-fo' make a thunder sound
Rush in like, hug the ground I'mma count to 10 don't turn around
You see my face? I'mma blaze you
Lettin in off, another round, and another round
'Til your family, put your underground
I told you kid, I lay you down
Spray you down, claim your town, Bronx bound
A team player don't play around
Who am I? Truck Turner, you're learnin now
NO matter, where you FROM, I'm the arsonist, I burn it down
(Don't fuck with that boy; NEXT UP!)
[Big Pun]
Soy, con {?} aqui (boricua - light up the mic for the symphony)
Whack rappers I humiliate like half a mic in The Source
Blast you right off of the stage and engrave a butcher knife in your corpse
What'chu writin is soft, I'm Pearl Harbor war
Run up on your small empire and spray your tires like you Armor All
Who wanna brawl with the Bronx finest
Talk your highness {?} thicker force like our monster rhymers
Hate y'all B, I know you hate my stee'
Cause I'm the son of Tony you phony like fake ID
It's the S-H-I-T, you can smell it
Gun smoke makin you choke, take a toke and inhale it
Now you can feel it (what?) Deep inside your lungs
Like hot pellets when you're shot up, we supply the guns
Now where you from state your restin zone
I'm from the BX, B'lawn is where T.S. call home, where KRS was born
Let it be known if I don't get you watch for our God
Cause when you diss Kris, you disrespectin MY SQUAD
Put that on my mother, motherfucker
How DARE you disrespect, BITCH~!
[Kool G. Rap]
Aiyyo we comin through with the fifth and Glock, rippin shots
And hittin blocks, leavin kids rocked, put in a hidden box
Splittin tops, leave his face hot, dotted like chickenpox
Cursin cops with bloodhounds, sniffin socks, sniffin rocks
No trace, get your clique rubbed, your wigs plugged, the shit blood
Catch your big mug, topless just like a chick with big jugs
Up in the strip club, beer is a Bud, no coffee
Blowtorch like auto mechanics, you ordered to panic
She slaughter you bandits, your daughter be planted, inside the ground
More than the granite, my gunshots'll make you orbit the planet
"Roots of Evil" peepin up all legal or illegal
The four-fours are lethal, cock back the gat to pop the wheelies like Knievel
Fire shots to rented Regals
Leave all your peoples with palsy in they cerebrals
Deadly as an addict's needle, let automatics reap you
Sweep you, I'm sendin you to Lucifer to keep you
Heat you, nail you to the cross on top of the church's steeple
Red dots cover your face like the measles
NEXT UP! (I believe that's me)
Aiyyo {KRS} light up the mic for the symphony
[KRS-One]
Yo, yo, yo - BITCH ASS~! Here's a quick class
I'm the Blastmaster cause I blast and whip ass, this'll be over quick fast
Keep mixin it, spittin it, bendin it
Did it like juice with gin in it - ha ha JACKPOT, we winnin it
You talk that shit, but you really illiterate
Read your shit like he he he, teh teh teh teh..
Sound out the word, connect the noun with the verb
Stick with b-b-b-bird-bird cause the battle's absurd!
Don't let these young kids go soup that ass up
You'll get smashed up, you gassed up, you puttin that ass up really?
I don't even see you in the new milline-um
I see you like on VH1 with Milli Vanilli an' them
Talkin about what you used to have, your abusive dad
Oh it's so so sad, cause I'm just so so death defyin, mesmerizin
Every time you say you dope that's false advertisin, but it's not surprisin
You lyin, you ain't no battle hog
What you got one demo, against my 12 year catalogue?
(NIGGA) Back up~! This is the Bronx in the house
Truck Turner, KRS without a doubt!
[Outro]
Now y'all rippin my damn microphone, down to nothin
Kool G. Rap, Big Punisher, my man Truck Turner
KRS-One, y'all never get on my damn microphone again
Y'all crazy! ... Get out of here, beat it!
The song “As You Already Know” by KRS-One featuring Tru is a classic hip-hop track that was released in 2001. The song is all about boasting and letting everyone know that the rappers involved are at the top of their game. They name-check other famous rappers like Big Pun, G. Rap, and Truck Turner and assert that they are the best.
The opening lines of the song are a call to attention, as KRS-One declares that he doesn't care who is first or last, but everyone has to “rock this” at the drop of a dime. The lyrics are full of aggression, using lines like “gunblast, seek your chest and leave your moms broken-hearted” and “blow their balls off like 2Pac.”
Throughout the song, the rappers challenge anyone who dares to step up to them or claim to be better, calling them out for being illiterate and false advertisers. The song ends with KRS-One telling everyone that they are at the top of the food chain, and nobody should mess with them.
Overall, “As You Already Know” is a classic hip-hop anthem that showcases the confidence and talents of KRS-One, Tru, and their peers. Through their boastful lyrics and aggressive delivery, they demonstrate their skills and assert their dominance in the rap game.
Contributed by Luke A. Suggest a correction in the comments below.