Tag: race

audio review : Return Of The Boom Bap ( album ) … KRS-One

audio review : Return Of The Boom Bap ( album ) ... KRS-One

“Return Of The Boom Bap means just that,” KRS-One explains, “It means return of the real hard beats and real rap.” It’s the word “Return” that confuses me because KRS-One, whose albums should’ve always been credited under that name, never fell off. His albums have been on-point at least since The Blueprint. Maybe he’s saying that rap music in general has fallen off. If that’s the case, this album brings it back.

The verses are about as Edutaining as always. The beats, some of which are produced by DJ Premier, stay true to the concept. Despite KRS-One using headphones as a mic on the cover photo, the album’s mixing and mastering sounds slicker and smoother than usual. Other than that, it’s not much different than the other albums. He’s still a rapper with a thing for reggae who’s main objection is to uplift the black race.

A Brown Skin Woman, as far as he’s concerned, is a queen, not a ho, though he refers to one as such just two songs later. He compares Da Police to the overseers of slave plantations and when he addresses white kids, on a beat-box narrative about teen peer pressure, he does so with a hint of animosity. He puts them in the cynical scenario of ganging-up to bully an innocent youth. “And yes, that youth is black.”

There has long been a fine line between being pro-black and being anti-white. Other rappers have certainly crossed that line, but, though he comes close, I don’t think KRS-One has reached that point. Even if he has, that doesn’t take anything away from his skills as an MC and overall rap artist. He’s not quite as skilled as he thinks he is, but he’s the real deal. He’s a hip-hop purist if there ever was such a thing.

my rating : 4 of 5

1993

a dream I had about trading insults with a girl named Eliza

I was standing in a classroom with Eliza, a mutual friend of ours but much more a friend of hers; I think it was Leslie; and several of their girl friends. That’s me in a classroom with probably about six to ten girls in total. The Leslie girl was telling me, half-jokingly and purposely loud enough for everyone else in the room to hear, that she had a girl for me. She meant that in a romantic sense. Before I could even respond, Eliza decided to open her mouth with a sarcastic type of reply. I can’t remember exactly what she said to me, but it was a lighthearted insult to suggest that the girl wouldn’t be interested in me. So I replied not to Eliza but to the Leslie girl by asking, rather rhetorically, “So is she a nice girl or is she a bitch like Eliza?”

The Leslie girl, one of Eliza’s best friends, only smiled. Everyone else exploded in laughter. I didn’t look at Eliza, so I don’t know what her face said, but I’m quite sure she wasn’t smiling. She really did hate me, it seemed, so I’m quite sure she was thoroughly offended and embarrassed. That’s probably why the laughter didn’t last for long. The immediate response of her friends was to laugh because what I said was funny, then they realized that they were laughing at the expense of the person who’s side they were supposed to be on. Eliza responded by getting up from the teacher’s desk to leave the room while replying back to me as she often did after being insulted by me. This time her reply was to call me a “nigga”.

She didn’t just say it. She made a short comment and ended it with that word, apparently being careful to choose the “a” version as opposed to the “er” version in order to put a satirical blanket over what would’ve come out as a racist comment. She is white, after all. They all were. I don’t think Leslie even smiled in response. I think she held a straight face. Their friends sort of giggled, perhaps more out of embarrassment or nervousness than anything else. My reply, just before Eliza reached the door, was, “That don’t bother me.” It really didn’t, despite her obvious intentions. In fact, even in a room full of her friends, I think all her little verbal stinger did was make her look bad… or, should I say, worse than she already does.

2012 ( January 28 )