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Taken from Atlantic City Weekly (January 12, 2016)
All-Stars of Hip-Hop are coming Sunday to Boardwalk Hall
KRS-One will be joined by many others in the genre Sunday at Boardwalk Hall
by ROBERT DiGIACOMO, Atlantic City Weekly
KRS-One |
The fifth annual “All-Stars of Hip Hop” will bring together a powerful line up of old-school stars of the genre. The bill for the show — which is slated for 7 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 17, at Boardwalk Hall — will feature KRS-One, Dru Hill, Kool Moe Dee, Big Daddy Kane, Yo-Yo, Whodini, Chubb Rock, Kwame, Dana Dane, Special Ed, and Monie Love.
“We don’t usually perform together like this,” KRS-One says. “This is special for us to come together and be able to jam with each other.”
KRS-One, whose latest album is called “Now Hear This,” is known for his mid-’80s work as a leader of Boogie Down Productions (“South Bronx”) and solo tracks such as “Outa Here” and “Step into a World (Rapture’s Delight).”
KRS-One (“Knowledge Reigning Supreme”) also founded the Stop the Violence Movement, earning a reputation for being the “conscience of hip-hop” (Rolling Stone) and the “spokesperson for hip-hop” (Wall Street Journal). He is also the author of “The Science of Rap,” among other books exploring the form.
He talks about playing to his audience at live shows, the politics of hip-hop and why it deserves bigger props as an art form.
Q: With so much material, do you plan out what to perform or do you stay in the moment?
A: No show is the same — the musical line up can be the same, but the actual show is not. My show is very fluid — my son is the DJ. I’ve been training him for the past 10 or 12 years. He fully understands the level of shows we do.
You’ve got to know your audience — the East Coast wants to hear your songs — your classic material. The West Coast wants freestyle, all day and all night.
Q: What kind of audience do you expect to see in Atlantic City?
A: This show will be predominantly 30-, 40- and 50-year-olds — even older. They want to hear “Criminal Minded,” “By All Means Necessary,” “My Philosophy” — that’s the ’80s. This audience would be perfectly happy if I never got into the ’90s.
But I’m going to do portions of my new album (“Now Hear This”), and I’m going to take them to the ’90s. I’m planning to do about 47 songs in about an hour, and that’s not counting freestyles and whatever mayhem may ensue.
Q: On your new album, you don’t hold back on the world’s problems. Will you take a similar tack in A.C.?
A: I'm going to hit them over the head in Atlantic City with hard core hip-hop — that’s what they’re there for.
I’m talking about global issues, like jobs, war, health care … the failure of the war on drugs and on songs like “American Flag,” how the Confederate flag and American flag represent the same things.
These songs are resonating with anyone interested in the salient issues of the day.
Q: Should younger hip-hop artists be paying closer attention to the real world?
A: I think a lot of artists have some growing up to do. They see the deaths, they see the incarcerations, they are being hit with everything going on in the streets. These rappers are growing up and being hit with life — maybe they have begun to see how important it is to be an adult in the world.
You don’t get wisdom by being on stage; wisdom comes when you step out of that whole MTV world, when you step out of that fake contrived glossed-over world, the McDonald’s of music, the Burger Kings of beats, the fast food of it all.
Q: Another issue you’re passionate about is the teaching of hip-hop as an art form. What are your concerns?
A: The universities are taking our culture again. It’s the same thing that the record companies did to rap, when MC-ing and dee-jaying was just in the streets. The corporations came in and made it something bigger and exploited it in the process. They didn’t give rap music credit for anything, and it’s still not looked at it as a legitimate American art form.
On the intellectual side, universities are putting out hip-hop courses with professors that have no qualifications whatsoever. This is criminal. Hip-hop has its own body of knowledge. Why don’t they learn from hip-hoppers and be accredited by us?
ALL-STARS OF HIP-HOP
WHEN: 7 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 17
WHERE: Boardwalk Hall, 2301 Boardwalk, A.C.
HOW MUCH: Tickets, priced at $44, $58 and $73, are available
at Boardwalk Hall’s box office and Ticketmaster
WEBSITE: KRS-One.com
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