At a recent New Yorker magazine panel discussion, rap legend
KRS-ONE applauded the events that happened on Sept. 11, 2001
“because it doesn’t affect us, or at least we
don’t perceive that it affects us. 9/11 happened to them. …
We cheered when 9/11 happened in New York.
“When the planes hit the building,” he said,
“we were like, “˜Mmmm, justice.'”
These conversational words were first reported in the New York
Daily News a week ago and then were acknowledged by KRS-ONE himself
in a written response to the Daily News, which he accused of
assassinating his character. The Daily News also alleged that he
derided efforts to get young people to vote and quoted him saying,
“Voting in a corrupt society adds more corruption. America
has to commit suicide if the world is to be a better
place.”
KRS-ONE insisted in his response that he didn’t literally
cheer ““ he was speaking for the hip-hop community and not for
himself personally, explaining, “I am a poet, and I speak
poetically.”
Sigh. Being a music fan’s not always so easy. As silly as
that last quote sounds, the man once really was something of a
poet.
But despite his claims that his words were taken out of context,
it’s difficult for any rational person not to look at them
and be taken aback (Why did he use “we,” and exactly
where is this community he thought he was speaking for?) It’s
twice as difficult for the countless fans, myself included, who
have long held to one of the inarguable tenets of hip-hop: the two
greatest rappers ever are KRS-ONE and Rakim. Period, end of
discussion.
I’ve read defenses of his comments, but to me, what he
said was not only poorly articulated, but wrong. Other questionable
comments he’s made in the past have come off as confusing,
like when he claimed in a recent Vibe interview that he was
training Nas to be a hip-hop leader. “Nas has issues.
He’s in the ‘hood, Queensbridge projects, he’s
gotta keep it real with the fellas. Then he picks up the phone and
talks with me, discussing NASA and the universe and hip hop’s
role on Mars. When I asked him, “˜Nas, I want you to speak at
NASA,’ he hung up the phone on me.”
What was biting at me all week is a dilemma music fans have long
faced: How do you react when a favorite musician of yours does
something you find flat-out stupid? I’m not talking about
political disagreements here. I’m talking about something you
feel betrays the very things you felt made that artist great in the
first place. I’m talking along the lines of
band-of-the-people Metallica suing Napster.
As half of the influential duo Boogie Down Productions, KRS-ONE
deservedly earned the nickname “The Teacher” in the
late 1980s and early 1990s for his socially and politically
on-point messages. I’ve always admired him on record for the
way he used wit and wordplay to express lucid, compassionate
observations about what he viewed as the current state of affairs
in the world. Sadly, none of that is to be found in his recent
comments. For one, it made me reevaluate what I loved so much about
his music in the first place.
But once I listened to the old records again, I found it
impossible not to nod along, in accordance with not only the beat,
but the content ““ the way he compared modern American society
to the days of slavery, slurring “overseer” into
“officer” in “Sound of Da Police,” or his
call to “Stop the Violence” on the Malcolm X-invoking
“By All Means Necessary.”
No matter what kind of man he may be now, nothing can take away
those clear-eyed boom-bap peaks from him. But like many other
artists who have since lost their way, he’s certainly making
it easier.
E-mail Lee at alee2@media.ucla.edu.