Despite anyone's wishes to the contrary, it's still impossible to grow old gracefully in hip-hop. Case in point: KRS-One. His 15th release, "Hip Hop Lives" displays all of his legendary strengths but also all of his unfortunate current weaknesses.
The album, produced entirely by veteran DJ Marley Marl, represents a full circle from the time when Marl and KRS were archenemies, battling each other for street supremacy during the Bridge Wars of the late 1980s, to their peaceful reconciliation today. Unfortunately, they waited a bit too long.
From hard core lyricism to the integration of dancehall sound to the battle and beef culture, KRS literally wrote the genre blueprint in 1989 with "Ghetto Music: The Blueprint of Hip Hop." But in the 20 years since building a movement, KRS has been all but forgotten. His name is always included in requisite shout outs to the founding fathers, but as the movement morphed into an industry the transition has not been very kind to KRS.
And he knows it. KRS spends way too much of "Hip Hop Lives" on the subject of being left in hip-hop's dustbin. Ironically, the preachiness of that repeated theme only prevents him from connecting with a new audience.
The title track uses classic KRS wordplay to break down the meaning of hip-hop but most of the cleverness stops there. The poignant, yet familiar, "Kill a Rapper" explores violence within hip-hop, but repeats the phrase "You wanna get away with murder, kill a rapper" so often that it starts to summon some murderous ideas. Other songs like "Nothing New," "This Is What It Is," and "All Skool" are solid on their own but, burdened by KRS' self-pity, collectively prove too weighty for a single album.
It's a damn shame that KRS hasn't gotten what he deserves, it's just too bad that's all he can rap about.
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