KRS-One Speaks On The State Of Hip Hop
Wednesday - May 21, 2003
Deniece Mason
Being as though this is the sixth annual hip-hop appreciation week, who better than KRS-One to speak on such this as Eminem, the state of hip-hop and where he sees us in the future.

Preparing to release his new album "Kris Styles" on June 24th on Koch Entertainment and a new book on "Ruminations" in July, KRS-One proves that he's got staying power in what he calls a "hop-hop culture". "I presented the idea of hip-hop being a culture 10 years ago in pieces for Fresh, Source, XXL ... even when I was ethics editor at Blaze. Now the mainstream has accepted hip-hop as a culture. Harvard University is now doing a hip-hop archive. What we're moving toward is self-government. That's very scary to the entertainment industry, which just wants to use us as slaves: "Give me your talent, and I can fling you whatever bone I think you're worth. So this is the struggle", he said during an interview with Billboard.

When asked about Eminem who has often been referred to as the "Eminem Factor" KRS-One said, "I praise Eminem's efforts, actually. I'm quite sure he gets a lot of criticism being white -- "the new Elvis," as he's called. But he is the sum of the hip-hop equation: Hip plus hop equals Eminem. This is going to do wonders for white youths' self-esteem and blacks' understanding of the white struggle. More hip-hop movies have to come out now that Hollywood sees it can make money on hip-hop without people getting shot in theaters." When asked about the future of hip-hop he said, "Our day is coming. It's inevitable that the president in another five years will be a hip-hopper. The mayor of Chicago will be somebody who has grown up on N.W.A., Chuck D, even Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown. All of it will make sense then."

The Teacher speaks the truth.

sometimes

At least it's not that "white's are ruining rap/hip-hop" shit that people jump on...