Rating:
  Review Date: August 17, 2007
  Website: KRS-One, Marley Marl
  Label: Koch Records

KRS-One & Marley Marl “Hip Hop Lives” Album Review
I know I’m a little late on this one. KRS-One & Marley Marl’s “Hip Hop Lives” dropped two months ago, and I just couldn’t get around to the album until this week. But that’s not a problem. With other albums, it would be. If I put off most hip-hop albums a month or two, I’m normally too consumed with newer stuff to get around to giving them a good listen. But KRS-One is classic and timeless. I keep his releases around for as long as I need to bring them to the forefront. And I am never disappointed.  

“Hip-Hop Lives” is a perfect example. KRS-One is now over forty. He rarely gets the props he deserves as arguably the greatest MC in history. And some of the kids nowadays don’t even know who he is. Yet he continues to put out classic hip-hop albums demonstrating microphone skills far superior to over half of the rappers listed on MTV’s recent “Hottest MCs in the Game” list. “Hip-Hop Lives” is an excellent album that simply and convincingly solidifies KRS-One’s ability to use rap to teach, inform and inspire.

Hip-Hop Lives
In the title track, KRS-One teaches the listener his definition of hip-hop, in what may be the best lyrical definition of hip-hop ever:

Hip means to know – it’s a form of intelligence
To be hip is to be up-date and relevant
Hop is a form of movement
You can’t just observe a hop – you got to hop up and do it
Hip and Hop is more than music
Hip is the knowledge – Hop is the movement
Hip and Hop is intelligent movement
Or relevant movement – we selling the music
So write this down on your black books and journals
Hip-Hop culture is eternal
Run and tell all your friends
An ancient civilization has been born again

In Rising To The Top, KRS-One tells an autobiographical account of his entrance into hip-hop stardom. One verse covers the former beef between him and Marley Marl, explaining it as something he needed to do to be recognized as an MC:

In the spot new hip-hop
And Latin corners and the Union Square and the rooftop
We used to hear them tunes pop in the parking lot
Where it got dark a lot
Me and Scott La Rock
But it was all for the Hip-Hoppers
Salt-N-Pepa answered Doug E Fresh with “The Show Stoppa”
MC Shan was gonna challenge LL
Shantay was battling 3 or 4 groups at the same time – what the hell? Answer records were big then
After Shantay did it everybody was trying to spit them
So we spit on
To tell you the truth it was the only way an MC could get on
We answered MC Shan’s “Queensbridge”
A dope jam about where he was from and where he lived
But in the Bronx there was these kids
KRS, Scott La Rock trying to live

My personal favorite track was Kill a Rapper, in which KRS-One informs the listener on all the hip-hop cases that police never solved. He talks about the unsolved deaths of Scott LaRock, Tupac Shakur, Christopher Wallace, Big L and Jam Master Jay, among others, and comes to the conclusion that law enforcement makes no attempt to solve murders in the hip-hop community. The chorus asserts that “if you want to get away with murder, kill a rapper,” and the following verse attempts to raise awareness of lack of police involvement in several open cases:

Scott LaRock’s an open case – unresolved
The cops never find the killer when it’s one of ours
Tupac’s an open case
Even though he was killed in an open place
There’s really no haste
It’s sorta like we govern ourselves
Even though we lack a love for ourselves
Or is that we know this thug shit sells?
You want them pockets to swell well
Even though we know we living in hell
What about Big L?
Hold up, let’s stop frontin’
Let me tell you somethin’
JMJ’s dead, and the cops don’t know nothin’?

Hot shit man. Not only does KRS-One remain on point with his flows as usual, but his subject matter continues to evolve, reflect reality, ask questions, and inform the listener on issues of importance. And with the help of super producer Marley Marl, “Hip-Hop Lives” succeeds in being not only another great KRS-One album, but also one of the year’s hottest releases. I highly recommend picking up a copy. Just like me, you will not be disappointed. Peace.

Album Track Listing:

1. It’s Alive
2. Hip Hop Lives
3. Nothing New
4. I Was There
5. Musika (featuring Magic Juan)
6. Rising To The Top
7. Over 30
8. M.A.R.L.E.Y.
9. Kill a Rapper
10. The Teacha’s Back
11. The Victory (featuring Blaq Poet)
12. This is What It is
13. All Skool
14. House of Hits (featuring Chief Rocker Busy Bee)