"All the people that were booking my UK tours said 'Don't come to Nottingham!' I know you all love to hear that, but it's true"
KRS One made his first appearance in Nottingham since 1989 and what seemed like the entire Notts hiphop community turned out in force.
First off alongside arguably the world's greatest beatboxer Rahzel, he ripped up Rock City. In a gig that lasted more than four hours, Rahzel and KRS-One double teamed and played until they could play no more. Literally!
At about midnight the security (already tiring at the half hour runover) threatened to close the show. The Teacha', however, defiantly pointed to the girth of his back catalogue and a quick grin and polite plea assured another half an hour. On a Sunday night too...
Then onto the Broadway Cinema for what the man himself refers to as one of his 'sermonars'. In the talk he spanned topics from the birth of hiphop, UK guncrime, going to university and the life and death of DJ Scott La Rock. He even had Wildstyle legend Chief Rocker Busy Bee in support, with the next stop after Nottingham being a speech addressing students at Oxford University.
We picked out a few of our favourite quote from the hour and a half that the Teacha spoke...
On Coming To Nottingham
"All the people that were booking my UK tours said 'Don't come to Nottingham!' I know you all love to hear that, but it's true. So I did my own research and asked a few cats and got told that it had a good vibe, with some gun violence problems but nothing worse than in the Bronx or Brooklyn. So I told them that's exactly where I want to be. I want to go everywhere you say I ain't supposed to go. This is where I started my UK tour off in 1989 and this place always has a special place in my heart.”
On Music Piracy
“Back in the days when Chief Rocker Busy Bee or Coldcrush or Zulu Nation would throw a jam, it was understood in the community that when you bought the tape, you could duplicate the tape yourselves and sell it to others. That was an understanding in the community. If I did a performance I made the master, but then I dubbed my man a copy and gave my friend over here a copy. You made a certain amount and you sold them and let everyone copy them. That was our collective economics in hiphop before 1979.”
On 'My Philosophy'
"That song was written from the heart, but it was sold to a corporation. But this other piece that I said over here (begins a high quality lyrical skit) is owned by no-one. It's mine.. or now yours if you memorised it. I spoke on behalf of the culture and that lyric is free. In fact, those who are recording this now... sell it. Everything you have or are collecting right now is yours. Sell it. We are free, there is no corporate interest here. No warning that if you duplicate this you are going to jail. So take as many pictures as you like, film as long as your batteries hold up. This is the culture.”
On Afrika Bambataa and the birth of the Zulu Nation
“Unicef, a United Nations Non-Governmental Organisation puts out a contest with a prize of a trip to Africa. A gang member enters and wins the contest! This gang member goes to Africa on UNICEF's ticket and becomes an honorary Zulu chief. The chief tells him “The same thing you're going through in America, we're going through in Africa. That same tribal warfare you're dealing with in the streets of Brooklyn and the Bronx is the same thing we're dealing with here in Africa.” Then he comes back to the US and these principles were then taught to the hiphop community.”
On Grandmaster Flash
“Grandmaster Flash was a certified electrician and on the side a DJ. One day he's walking through the Bronx and he's thinking to himself 'How can I be a better me?' Then he thinks, 'Maybe if I could make this off and on switch go from right to left then I could play records without ever having to stop.' This guy goes on to invent the cue on the mixer and change the face of music and publishing forever..”
On Principles in the Music Industry
"Your principles are like a condom when you are having intercourse with the corporations of the world. They can't touch you or infect you if you have principles."
On Going To University
"It's hard to be the real you, because there are consequences to that. So what do we do? We change ourselves to fit in with another bunch of people who are afraid to be themselves. It happens to college and university students often. They go off to college and then they come back four years later with a degree. They go back to the block to see family and friends and what do their friends say? “Hey look at Johnny man. He just spent four years at college. You ain't nobody! What you think you're better than us now man?” If Johnny is a rapper he'll be like “Nah man. I'm as stupid as you.”
"That's what the corporate world does to you. But you know you got skill and stayed up all night with these test and you went through it all and snatched your receipt (... I mean degree) . So what do you say? You say: “Man shut the fuck up. You're still standing here on the same corner drinking and smoking the same shit... it's four years I've been gone working so get off your ass and show me some respect!” That's how to be hiphop! You don't let nobody tell you who you are after you done worked for it."
On Commercial Hiphop
“You can sell ten or twenty million records, but the people know where your tree begins. This is where it's unfair for many of those who are commercially successful in hiphop, because often they don't know the truth. Hiphop is a consciousness. It's not a CD. A CD is an effect of the consciousness. Before anything is made you must first think it. Even before you think it, you can feel it. Hiphop is a consciousness. It's a way of being. It's the ability to self actualise and to change subjects and objects in an attempt to describe your own consciousness. So how do you be hiphop? You be yourself..”
Things to live by...
"Get up with the mentality that you are perfect just the way you are. There are some hard decisions to be made and a lot of things that will try and get in your way. But you got to be true to yourself and you got to be hiphop. If that's the case then the hard decisions become easy because you know what you want and if you want it enough then you will achieve it."
On Facing Your Fears...
"Look at yourself. What are you willing to give up to get what you want? Most of your fears are illusions. Some of them are real and you should take your time with them, but most of them are things that you think are going to happen that haven't yet. Forget that. On the other side of your fear is your blessing. That's why the fear is there. The fear is a sword that spins in all directions, guarding you from your garden of eden. Grab the sword and remove it."
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