A Retrospective

“Rap is something you do, hip-hop is something you live”. So say the liner notes to this essential best-of compilation from KRS-One and longtime collaborators

Boogie Down Productions. Anti-violence, anti-guns and anti-materialist, they spread their hip-hop philosophies – “strategies toward enhanced health, love, awareness

and wealth‚” in the late 80s/early 90s via astute and highly socially-conscious raps they termed “edutainment”.

Musically, there are echoes of dub-reggae in the production: repetitive, mid-paced rhythms, sizzling reverb, a spaced-out roominess between the grooves, with KRS’ South Bronx enunciations thwacking slap-bang against the tracks like perfectly thrown punches. Landmark tracks include ‘Sound of Da Police’‚ ‘Jimmy’ (a gigglicious anthem about the importance of wearing condoms) and the staggering ‘Love’s Gonna Get’cha (Material Love)’ – a cinema-verite tale of ghetto poverty, followed by ill-gotten wealth, followed by bloody denouement – that reads like a miniature Shakespearean tragedy.

You can still hear the reverberations: Dead Prez’s smart-bombs against America’s moral bankruptcy very much follow in his footsteps. Funky, witty and socially responsible: edutainment has rarely had it so good.

Kim Porcelli 0