DX: Yeah, I think that song came out like a year before Enta Da Stage dropped, so that sounds about right. Now, you’re on Duck Down but you also have another album coming out on January 22nd called Adventures In Emceein', correct?
KRS: I keep a fresh album nearby. People are ready for me to shut the hell up. People are probably saying, “Why is KRS coming out with another album?” And they are so right to ask that question. But now here’s the answer, I come from a place where at least once a year, as an emcee, you kept a fresh tape on you. If you take on the role and title of emcee, you supposed to keep a fresh tape on you. This is what Adventures In Emceein' was. It’s sort of a compilation of all the songs and ideas that I recorded that I just keep with me. And it just accumulated to a point where a guy named Jeffrey Collins, who runs Echo Vista Records, – known him for years – said, “Why don’t you put this stuff out? It’s timely, put it out now.” And a lot of it is not even 2007 material. A lot of it is 2005 material, 2006 even, the earlier stuff. So I’m like, “Whatever, go ahead and put it out.” I love the work. I’m proud of it. It’s actually for the true B.D.P. fan. For the true KRS fan this Adventures In Emceein' is what you want right now. It’s not an album where I’m probably gonna do a video to it. I’m not trying to tour off this album.This is just KRS-One staying current, staying fresh, always keeping a fresh tape in the eyes of the public.

I stay a creative person. Matter fact, I’m recording an album right now that I don’t even know the name of it. I linked up with a guy named Da Rock, who’s got some nice beats, heavy on the R&B side but I get a chance to explore my spiritual nature with some of the tracks, a more metaphysical album. I also did [an album] with a guy named Harold English, a Blues player. He pulled out the acoustic guitar and we did a spoken-word album in a weekend. Some of the stuff appeared with my Ruminations book. The book came with a CD, and some of the poems that are on that CD comes from this album that we did some years back. And only now am I even thinking about putting it out. It’s a spoken-word blues album done with an acoustic guitar, but I’m breaking the lyrics crazy! The lyrics is ill on there… So what I’m trying to say is, with KRS-One it’s not even that I have to put out a new record, I have about 50 songs always around me. And sometimes they come out, they come out on soundtrack projects, they come out as albums, they come out maybe just on DVD. Sometimes I freestyle the lyrics on television shows and [other] places. And once I put a lyric out into the public, whether I do it in BET’s booth or whether I do it on Sucka Free or whatever it is, I don’t say those rhymes no more. Those rhymes are done and I move on to the next thing. This is how I do it. I constantly work, and I have a barrage of material.

DX: Going back to Adventures In Emceein' real quick, did I read correctly that Rakim, Nas and Just Blaze all contributed somehow to the project?
KRS: They did shout-outs. That sounds like somebody marketing the thing and I gotta put a lid on that. No, they’re not rhyming. They come and do shout-outs. They just gave me a couple shout-outs. Nas shouted me out for the album. Rakim, Kanye, Fat Joe, and others [shouted me out]. The Just Blaze track is interesting because Just Blaze probably doesn’t even know he’s on this album. I was in Miami and rhymed on a track with a guy named Stevie J, and he happened to have a shout-out of Just Blaze actually shouting him out on the front of this track. I rhymed on it and we just kept the whole thing. I did this like a year-and-a-half ago, and so when Just Blaze hears it, he’s probably gonna bug out.

DX: Now I mentioned Nas and Rakim, along with Kanye you guys are nominated for a Grammy together for “Better Than I’ve Ever Been.” Is this your first nomination, I can’t recall?
KRS: Yes. It’s kinda weird, it’s my first direct nomination, to me. I was at the Grammy Awards two other times, with Shabba Ranks and with R.E.M. when they were both up for Grammy’s [which] I had contributed to the albums, Out Of Time by R.E.M. and [Rough & Ready Vol. II by Shabba Ranks]. But at the end of the day, no, this is my first direct nomination in that sense. I don’t know what to make of it to be honest with you. I don’t know what to think of that.

DX: C’mon, be real with me, did Nike buy that nomination? [Laughs].
KRS: Hey! You know what, I don’t know. I’ma put it that way, I don’t know. But you know what, I don’t think that Nike would do that ‘cause Nike as a company is cocky. Something like that would seem to be beneath a Nike. I could be wrong as hell, but it just seems like to me that would be beneath them. Continued on page 3 »