KRS-One Speaks On The State Of Hip Hop

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 hes 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.