Hip hop these days really isn't much different than a Happy Meal; cheaply manufactured, mass-produced, no nutrition, childish, full of gimmicks and unsatisfying, fake beef. 20 years ago, before the game became likened to the Golden Arches, Hip hop's beef was slow cooked and left you drooling for more. In those days, if you tried to sit at the table with KRS One, you got ate.

Make no mistake about it, the reason for the verbal fist fights really weren't any different than they are today; trying to take the spot of those above you. People like to think it was more pure back then, hell no! It was just up and comers trying to get on...only difference was they actually meant something. Reputations were at stake, careers were on the line.

In 1986, when Queensbridge's MC Shan and Marley Marl made The Bridge, they were just making a song about their hood. KRS knew that, but he saw his opportunity to get on and the legendary Juice Crew/BDP battle began after he attacked with South Bronx. After the Blastmaster destroyed'em with The Bridge Is Over, KRS was a star and Shan faded into relative obscurity.

Two decades later KRS has teamed up with Marley, the man who he once claimed was gay, out of touch, and a shitty DJ. The gem of the album is without question Rising To The Top, an autobiographical joint in the vein ofKris’ classic Outta Here. Marley flips the same sample Pete Rock used for The Game and laces it with some of that ol’ boom bap while KRS details his come up some 20 years ago with the help of MC Shan and Marley; “spittin’ rhymes over the radio set/these are the days and the ways I could never forget/so I don’t forget it, to Marley and Shan I am indebted/for the start of my career these guys can take credit/for my rappin’, the whole battle they let it happen/Marley and Shan and Shante coulda been gun strappin’/cousin, but they wasn’t/you know why? Cause they was on some real hip hop…let’s keep it buzzin’”

The Teachas Back is more vintage hip hop with both men rocking at their best. KRS caps the song off with another lesson; “on my block, women get respect and trust/cause when you dissin’ a woman, you dissin’ her fetus/and dissin’ our unborn children will defeat us/I’m not an elitist, I just know the world need us.” DJ Premier joins the duo (drool here), and adds his incomparable cuts to The Victory that also has QB’s Blaq Poet joining Kris on the mic. It’s sounds as good as it looks on paper. All Skool is another ridiculous banger, only let down a bit by the fact that Marley flips another familiar sample - last heard in Ghost’s Run - but truthfully, Marley’s trump’s the RZA’s. Continued on page 2 »