KRS-One - HipHop Knowledge

You know, life is funny
If you don't repeat the actions of your own success
You won't be successful
You gotta know your own formula, your own ingredients
What made you, you

1987, I was at the Latin Quarters
Listenin' to Africa Bambaata give the order
The call of the order was to avoid the slaughter
He said, "Record companies ain't got nuttin for ya"
Without a lawyer, he taught The Infinity Lessons
In how hip-hop could be a, many a blessing
And that was great, so in 1988
There was no debate, we had to end the hate

The name of the game was Stop the Violence
And unity, knowledge, and self-reliance
We started talkin' 'bout Martin and Malcolm
Had these ghetto kids goin', huh, what about him?
1989, Professor Griff speaks his mind
But his freedom of speech is declined
1990, came with the West coast
East coast, West coast, who is the best coast?

Lookin' back now, of course it was bogus
The whole argument was where we lost focus
We got hopeless, not with the lyrics and music
But with hip-hop, and how we used it
Or abused it, you know how the crew get
You like it cause you choose it
1991, we opened our eyes
With Human Education Against Lies, we tried

To talk about the state of humanity
But all these others rappers got mad at me
They called me Captain Human, another message was sent
Self Destruction don't pay the rent
Remember that? Nobody wanted conscious rap
It was like where these ballers at
Where can they call us at? All was wack
Hip-hop culture was fallin' flat and that was that

So in 1992, I found my crew
They said, "Yo Kris, what you wanna do?"
I said, "Damn, why they wanna get with me?
If I bust they I'm contradictory"
If I play the bitch role, they take my shoe
Tell me what the am I supposed to do?
So I did it, don't stop get it get it get it
All of a sudden these critics they wanna spit it



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