"Hip-Hop Lives": KRS-One and Marley Marl pay tribute to the Old School...

October 27th, 2005 will remain a memorable day in Hip-Hop history. It was the day that Jay-Z had his much publicized 'I Declare War' concert. For those who don't know and/or don't remember, I'll fill you in: in September 2005, Jay-Z had announced to the world that at Power 105's Power House Concert in New Jersey, he was going to air out a rapper who had been talking trash about him live on stage. For weeks, people had speculated who was it gonna be. There were definitely a few cats that fit the description: would it be Cam'Ron (who had just recently left the Jigga's Rocafella label and was talking greasy bout him), The Game (who had been taking shots at Jigga on the low for quite some time, only to always tell the press that he had no problem with him), or 50 Cent (who was just beefin' with everybody anyway)? Well, when the night of the concert rolled around, and at the concert's climax, Jay did something unexpected: instead of dissing anybody, he brought out his longtime rival, Queensbridge emcee Nas. The two rappers embraced on the center of the stage and performed "Dead Presidents", a Jay-Z song that sampled Nas for the hook, together in front of 15,000 stunned fans. The fans witnessed Hip-Hop history that night, as one of the most heated rivalries in Hip-Hop had finally come to an end. In 2007, a similar event happened, and an even more memorable Hip-Hop feud was put to rest, when KRS-One collaborated with Marley Marl on an entire album.

Anybody who knows anything about Hip-Hop should know what The Bridge Wars are: one of the very first and most memorable Hip-Hop beefs. It started in 1986, when a song called "The Bridge" was released by two Queensbridge natives, producer Marley Marl and MC Shan (of Marley's Juice Crew). In the classic track, Marl and Shan spoke about their hood and how they lived their life. Meanwhile KRS-One, who was part of the group Boogie Down Productions with DJ Scott La'Rock, saw it as the opportunity that he and Scott had been waiting for. Soon after, BDP released the track "South Bronx", where KRS established that Hip-Hop started out in the Bronx, all the while throwing shots at Marley and Shan. The beef would continue as Shan and KRS crossed lyrical swords many times, with other rappers being brought into the fray as well, resulting in classic diss tracks like "The Bridge is Over". And now, twenty years after their battle, KRS teams up with Marley, the man who KRS once said was gay and "sucked" on the turntables, to release a new album. While the beef has long since been over (KRS and Shan started in a Sprite commercial in the early 90s) and Marley has collaborated with KRS before (he was called to be on a remake of "The Symphony" in 2000, alongside Truck Turner, Kool G Rap, and Big Pun), this would be the first time that the former rivals had worked together so extensively, and it marked the official end of their feud. The album, released in May 2007, and was titled "Hip-Hop Lives" -- obviously in response to "Hip-Hop is Dead", the album Nas released in late 2006. This album was to be considered a sequel of sorts to Nas' record, in an attempt to show the other side and to show how they were keeping Hip-Hop alive.

The message is perhaps best explored on the title track and first single, "Hip-Hop Lives (I Come Back), where he reinforces Hip-Hop's capability to be revived. While KRS is known to sound preachy and holier-than-thou in his music, especially in recent years, he is thankfully not on this song. Instead, he is concise and insightful without sounding like he had too much of an axe to grind. He defines the culture in an etymological way first breaking down the words 'Hip' and 'Hop' separately in the first verse, then using his longstanding acronyms in the second. Marley compliments KRS' message perfectly with a dramatic beat, laced with a light piano loop and powerful synths. If you didn't know any better, you would think Marley did this beat when he was in his prime, like in '93 or something. If that wasn't enough, Marley scratches in a sample that's supposed to represent the voice of the culture for the hook: "(I come back), every year I get newer / I'm the dust on the moon, I'm the trash in the sewer / (I come back), every year I get brighter / if you thinkin' Hip-Hop is alive, hold up your lighter!". It may sound sort of clichéd, but it's exactly what you wanna hear: instead of a funeral, we find KRS and Marley celebrating, as KRS remarks "Hip-Hop culture is eternal!". The album's second single, "Kill a Rapper", takes a much darker turn; it takes one morbid joke that Chris Rock told in his 2004 comedy special "Never Scared" into an important question that needs to be answered: why have most of the murders of Hip-Hop icons (like 2Pac, Biggie, Jam Master Jay, Big L, and his own partner Scott La'Rock, among others) have gone unsolved? The hook pretty much mirrors Rock's joke exactly: "You wanna get away with murder? Kill a rapper! / The investigation won't go further, kill a rapper!" And while he does blame investigators for the lack of progress, he somewhat shoulders the responsibility on the community, touching on the glorification of the deceased artists, as well as how more violence in the streets leads to more dead rappers. In the final verse, KRS makes this statement in hopes that the violence will stop: "Word is grim, when it turns to sin / all Hip-Hoppers are next to kin!". Unfortunately, this message will go over the heads of a lot of cats.

The rest of the album follows the path of the title track, but comes off sorta dated. Most of the album has a nostalgic feel, as we find KRS and Marley reminiscing on how Hip-Hop used to be, more often than they should. By focusing on the past so much, the album kinda stays stuck in the past, and it seems like more of a tribute to the old school than a way to show that modern day Hip-Hop can still be as dope as the old school. But that doesn't mean that none of the material is good. For those who have listened to KRS' recent albums, they would know that some of the best tracks that he's done recently have all been about his past. Songs like "Hip-Hop Knowledge", "True Story (Keep Movin')", "My Life" give us a look at what KRS was like coming up as an emcee and gives us insight on all the trials and tribulations he had to go through. The string of excellent personal tracks have continued with this album: "Rising to the Top" is the album's major standout. This time, we find KRS on the start of The Bridge Wars and how it impacted Hip-Hop, while Marley laces him with a flute-and-organ-laden beat that has to be some of his best work in years. By the end of the track, KRS acknowledges and credits Marley for allowing the legendary battle to happen, and thereby starting his own career. The meaning for the entire album can be found in this song, as they show that the battle will always be part of Hip-Hop, and at the end of the day it'll always be all love. More nostalgia can be found in songs like "Over 30", where KRS shows love to all his old school cats and grown folk in general; in a sense, it kinda sounds like a response to Jay-Z's "30 Something", but maybe that's just me. We also have album closer "House of Hits", where KRS pays tribute to Marley's legendary New York studio, where many Hip-Hop heavyweights have recorded their hits. Needless to say, the nostalgia is heavy on this record.

And of course, as it is expected, KRS-One gets into battle mode and slaps up the wack emcees. But even so, hearing KRS' braggadocio shows that he's certainly not in his prime anymore. "Nothin' New" finds him taking on the redundancy of the modern day emcee, sounding kinda like a frustrated father talking to a child who continues to disobey his commands. While it doesn't necessarily stack up to other classic KRS battle tracks, it gets the job done as he promises to have any emcee "lookin like Jesus in 'The Passion'". "Musika" and "The Victory" are other braggadocio tracks that find KRS rhyming alongside guest emcees -- both of which outshine him. The former is a latin-themed brag-fest where KRS brags how dope he is and that he'll never retire, but he is bested by Magic Juan. The latter features guest scratching from the legendary DJ Premier, Marley providing a great drum track with a bass sample that actually sounds like something Primo would've dropped in the "Hard to Earn" days, and KRS rhyming alongside Blaq Poet, another Queensbridge native who traded barbs with KRS during The Bridge Wars. Poet knows this, as he even remarks in awe: "I know y'all motherfuckers ain't gonna believe this / Poet on the track with the nigga that dissed Queensbridge? / Let me show y'all how to bury the hatchet". "This is What it Is" finds KRS giving us an inspirational message about Hip-Hop over Marley beat with an exploding synth sample over a riding piano and funk bass line. None of these tracks are really bad, but the fact is most of these subjects have been covered by KRS many times before. So in a sense, KRS falls into the same category as the emcees he attacked throughout the album. "The Teacha's Back" pretty much exemplifies this redundancy the most, as we find KRS in full-flegged 'Teacha' mode: attackin the new school emcees, raggin on MTV, representing 'real' Hip-Hop, standing up for women, and all that good stuff. Unfortunately, KRS's lyrics don't seem match up to Marley's drum heavy beat. While they're all subjects he has covered before, if he had flipped it and came more complex with it, it would've sounded fresh. Instead he keeps it simple and sounds tired overall. It's not a bad track but with a title like "The Teacha's Back", you'd expect it to be so much better.

While KRS-One is more than capable of showing us how dope of an emcee he is, Marley's production sometimes outshines Kris' lyrical performance on more than one occasion. I kinda mentioned it earlier with "The Teacha's Back", but thats certainly not the only time that it happens. Tracks like "Over 30" and "All Skool" are decent in their own right, but could've been much better if Kris had stepped his lyric game up (and what's sad about that is these are actually the weakest beats that Marley brings for the album). The latter finds KRS repping for the older crowd, but also bragging about his skills at the same time. The problem here is that his lyrics are not as strong as they usually are: "It's the K to the R to the S-One / by now I think it's real, I'm the best one / yes son, I take it to the old school / I spit super rhymes cause I am so cool / A duel? You must be fool / playa, you know the rules!". The latter has another old school styled beat, but KRS really brings nothing new than anything he has said in the past before: he represents 'real' Hip-Hop, the game ain't the same as it used to be, smackin up the wack emcees, etc. But perhaps the biggest disappointment on the album is "I Was There, which turns out to be one of the weakest tracks for KRS in recent memory. Marley laces KRS with the perfect backdrop, a heavy bass-filled beat, though KRS fails to match up lyrically. "I Was There" could've been one of the best tracks on the album, simply because of the concept of KRS calling out the young Hip-Hop historians who try to document Hip-Hop without being there to witness it. Instead of describing some of the historical things he's seen in detail, he simply reads off a list of events and remarks that he was there for each of them. Example: "When Moe Dee challenged LL, I was there / when that bus blew up in London, I was there / when Death Row challenged Bad Boy at the Source Awards / in New York at the Garden, yup, I was there". Frankly, the song is boring, and only reminds us that KRS prides himself on being Hip-Hop, and considers those who weren't there not to be Hip-Hop. While KRS will always be one of the dopest emcees ever, songs like these prove that he needs to step his overall game up if he still wants to be considered a great emcee in the modern day Hip-Hop world.

As it may sound like I complained about this album more often than not, it's not a bad record. It doesn't go down as the best album of 2007, nor does it go down as the best album for KRS-One or Marley Marl (though I will say its better then KRS' previous two releases, 2006's "Life" and 2004's "Keep Right"). I wouldn't even say that its as good as Nas' "Hip-Hop is Dead". But "Hip-Hop Lives" shows that while KRS and Marley are not necessarily in their prime, they can still create music good enough to stand up to the modern day Hip-Hop scene. Above everything, this album is one of the most significant Hip-Hop albums to come out in some time. This collaboration between Marley Marl and KRS-One is of historical significance because it shows that two former enemies can come together and create for the betterment of the culture. In the era where everyone wants to setter their differences with violence, it's something that everybody should take notice. As a whole, it isn't the classic that I expected it to be; in fact, its an album that should've been done years ago, while KRS and Marley were still in their prime. Of course, KRS never sits down for too long, as he already has a new album ready to come out this January called "Adventures in Emceein'". Hopefully he's used everything that the sessions for this album taught him and he's worked to create an even better work, but we'll see. Anyway, the bottom line is that while it may sound somewhat dated, "Hip-Hop Lives" is a step in the right direction for KRS, Marley Marl, and Hip-Hop as a whole.

FINAL RATING: 4 Stars

Track listing:
1. It's Alive (Intro) (NOT RATED)
2. Hip Hop Lives (5 Stars)
3. Nothing New (4 1/2 Stars)
4. I Was There (1 Star)
5. Musika (feat. Magic Juan) (4 Stars)
6. Rising to the Top (5 Stars)
7. Over 30 (3 Stars)
8. M.A.R.L.E.Y. (Skit) (NOT RATED)
9. Kill a Rapper (5 Stars)
10. The Teacha's Back (4 Stars)
11. Victory feat. Blaq Poet (4 1/2 Stars)
12. This is What It is (5 Stars)
13. All Skool (3 1/2 Stars)
14. House of Hits feat. Busy Bee Starski (5 Stars)

RELATED REVIEWS:
KRS-One - Return of the Boom Bap (5 Stars)
KRS-One - Keep Right (3 1/2 Stars)