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KRS-One: I Got Next: Just to Prove a Point

© Steve Juon

In the next 3 weeks, one of hip-hop's oldest and most well respected artists will be releasing his ninth album and third as a solo artist, entitled _I Got Next_. Aside from the fact that this will be another enjoyable album from a great MC who is known to drop both wisdom and skilled wordplay onto vinyl, this marks two other milestones as well: over ten years since KRS-One recorded his first album _Criminal Minded_, and over twenty years ago that hip-hop started in the boroughs of New York City, New York.

Many of hip-hop's critics thought the artform would never last, but today it seems to be stronger than ever. True, there are flash in the pan artists making music who drop one record and vanish, but that's true of any genre. The lengthy careers of artists such as KRS, Run-D.M.C., LL Cool J, and others gives testimony to the fact that hip-hop is not a musical fad: it's a legitimate artform with millions of avid supporters worldwide who can confer the same kind of timeless record-making status as U2 and Aerosmith can for rock and roll -- a status which exceeds generational gaps and brings in new listeners with each passing age.

A lot of people in 1997 in hip-hop would like to say that this is musically our worst year ever, and that hip-hop is in decline. To the naysayers I offer you KRS-One's original title for his new album: _Just to Prove a Point_. I thought that was a damn good title. The point is that hip-hop is by far from dead. There may be uncreative artists making commercially successful records, but that doesn't stop creative artists from intriguing people globally on a much more quiet level. If anything ninety-seven has shown an explosion of new underground talent: Company Flow, GRAV, J-Live, Juggaknotz, Just-Ro, Natural Elements, Natural Resource, and too many others to even name.

So I offer you this article as a moment of reflection, a time for you to think about the history of hip-hop: just to prove a point. Twenty years have passed since the days when Kool DJ Herc and Afrika Bambaata pioneered our sound, and almost as many since Grand Wizard Theodore and Grandmaster Flash invented the kind of turntable tricks that today receive rave reviews on albums like DJ Shadow, Cold Krush Cuts, and Return of the DJ Vol. 2. Think about this and reflect that hip-hop is not a weak artform having a lousy year -- to me, it's better than ever.

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