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KRS-One Shocks Fans Again: Puffy Got Next?

© Steve Juon

In a rather suprising and currently highly controversial move, hip-hop legend KRS-One has re-recorded his own song "Step Into a World (Rapture's Delight)" with none other than Sean 'Puffy' Combs of Bad Boy Entertainment. This move comes just days before KRS-One's newest full-length album _I Got Next_ was scheduled to hit record stores coast. Puffy, who is best known as the producer behind such artists as the late Notorious B.I.G., raps two verses on the remixed version, which also features new lyrics from KRS-One.

To the uninitiated, this might seem to be a non-issue; or even an unfair critique of KRS -- after all, songs with Puffy's name on them seem to have instant gold status this year. Who's to blame KRS for making a little money? There are two particular reasons this particular incident raises concern, but a lot more in general.

The first is the fact that the original 'Step Into a World" was a ninety-seven update on an old school song by Blondie known as Rapture, off her Autoamerican album. Although Blondie is by no means known as a rapper, both b-boys and uptown bourgeoise alike respected the song as a party-mover and a crowd pleaser. The song took on a seminal hip-hop classic status of it's own after Grandmaster Flash sampled it in HIS seminal hip-hop classic "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel". Obviously, KRS was making an homage to the old school by reworking the song into a chorus for his new album's first official single, and by all accounts the KRS song did so well -- it's a head nodding beat rocking lyrically socking classic KRS-One jam. When you've already made an homage to the old school such as this, doesn't it smack a bit odd to rework it into a commercialized remix by pop rap's hottest producer, especially when the original was already a danceable track to begin with?

The second is the lyrical content. In the very song that KRS and Puffy have remixed, KRS professes to have little concern for chart position or record sales. He says he holds all five positions at the top of the charts, but that's only because he has skills -- and record deal or no deal he'd still be a dope MC. This is the kind of true to hip-hop aesthetic KRS-One fans have been familiar with for years, so his putting it down on wax yet again was no surprise. The surprise was hearing a remix that was by all accounts unnecessary and seems designed ONLY to be a move to generate record sales and hit the top of the charts. That's what Puffy songs do, even such mediocre offerings as "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down" featuring Bad Boy MC Mase. KRS already had the underground hit with the original, so the reworked song has everybody scratching their heads and thinking "KRS has sold us out for the charts".

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