As soon as KRS-One took the stage at Avalon nightclub in Santa Clara Friday night, the veteran MC made it clear that his concert wasn’t going to consist of the standard MTV bling and bikini model fare. Announcing that “the real hip hop is over here,” KRS spent the entire concert defining and re-defining what Hip Hop is, can be, and what it should be.
KRS-One, whose real name is Kris Parker, started his first hip hop group Boogie Down Productions 20 years ago. The group’s first album “Criminal Minded,” which broke new artistic ground by blending rap and reggae, alternated between gangsta imagery and social issues. However, after KRS’ DJ Scott LaRock was shot to death while acting as a mediator between two arguing parties, the MC put the gangsta posturing on hold and spent the next 19 years examining politics, social issues, and metaphysics in his albums, often referring to himself as “The Teacha.” The metaphysical side of the MC was at its apex Friday as he freestyled over classic beats asserting that “Kris doesn’t exist, there is only the universe.” While blending Hindi belief with his own philosophy, KRS also questioned the concept of time itself, re-visiting the issue between classic cuts. At times, Parker would repeatedly asked “Where will you be in five hours?”
Midway through the concert, when cell phone snap shots of the performer were at their height, he declared that the unborn children of audience were watching him through the camera lens, suggesting that time is relative and responsibility isn’t something that can be collected and discarded at will.
Further dissecting the notion of time, the Teacha sifted through his two decade career and bound his songs together with freestyles, making it seem if the tunes were somehow created in a singularity. The concert opened with the classic “The Bridge is Over,” which commented on mid-80s hip hop battles, only to shift to his latest single “Classic (Better Than I’ve Ever Been)” which features media darling Kanye West on the studio version.
During his freestyles, KRS commented on the 14-year-old guest DJ, invited break-dancers on stage, and asked if Barack Obama is “black, Asian, or white?”
The perpetually energetic MC stood solemn faced for the live rendition of “Kill a Rapper,” the centerpiece off his latest album “Hip Hop Lives.” While the crowd shouted the refrain, “If you wanna get away with murder, kill a rapper,” KRS questioned why after 20 years the death of Scott LaRock still hadn’t been solved, along with the murders of other prominent rappers including Tupac, Biggie Smalls, and Jam Master Jay.
Although the state and ideals of current mainstream rap were criticized throughout the concert, KRS was adamant that “there’s nothing really wrong with hip hop. It’s rap music that has got the problem. Hip hop is break dancing, MCing, DJing, beatboxing. Hip hop comes from the heart. Hip hop is the pursuit of your authentic being through the arts.”
After the KRS had railed against the sexism and materialism present in much of commercial rap and left the stage, the crowd seemed to be visibly affected. However, as the cars of the audience sped away, all but a few speakers were blaring odes to coke, guns, or hos, leaving a question to ask the teacha: Is an educator’s success measured in number of students converted, or how well a few select ones studied their lessons?
