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KRS-One
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1
You know, life is funny
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If you don't repeat the actions of your own success
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You won't be successful
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You gotta know your own formula, your own ingredients
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What made you, YOU
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1987 I was at the Latin Quarters
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Listenin to Afrika Bambaata give the order
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The call of the order was to avoid the slaughter
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He said, "Record companies ain't got nuttin for ya!"
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Without a lawyer, he taught The Infinity Lessons
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In how hip-hop could be a, many a blessing
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And that was great, so in 1988
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There was no debate, we had to end the hate
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The name of the game was "Stop the Violence"
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And unity, knowledge, and self-reliance
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We - started talkin bout Martin and Malcolm
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Had these ghetto kids goin, "Huh, what about him?"
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1989, Professor Griff speaks his mind
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But his freedom of speech is declined
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1990 came with the West coast
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East coast, West coast, who is the best coast?
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Lookin back now, of COURSE it was bogus
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The whole argument was where we lost focus
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We got hopeless; not with the lyrics and music
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But with hip-hop, and how we used it
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Or abused it, you know how the crew get
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"You like it cause you choose it"
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1991, we opened our eyes
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With Human Education Against Lies, we tried
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To talk about the state of humanity
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But all these others rappers got mad at me
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They called me "Captain Human", another message was sent
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"Self Destruction don't pay the {fuckin} rent"
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Remember that? Nobody wanted conscious rap
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It was like - where these ballers at?
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Where can they call us at? All was wack
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Hip-Hop culture was fallin flat and that was that
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So in 1992, I found my crew
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They said, "Yo Kris, what you wanna do?"
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I said, "Damn - why they wanna get with me?
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If I bust they {shit} I'm contradictory.
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If I play the bitch role, they take my shoe.
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Tell me what the {fuck} am I supposed to do?"
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So I did it, don't stop get it get it get it
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All of a sudden these critics they wanna spit it
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"Kay Are Ess One is con-tra-dic-to-ry"
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Just cause I wouldn't let these rappers get with me
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{Fuck} that, {fuck} you and {fuck} your pen
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If a rapper wanna diss, yo I'd do it again
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But I'm makin these ends, and I got my friends
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And I really don't wanna have to sit in the pen
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So I go back to the philosopher
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1993 hip-hop is uhh.. wack
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Go back, check the facts
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1994, "Return of the Boom Bap"
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It wasn't all about the loot
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It was all about Harry Allen Rhythm Cultural Institute
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Blowin up, 1995
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Conscious rap is still alive
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But nobody wanna play it, nobody wanna say it
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Nobody okayed it, they'd all rather hate it
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1996 it really don't stop
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We put together somethin called the Temple of Hip-Hop
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Not just DJin, breakin, graf and lyrics
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But how hip-hop affects the spirit
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"Step Into a World," that's what I did
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1997 I was raisin my kid
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Or kids, but I, had to go
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Cause New York DJ's changed the flows
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To clothes and hoes, but that wasn't me
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I'll be damned if I dance for the MTV
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So in 1998 I began to debate
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Should I go now, or should I really wait?
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'99, I moved to L.A. you see
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And took a gig with the WB
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Started studyin philosophy full-time
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To have a full heart, full body, full mind
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But you know what the problem is or was?
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DJ's don't raise our kids, cuz
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They so caught up in the cash and jewels
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How they gonna really see a hip-hop school?
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How they gonna really see a hip-hop temple?
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They don't even wanna play my instrumentals, but
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Big up Dr. Dre, Snoop, Xzibit
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Especially Xzibit, he was there in a minute
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Mic Conception, all of them, said
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"Yo you need help? I should call them"
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When I was in L.A., I held the crown
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Bloods, Crips, they held me down
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I could never forget Mad Lion, killer pride
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With the gat in the lap in the low-ride
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Oh I can't forget, Icy Ice, Lucky Lou
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Julio G, that was the crew
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Davey D, Ingrid, David Connor
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The list goes on and on, let me tell ya
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FredWreck, and my man Protest
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Much respect, no less
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To my spiritual and mental defenders
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Big up to L.A., temple members
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But in 2000, I seen how I wanted to live
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I wasn't no executive
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So I picked up the mic and I quit my job
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Said to Simone I gotta get with God
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She said, "Don't worry bout these dollars and quarters.
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Record companies ain't got nuttin for ya."
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Damn, she took me back to Bam!
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Took me back to who I am!
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Brought me back to the New York land!
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Now I overstand!
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{interviewer}
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Now KRS-One, now you've been quoted as saying that
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Rap is something we do, hip-hop is something you live.
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{KRS} Yes!
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{interviewer}
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Explain that to us please.
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{KRS-One}
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Well, well, today hip-hop, we are advocating that hip-hop is not,
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Just a music, it is an attitude, it is an awareness, it is a way
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To view the world. So rap music, is something we do, but HIP-HOP,
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Is something we live. And we look at hip-hop, in it's 9 elements;
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Which is breaking, emceeing, graffiti art, deejaying, beatboxing,
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Street fashion, street language, street knowledge, and street
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Entrepenurialism - trade and business. And uhh, that's where y'know
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That's the hip-hop that that that we're about. We come from the uhh
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The root of, of Kool DJ Herc, who originated hip-hop in the early 70's
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And then Afrika Bambaata and Zulu Nation (mmhmm)
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Who instigated something called The Infinity Lessons
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And added conciousness to hip-hop, and then Grandmaster Flash
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With the invention of the mixer, on to Run-D.M.C. and then myself.
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And uhh, we created the "Stop the Violence" movement, you may recall
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A song, "Self Destruction" and and and so on. All of this, goes to
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Uhh uhh, the idea of LIVING this culture out and taking responsibility
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For how it looks and and acts in society.
KRS-One - Step Into A World (Rapture's D...
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