Taken from the Jive Electro compilation ‘New School Vs Old School Vol.2’ – 12″ Vinyl / CD

Featured on FreQ Nasty’s FabricLive mix.

“When I got asked by Jive Electro to remix this I was incredibly honored. It’s a hip-hop classic and one of the great political commentaries of hip-hop. Tho maybe not so rich on solutions, it documented what many young black people were thinking and then broadcast it thru what Public Enemy’s Chuck D called ‘the black CNN’… i.e. hip-hop records.

If today’s hip-hop stars had 10% of the balls and commitment that KRS on had, the world would be a different place. Most are too scared to upset the gravy train that the mainstream has offered them in return for keeping quiet, so they rap about meaningless shit and sell out those artists who founded their genre, their history. The fact that there are party tunes saying nothing much at all is no problem. That’s what party tunes do, and in fact those are probably the best kind of hip-hop lyrics right now… the least damaging. The fact that the majority of lyrics now are about the worship of money and material possessions, selling drugs, being a thug, and/or killing people is a betrayal of the greats of hip-hop and is selling out their audience, white and black.

And this shit is mainstream! This generation of rappers will go down in history as spineless traitors who are more Republican Party than the Republican Party themselves. Earning a living is one thing. Consciously selling negativity and violence to buy diamonds is just sad. Bring back KRS-One. Saul Williams for president! I gotta link to Saul just so we aren’t left with a bad taste in our mouths. This is a real hip-hop MC and poet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV-aXnQO7Ow

On a brighter note I ripped off my own beat from this remix to make a Moombahton remix for An-ten-ae’s Acid Crunk 2011 comp. It’s similar to the beat that was later used for the so-called Kuduro movement – tho how many records/acts it takes to call a sound a movement is questionable. It’s an all purpose “south American style beatâ€? (I’m not sure what I mean by this) that was something that I used to defy the expectation of another standard breakbeat record. Consequently none of the breaks DJ’s played it, it was too fast for hip-hop DJs, and Ddancehall DJs were still playing the traditional shizz back then and wouldn’t touch it with a shitty stick. Another artistic victory that bought me a little closer to complete obscurity and a pauper’s grave. How many times must I learn this lesson?”