Review Summary: An unneccasary reaffirmation of Hip-Hop's existence. It's not as if it ever went away.
I’m going to tell you now; I can’t stand new KRS-One. It’s not really the music so much; it’s the obnoxious attitude of the guy. He makes false claims of what’s “real” and what isn’t, he’s hypocritical in that he disses modern hip-hop but he welcomed Soulja Boy of all people into the hip-hop game, and he criticizes almost every aspect of modern hip-hop music without even giving it a good try. However, as much as I hate the man’s personality and attitude, he still makes semi-decent music. Despite repetitive lyrical content on every album of his circa 2004 to present, I still got a little excited when I first heard that two former rivals were coming together to create what could’ve been a modern day classic. Yet, in the end, it ends up with KRS being the dominant one here. It’s a KRS solo album through and through, with disses to “wack emcees” and hip-hop history lessons. The beat smith behind this album, Marley Marl of the legendary Juice Crew, takes a huge backseat here to KRS. The problem with most collaboration albums is that one of the collaborators is dominating the other’s parts. It’s that very same case with KRS, who makes himself the center of attention, barely giving Marl a chance to shine. Hip-Hop may live on, but definitely not through these guys.
As mentioned earlier, KRS is fairly repetitive lyrically. First and foremost an educational musician, his main focus lyrically is to give us hip-hop history classes and telling us to be more “socially conscious” in the form of songs. Second, he’s a braggadocio emcee through and through, always making claims of being the best in hip-hop and always dissing other rappers. On one hand, when he’s giving his history lessons, his songwriting gets worse and worse, often repeating the same subject matter of one line in another. On the other hand, his songwriting really fleshes itself out on his braggadocio side. When he’s dishing out his vicious assaults on other rappers, he comes with a swagger and confidence not normally found in the man’s music. He launches rhythmical flows on top of hard hitting boom bap and slamming drums. His history course just doesn’t sound as right as it should on these beats though.
And there lies the problem. Even though it’s meant to be a throwback to old school rap, none of these beats sound in the least bit old school. Marley Marl’s production has just been too influenced by modern music for this to be a successful time machine travel to the glory days of rap. KRS-One just doesn’t sound as good over slamming modern production than he does over sampled reggae horns and handclap drums. It might’ve been an effective juxtaposition had either collaborator had more charisma, but both of them are really lazy here. Yet despite all the laziness, KRS still manages to overshadow Marl’s production. It’s not really a “true” collaboration unless you can find a way to effectively balance each contributor’s input without giving preference to either side. That is where
Hip-Hop Lives truly fails. It lacks a necessary balance between Marl and KRS.
As riddled with flaws as it is,
Hip-Hop Lives is ultimately still a fun listen. The production, when it does shine, is head-nodding and catchy without compromising its hardcore mentality. KRS’s reggae influenced flows on certain songs are really fun to listen to. Yet in the end, this album tries to be a true throwback and a history lesson in the historicism of hip-hop, but you end up leaving the class confused and wondering if you actually learned anything in your time there. Not the best throwback I’ve heard, this album is full of KRS’s arrogance you can’t help but wonder what would happen if he actually wrote songs rather than slandering newer acts. A conflicted effort,
Hip-Hop Lives gets a 3/5.
