LessThanNick1's Full Review: By All Means Necessary by Boogie Down Productions
When you ask people who the greatest rapper of all time is many of them will say KRS-One. I’ve heard people debate about whether or not he is more talented than Rakim. I can’t believe that two months ago I didn’t even know who KRS-One was. His free-style skills are amazing. Even the most talented emcees won’t challenge KRS-One to a battle. Even in his old age, he’s still better than almost all rappers out there. I saw him on BET’s Raper City: The Basement about a month ago and he did some awe-inspiring free-style. By Any Means Necessary is Boogie Down Productions’ (AKA KRS-One and Scott Parker) best album. It’s the only album that I’ve heard by KRS-One, but I play to check out more of his work very soon. By Any Means Necessary is a hip-hop classic and puts most of the “brag-rap” hip-hop to shame. KRS-One is the thinking-man’s (or in my case, boy’s) rapper.
KRS-One lays down some great rhymes on this album. His talent as an emcee is amazing. He doesn’t really have a super-amazing style of delivery. There isn’t much that makes his voice stand-out from the pack. What makes him stand-out is his awesome rhymes and great story-telling ability. KRS-One is very capable of both free-style battle rhymes and socially conscious lyrics. KRS-One’s rhymes have a lot of political themes to them. “Stop the Violence” is a call to arms to all rappers and hip hop headz asking them to stop all the thug sh*t. The song “Illegal Business” talks about Americas war on drugs and how it’s not the drug dealer that’s hurting the hood, it’s the man the forces the drugs dealer to deal because it’s the only way for him to make money. In “Illegal Business” KRS-One also brings up the subject of police corruption. In 88’ the AIDS epidemic was starting to get really out of hand. The song “Jimmy” talks about condoms. The message is good, the songs kind of funny too.
The production on By All Means Necessary has a very old-skool fell to it. And rightfully so, the album was made in 88’. This was back before a catchy hook and a danceable beat could make a hit single. KRS-One is similar to Ice T in the sense that he doesn’t need a flashy beat. The beats on this album are all fairly simple drum-machine fare. There is some interesting use of samples and scratching used throughout this album, but it’s a little sparse. The production is good, but not great. It’s just a back-drop to KRS One’s great rhymes.
By All Means Necessary is a little short it clocks in at about 45 minutes, but there are no skits so this is a fairly solid amount of time for a hip-hop album, anyway there is no filler. 45 Minutes of good music, is a lot better than 72 minutes of sh*te.
By All Means Necessary is a hip-hop classic that should be in your record collection. Anyone that considers themselves to be a hip-hop fan should own this album. KRS-One is so talented. His rhymes are great and his lyrics have a great message. The production is solid, but with rhymes this good, KRS-One could be doing his rhymes a-ca-pella and it wouldn’t matter, they’d still be great.
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