When you look at a list of the greatest emcees of all time, KRS-One has got to be somewhere at the top five at least. One of Hip-Hop’s founding fathers, KRS led the way for every act in Hip-Hop that came in during the 90s with his conscious lyricism and intelligent tracks. In the beginning, KRS (real name Kris Parker) teamed up with DJ Scott La Rock and created the crew known as Boogie Down Productions. The group later contained other members such as producer D-Nice, DJ Kenny Parker (who was Kris’ real life brother) and Ms. Melodie (who was married to Kris at one point, but divorced him in 1992), but BDP was originally just Kris and Scott. In 1987, the group released their debut album “Criminal Minded”. The album broke new ground in Hip-Hop and set the standard for future rap albums. Unfortunately, Scott La Rock was murdered during the production of their sophomore effort. Kris was understandably shaken up by this, but continued to press on, releasing album after album of material using the BDP moniker. In 1992, BDP released their fifth effort, “Sex and Violence”, which was triumphant artistically but a failure commercially. When it came time for KRS to release his next record, he decided he would start all over. Breaking away from the BDP name, he decided to release his next album by himself under his own name. Newcomers look back on it and say “what’s the difference between this and the BDP records?”. That’s understandable though, I mean when you remember BDP, do you automatically think of D-Nice or Melodie? No, even though you might remember them later, the first thing you remember is Kris or Scott. Well anyway, Kris went on to enlist the help of various producers, which included Gang Starr’s producer, the legendary DJ Premier, who produces six cuts total on this record, one co-produced with Kris himself. With everything in place, KRS-One recorded and released his solo debut, “Return of the Boom Bap”, in 1993. People might wonder, what is ‘Boom Bap’? Well for one, in the title track, Kris says “it means return of the real hard beats and real raps”. If that is true, than does the album hold up to it’s title?...

1. KRS-One Attacks (NOT RATED)
2. Outta Here (5 Stars)
3. Black Cop (4 1/2 Stars)
4. Mortal Thought (5 Stars)
5. I Can't Wake Up (5 Stars)
6. Slap Them Up feat. Ill Will (5 Stars)
7. Sound of Da Police (5 Stars)
8. Mad Crew (5 Stars)
9. Uh Oh (5 Stars)
10. Brown Skin Woman (5 Stars)
11. Return of the Boom Bap (5 Stars)
12. P is Still Free (5 Stars)
13. Stop Frontin' feat. Kid Capri (4 Stars)
14. Higher Level (5 Stars)

The album begins with “KRS-One Attacks.”. The track starts out with KRS confidently proclaiming “We will be here forever! Do you understand?! FOREVER!! For ever and ever, and ever and ever!” which leads into a dope beat where DJ Premier scratches various BDP samples. It’s a three-minute intro piece that isn’t worth skipping. Following this is the first official track and the album’s lead single, “Outta Here”, and it’s a great one. On this one, KRS gives us a history of his career up to that point, reminiscing on how he came up in the game, from the humble beginnings of listening to Run-DMC in his bedroom to watching rappers in the ciphers to meeting Scott La Rock and dropping “Criminal Minded” all the way to Scott’s death and the release of the second BDP album, “By All Means Necessary”. All along the way, KRS mentions how he saw all these rap groups falling off, and questions what happens to rappers when they fall off and loose their popularity in the chorus (“Do you ever think about when you outta here?” ). But thankfully, he promises it’ll never happen to him (“No doubt, BDP is old school, but we ain’t going out!”). The production on this track, provided by DJ Premier, is the epitome of what ‘Boom Bap’ really is: just a dope drum beat and a catchy booming bass line. To sum it up, this track is a classic, an informative song that’ll show you what it was like for cats coming up during the time when Hip-Hop was just starting. It’s a perfect way to start the album.

On this album, Kris leaves tons of room to show us what he does best: slap up the wack emcees. And while he does it by himself most of the time, Kris also has fellow emcees helping him out a bit. In “Slap Them Up”, late Queensbridge rapper Ill Will shows up alongside Kris to spit flames at the wack emcees while “Stop Frontin’” has KRS teaming up with Kid Capri, who also produced the track. However, KRS is at his best when he’s smashin’ up crews by himself; in the self-produced “Return of the Boom Bap”, he attacks one emcee in particular, PM Dawn, who dissed him as well as Chuck D in a interview (“On and on to the PM Dawn / I buck two shots and you squad is gone / you add a little street in your R-A-P / but never do you wanna challenge BDP / cause smashin’ up a crew, one-two is the least / when a sucker wants to battle, that just gets me geesed”). But if I had to choose the best battle raps on this album, it would be “Mortal Thought” and “Mad Crew”. The first of the two has KRS dubbing himself as a ‘lyrical terrorist’, working straight wonders another Premier beat. But the latter is one of Kris’ most underrated tracks ever. The production on this one, done by Kris himself, is slow but hard hitting. Backed by a slow drum track, a rugged bass line, and a simple but ILL electric guitar loop, Kris gives us the rapid fire battle raps that he is known for: “Twinkle, twinkle to the little rap star / I got all type of emcee tongue in a pickle jar / so here's a quick freestyle to my target: / my core audience, FUCK the rest of the market! / ‘Cause I spark it, styles? I loan shark it / then break your legs if you try to chart it / I got heart, it doesn't take a lot to rock a record, get with it / some emcees can't rock for five minutes!”

But it’s not all about battles with KRS, he’s known to get conscious too, sometimes taking a political stance. He does just that on the album’s second single, “Sound of Da Police”. On this one the production is handled by Showbiz, and its really catchy, containing some jazzy, melodic keys and booming bass line. KRS wastes no time, as he attacks the corrupt and racist police officers in this country. In the second verse, Kris shows his cleverness, as he talks about how the acts of the overseer during the days of slavery contrast with the acts of the police officers of today. I was surprised to find out this track didn’t get much press when it was put out, considering that Ice-T was under some heavy criticism for putting out the song “Cop Killer” just the year before. The simple but effective “Black Cop” follows a similar path, as Kris once again speaks out against black on black crime, implying that African-American police officers are nothing more than modern-day slaves. He also takes on the topic of women in a few tracks. “Brown Skin Woman” is a tribute to the beauty and struggles of African-American women, which rarely heard nowadays. Kris’ conscious and informative rhymes are backed by another Kid Capri beat, laced with a jazzy trumpet loop. We also have “P is Still Free”, the sequel to the P is Free which was originally on the first BDP album. This one, like the first, has KRS giving us a few stories about female crack fiends who will do have sex to get that crack rock.

But its not ALL serious with the Blastmaster, we still get a taste of his sense of humor on "I Can't Wake Up". Backed by another head-nodding boom bap beat, Kris gives an interesting concept as he dreams about being a blunt, getting smoked up by various people that are well known in Hip-Hop. In a sense, the track is like a who’s who of Hip-Hop greats, as he name checks Kid Capri, House of Pain, Das EFX, Redman, Grand Puba, Chubb Rock, and many others. Kris gives us another dose of humor in the form of "Uh Oh”, but its much darker this time, as he warns of the consequences of hanging around the wrong crowd; Kris allows us to see the humor in the situations he mentions, but still having a serious tone with his provoking, narrative lyrics. However, KRS is at his best when he being conscious. This is proved right on the album’s last track, the melodic “Higher Level”, which is also its best track. The beat on this one is true boom bap, laced with some funky trumpets and a blistering sample from “Blackula”. On this one, Kris rants and raves in the glorious fashion that only he can, attacking the government and denouncing Christianity and Catholicism. Even though he doesn’t feel this way anymore, we can see that back then, KRS did not have that much love for religion: “The way we view God is a freakin' shame / Church is to blame, we trust God but bomb Hussein / we simply lovin' the scripture, same scripture that whipped 'cha / sooner it'll hit 'cha, religion's gettin' richer / with that European version of Christ made into a picture / our society's gettin' sicker, and sicker, and sicker / like liquor, we are God-Intoxicated / not to the true God, but the one the government created / the same governments tellin' people to vote / I pray to God because the people have lost hope / you either vote for the mumps or the measles / whether you vote for the lesser of two evils, you vote for evil / politics and God are not equal / but the education if you don't guard, is really lethal”. I don’t really know what else to say, you gotta hear this one to understand how great it is.

What else can I say? There is no disappointing factor in this album at all. In fact, the only thing that could’ve made this better is the inclusion of “Hip-Hop vs. Rap”, which was the B-Side of the album’s second single, but that doesn’t mean the album suffers because of its absence. This album is KRS-One at his best, and it shows in all areas. Kris’s lyricism as strong as it’s ever been; on this album, Kris is fighting ignorance, oppression, prejudice, and hypocrisy while promoting intellect, good judgment, and free thinking. As for the production, this is probably the strongest as its ever been for the Blastmaster. The bass lines on the album are thunderous and the beats are varied and complex, more so than anything you hear from the mainstream today. But as you can plainly see, Premier shines the most here, showing that he and Kris can work magic in the studio. If Primo and Kris could collaborate again and do an entire album together, it would no doubt be a masterpiece. If you feel any disappointment from this album, it’s because you realize that as long as his career has gone, KRS-One has never made an album that has surpassed this one. But still, when people wonder why KRS-One is still highly respected despite being so overly arrogant that he makes Kanye West look like a little child and contradicting himself numerous times over the last decade, albums like this show why he deserves to have that huge ego. “Return of the Boom Bap” is Hip-Hop in its purest form, and it is KRS-One’s magnum opus. This album is not to be fronted on so do yourself a favor and PICK THIS UP!

FINAL RATING: 5 Stars


Other KRS-One/BDP reviews:

KRS-One - Keep Right (3 1/2 Stars)

Recommended: Yes