Yirga What, Yirga Who

KRS-One visit

KRS-One was the keynote speaker at the University of Maryland 4th Annual Hip-Hop Conference here at College Park. He began his lecture with Afrika Bambaataa. He spoke of Bambaataa's 4 pillars of Hip Hop; peace, unity, love and having fun. He went on to say that it was Afrika Bambaataa that introduced rap on the radio. He also spoke about Kool Herc. Herc is thought to be a the father of Hip Hop but KRS-One said that it would be more correct if it was said he was father of rap music. According to KRS-One, Hip Hop has no beginning. In fact, he said Hip Hop was alive back 20,000 years ago. He said Lucy (Australopithecus) lived the Hip Hop culture. He spoke of how Australopithecus used to make drawings inside caves. As its source of paint, the Australopithecus would chew berries and spit it on the wall. All this in the dark too. He compared that to today's Hip Hop graffiti. He also said that MCing started 2000 years ago in Ghana. There were groups of people would travel and perform for others to get them pumped up. And they used poetry too.

He also spoke of the difference of being a rapper and an MC. He said a rapper is one that goes from his house to MTV. He is a product of corporate America. An MC, on the other hand, has to be an apprentice first. He must get the respect of an important person in his community. He must go where they go and learn from observation. He said an MC can be a rapper and a rapper can never be an MC.

He also touched on some other topics. He did not think much of college education. He said if you failed a class, that means you did not need it. He also said that the reason we all enrolled into college is because we are ignorant.

He was not too high on Bush. His opinion on voting: F*** voting. His opinion on the war: F*** the war.

And than he got to talking about Haiti. He said Hip Hop should be in Haiti. If Hip Hop was to go to Haiti, all the fighting would end.

He was big on Muhammad Ali. He said Ali was a God on earth.

Posted by yirga at April 19, 2004 10:30 PM