I am highlighting the most influential poets in my life this week in appreciation of Thanksgiving. One poet that keeps coming back to me is Kris Parker, commonly known as KRS-ONE. The reason he became influential to me is complicated and it has a long history. I will talk through the short of it here.
I lived in Colorado in the early 80s. My community was always a few years behind the coasts when it came to style, but one thing that came faster was the music. I remember a culture clash in the late 70s and early 80s between the punk rock movement, psychedelic rock, disco, and what was known then as the top 40. Although all the kids listened to the top 40 on saturday mornings, everyone wanted to be cool by listening to something more obscure on the bus rides or at recess. I have good memories of singing lyrics from Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd, Another One Bites the Dust by Queen and a few Kiss, Sex Pistols and other songs that were avant-garde for the time.
During sixth grade, the break dancing craze hit my school. Recess and after school became a dance party where everyone would try different moves on cardboard laid out on the grass. I tried for weeks to learn the “worm,” before I was finally able to master it and was able to demonstrate my prowess in front of my classmates. This was my first real exposure to what would later become known as hip-hop. This music was far from mainstream at the time, but there was a certain fascination with the ability to play music that you could dance to in such an impromptu fashion.
I did not understand the social movement that was going on in the inner city burros of New York during the 70s and early 80s. My community was hit by a economic depression, but no where near the impact that was felt in places like the Bronx. Young kids were being raised in an environment of an ugly scene of abandoned and sometimes crumbling buildings. They could not afford to go to the Disco and they certainly could not enjoy things like musical instruments. However, the human spirit as we learn throughout all history cannot be crushed and with that emerged an entirely new style of music and a blossoming of culture.
It started to be common for DJs to spin records and repurpose sounds from old records into a musical production. They would create a sound that was uniquely their own and they would often have dancers come and hit the floor during breakdowns, between sets of music. This became what we knew as break dancing and over time there started to evolve MC’s that would keep the crowd going. This soon enough spilled over into the streets as a form of entertainment in various areas, especially the large concrete areas that could serve as a gathering space under overpasses.
I had moved away from Colorado and now I was in California. It was 1986 and I was getting a bit restless with my Beach Boys, Buddy Holly and 50s genre my mother loved so much. I still appreciated that music, but I had started to gravitate toward the 70s rock scene in terms of fascination. Early in 1986, Run-DMC had brought this new vibe of music main stream with their collaboration with Aerosmith on Walk this Way. It was this song and also a fascination with the music I was exposed to during the break dancing scene for me to start listening to a college radio station that I could pick up at my house. There was an hour of Reggae, which I found fascinating because I loved the style of music. However, after this hour a DJ would come on that was a fan of the New York Hip Hop Scene. This is where I was exposed to how words could become power.
I was exposed to an ongoing war between hip hop artists that we now call the Bridge war. There was a DJ named Marley Marl and a MC known as Shan. They had a popular song out in this community called “The Bridge.” I remember being invited to a dance party where a bunch of cardboard was laid out and everyone was dancing and this song was played. That is where I heard it for the first time.
Here is the original song:
The song alludes to the idea that Hip Hop started in Queensbridge, New York. Now, MC Shan would later say in an attempt to bury the hatchet so to speak that he was only referring to the Hip-Hop scene in his community and not necessarily all of Hip-Hop. However, in 1986 an MC out of the South Bronx would respond one day at what we know call a rap battle. A local DJ in New York, played his response. Later on, KRS-ONE would release this single as part of his new crew called Boogie Down Productions or BDP. During this response he is mocking they style of MC Shan and Marley Marl. The track is called South Bronx. Listen to that here:
There is a great documentary you can watch on this, it is called “The Beef.” There are several back and forth exchanges between the two artists that are recorded and this begins this whole idea of talking about the one ups-man ship in hip-hop songs. The next big release was MC Shan and the Juice Crew recording “Kill that Noise,” in which they take shots at KRS-ONE for making this a big deal. That song is here:
I think most will agree that this battle was ended when KRS-ONE and BDP released their response called, The Bridge is Over. Which was a parody and had a mocking tone. The battle would continue to escalate between various references until the two decided to join forces later in their careers. Here is the famous, Bridge is Over:
This is one of the first songs that I heard on that college radio station and was quickly enthralled by the battle of words going on between the Hip-Hop community. This was exciting for me, because the artistic use of rhetoric in this form of communication was fascinating. I became a total fan.
No need to recite any of the verses here, I think they have to be listened to in order to really get it. Needless to say, I believe that most people would give the nod to Kris Parker in terms of sheer style, and ability to think on his feet. From what I have heard his street corner prowess was legendary.
