KRS-One reveals major issue with hip-hop: “We don’t give a fuck about them”
KRS-One has spoken up about modern hip-hop and called the genre to task for how it treats and celebrates its living legends.
One did an interview on The Box recently, a radio station in Houston, during which he was asked to reflect on the death of Fatman Scoop, who passed away on August 30th after collapsing during a performance.
KRS-One took the opportunity to not only reflect on Fatman Scoop and the legacy he leaves behind but also call into question the Hip-Hop community for not celebrating such a legend when he was still here. He highlighted how praise doesn’t mean too much if the person being praised isn’t here to benefit from it.
“That energy should be on the radio,” he said, “It’s a shame that now that he’s passed that we’re talking about him in this way. Hip-hop gotta stop doing that. Like, only when dudes pass, that’s when they get honoured and stuff like that. We shoulda been looking to Fatman Scoop when his career was blowing up. He never got played on no stations or nothing like that. Only DJs that knew would throw his music on.”
KRS-One was then asked how hip-hop celebrates its legends compared to other genres. It’s a fair question, given that rock legends such as Led Zeppelin and The Beatles are still celebrated widely today as if they were frequently making music. However, the rapper made it clear he had no interest in talking about other genres, stating hip-hop runs the music industry.
“Other genres suck, we don’t give a fuck about them. Hip-hop runs shit, so fuck all these other genres really,” he said, “Hip-hop runs this whole music industry. So if we don’t get it right with Hip-hop? I’m sorry Reggae, I’m sorry Jazz, I’m sorry Gospel, I’m sorry Rock: we’re not gonna get it together with nothing.”
KRS-One continued, “That’s what I’m saying: these other genres, they can do that to their artists if they want; we don’t give a fuck about them… We can’t do that to our artists, okay? Fatman Scoop? That’s the way a real Hip-hop DJ sounds.”
The sentiment has been shared around Hip-hop recently. Following the announcement that Kendrick Lamar would be headlining the Super Bowl 2025 halftime show, amongst the buzz, some disgruntled voices were arguing that Lil Wayne should be the one on stage as a legend of the game and a New Orleans native.
Master P made this point clear in a social media post: “As ambassador of Entertainment in the City of New Orleans, I have to agree with the fans that @liltunechi #LilWayne should be a part of proceedings as well. He’s one of the greatest [hip-hop] artists alive, still relevant, and he’s a New Orleans native.”
P finished by echoing the words of KRS-One, “Let’s not miss this cultural moment in the South. Life is too short! We have to give our legends their flowers while they are here.”