Serge Fleury
As a teacher, it might be challenging trying to get your point across to your students. But when you’re “The Teacha,” chances are that all eyes and ears in your classroom are focused primarily on you.
For well over 20 years, the role of teaching from a Hip-Hop standpoint has solely fell on the shoulders of the legendary KRS-One, and he opens his doors once again, in attempts to open the minds of many with his new book titled, The Gospel Of Hip-Hop: The First Instrument.
So make sure you have your notepads, and tape recorders ready, because school is definitely in session one more time.
iHipHop.com: You just wrote a new book, The Gospel Of Hip-Hop: The First Instrument… When people crack it open, what are they going to find?
KRS-One: Well, the first thing that they’re going to notice, is that Hip-Hop is being spoken through spirituality… Meaning that you’ll be able to listen to it spiritually for yourself…
iHipHop.com: Was it important for you to write it that way?
KRS-One: Well, there are millions of people in the English-speaking world that find it difficult to align their religions with all that’s going on…
But there are people who are satisfied with their religion, and they are people who are satisfied with their church…
iHipHop.com: What kind of message were you trying to send out with the book?
KRS-One: I was trying to send out both, internal and an external message… But themain purpose of it was to focus on the love… The Gospel Of Hip-Hop preaches that, because if you want to live this lifestyle, you’re not going to be able to live it from talent alone…
So if you don’t have a certain light or certain strength about you, then you won’t make it… So the Gospel Of Hip-Hop speaks solely to what we have learned in the Hip-Hop world…
iHipHop.com: With the way the world is right now, do you think getting people to actually crack open a book and read from it will be difficult?
KRS-One: No not at all… Keep in mind that the Gospel Of Hip-Hop starts as a book, but it’s actually a movement… But this book is not for everybody also…
It’s offered to everybody, but everybody is not on this path… Some people are on a different path, and this book is for those who are on a spiritual path…
iHipHop.com: This is actually the first of a series of books you’re coming out with, so is this book basically going to be a blueprint for the other ones that follow?
KRS-One: Well, the reason why it’s called the First Instrument is because it’s the first instruction… The other two are the Second Instrument, and the Third Instrument…
There’s a Universe Instrument, where we apply Hip-Hop to astronomy, and we flush out the chemistry of Hip-Hop… We also flushed out the astronomy, to see where Hip-Hop is read in the stars…
iHipHop.com: Do you feel as if today’s Hip-Hop culture is still being represented well?
KRS-One: I think Hip-Hop is so strong right now, even though there is a lot of bullsh*t going on… Hip-Hop does have some bullsh*t in it, but it’s that bullsh*t that makes it fertile…
iHipHop.com: You performed at the BET Hip-Hop Awards during the cipher segment and on stage for the Beastie Boys tribute with Wale and Travis McCoy of the Gym Class Heroes… So do you think more veteran acts should team up with the younger acts just like you did?
KRS-One: Honestly, I’m not really on that mission that align myself with the younger acts, but when I’m called by the younger audience, I do not hesitate… Ghostface Killah was supposed to go up there, but something happened, and they called me…
They called me Sunday for a Monday rehearsal, so I was sort of a fill-in…So here I am; an elder in the culture, and the kids are calling on me, and they want me to show them some knowledge…
Right now I think that we finally united Hip-Hop, and it’s all one idea now… We may not talk on the phone at the same time, but I think we’re finally under one umbrella…
