"KRS-One is not your run-of-the-mill blowhard MC. His accomplishments alone could max out the word count on this review: inductor of the 16-bar rhyme style, the off-beat rhyme style, the first rapper to pose with guns on an album cover, controlling force behind the first legitimate live hip-hop album, harbinger of hip-hop reggae, etcetera, so on and so forth. And even when he's not pumping his fists in the air, entrancing all around him into a mesmerized state of adulation, you can still tell from his incisive musical platters that Kris is hip-hop's Cassius Clay: dope as fuck with a mouth to back it up. So when Lawrence "Kris" Parker presents his ninth album entitled I Got Next, it's easy to ascertain that he's not referring to holding down the next game of b-ball on the local asphalt. It means he's comin' with dat next feces and he can't wait for his turn to grab the spotlight.... The truth is that KRS-One hasn't gotten wack, but as a phoenix that constantly rises from the pyres of discarded fads and fetishes, he stands as a relic from the fabled hip-hop "Golden Age," and is undoubtedly held to a higher standard than your average mic wielder. And while his full-length capacity may have peaked with By All Means Necessary, you can't help but still yearn for the return of classic material. Broken down to its very last compound, Kris' music, like fine wine, gets better with age. And even when it's not a good year, his brew is much better than the bargain basement swill that destroys your liver and churns your intestines. KRS-One's albums, BDP or otherwise, have always remained pertinent and inventive. Overtly and overly genre expanding tendencies notwithstanding, I Got Next stands to be just as relevant. Even without a scholarly cut of the likes we've come to expect from the Teacher, this may still be the most mandatory mind music for the next millenium." - The Source (May, 1997). Read the full review and hear select cuts below...
KRS-One's "The MC" and "Step Into A World" from I Got Next...