Rating:
Genre:
Rap
Release Date: 10/25/1990
Run Time: 47:28
The murder of DJ
Scott La Rock had a profound effect on
KRS-One, resulting in a drastic rethinking of his on-record persona. He re-emerged the following year with
By All Means Necessary, calling himself the Teacher and rapping mostly about issues facing the black community. His reality rhymes were no longer morally ambiguous, and this time when he posed on the cover with a gun, he was mimicking a photo of
Malcolm X. As a social commentator, this is arguably
KRS-One's finest moment. His observations are sharp, lucid, and confident, yet he doesn't fall prey to the preachiness that would mar some of his later work, and he isn't afraid to be playful or personal. The latter is especially true on the subject of
La Rock, whose memory hangs over
By All Means Necessary -- not just in the frequent name-checks, but in the minimalist production and hard-hitting 808 drum beats that were his stock-in-trade on
Criminal Minded.
La Rock figures heavily in the album opener,
"My Philosophy," which explains
BDP's transition and serves as a manifesto for socially conscious
hip-hop. The high point is the impassioned
"Stop the Violence," a plea for peace on the
hip-hop scene that still hasn't been heeded. Even as
KRS-One denounces black-on-black crime, he refuses to allow the community to be stereotyped, criticizing the system that scoffs at that violence on the spoken recitation
"Necessary." "Illegal Business" is a startlingly perceptive look at how the drug trade corrupts the police and government, appearing not long before the CIA's drug-running activities in the Iran-Contra Affair came to light. There are also some lighter moments in the battle-rhyme tracks, and a witty safe-sex
rap in
"Jimmy," a close cousin to
the Jungle Brothers'
"Jimbrowski." Lyrics from this album have been sampled by everyone from
Prince Paul to
N.W.A, and it ranks not only as
KRS-One's most cohesive, fully realized statement, but a landmark of
political rap that's unfairly lost in the shadow of
Public Enemy's
It Takes a Nation of Millions.
~Steve Huey, All Music Guide
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