The second
Boogie Down Productions album devoted mostly to consciousness raising,
Ghetto Music: The Blueprint of Hip Hop finds
KRS-One evolving into a fierce advocate for both his community and his chosen art form. He's particularly concerned about the direction of the latter: he's wary of
hip-hop being co-opted by the
pop mainstream, and the album's title comes from his conviction that real
hip-hop is built on the vitality and rebelliousness of the streets. Accordingly,
Ghetto Music contains a few more battle rhymes than usual, plus some showcases for pure MC technique, in keeping with the most basic elements of the music. The production, too, is still resolutely minimalist, and even if it's a little more fleshed-out than in the past, it consciously makes no concessions to
pop or
R&B accessibility. There are more
reggae inflections in
KRS-One's delivery than ever before, audible in about half the tracks here, and the production starts to echo
dancehall more explicitly on a few. Meanwhile, as the Teacher, he's actually put together lesson plans for a couple tracks:
"Why Is That?" and
"You Must Learn" are basically lectures about biblical and African-American history, respectively. This is where
KRS-One starts to fall prey to didacticism, but he has relevant points to make, and the rapping is surprisingly nimble given all the information he's trying to pack in. Elsewhere,
"Who Protects Us from You?" is a bouncy anti-police-brutality
rap, and
KRS closes the album with the point that
"World Peace" can only be achieved through a pragmatic, aggressive struggle for equality. Although
Ghetto Music has a few signs that
KRS is starting to take himself a little too seriously (he dubs himself a metaphysician in the liner notes), overall it's another excellent effort and the last truly great
BDP album. ~ Steve Huey
