Product Description

Although BDP had basically been a vehicle for KRS' solo vision at least since EDUTAINMENT, RETURN OF THE BOOM BAP is the first full-length release under his own name. As such it marks a significant turning point in his career, effectively stating that even if CRIMINAL MINDED had secured him old-school legend status, KRS was in fact the first new school emcee. Along with Rakim and a handful of others, he took rap away from elaborate call-and-response delivery of fairly simplerhymes towards a soliloquy of complex rhyme schemes and original metaphors. Consistent enough that he never had to worry about whether or not to call it a come-back, KRS nevertheless covered his bets by enlisting the new school's most innovative producer (DJ Premier) to complement his own beats on this solo debut.

Track Listing

1. KRS-One Attacks
2. Outta Here
3. Black Cop
4. Mortal Thought
5. I Can't Wake Up
6. Slap Them Up
7. Sound Of Da Police
8. Mad Crew
9. Uh Oh
10. Brown Skin Woman
11. Return Of The Boom Bap
12. P Is Still Free
13. Stop Frontin'
14. Higher Level

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49988 in Music
• Released on: 1997-05-19
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
By 1993, hip-hop was in transition from an organic form of musical expression into a culture fabricating stars and big business. With many icons from his era either ageing or losing their relevance (e.g. Chuck D, Rakim), KRS-ONE dropped a gem of an album that not only navigated the sound of the day but led the charge. Shedding his previous Boogie Down Productions moniker, KRS-One's Return of the Boom Bap is not just an album: it is KRS's call to arms for the return of hard beats and real rap in hip-hop music. The former took many forms, thanks to the recruitment of Gang Starr's DJ Premier, who was hitting his stride as hip-hop's pre-eminent beat-maker. Primo crafted the classic head-nod rhythm of the title track, the bump of "Outta Here", an autobiographical tale of KRS-One's rise in hip-hop, and the dance-hall-inspired riddims of "Black Cop" and "Sound of Da Police". Lyrically, KRS-One displayed variety in both style and content, meshing old-school bombast ("Mortal Thought"), consciousness ("Higher Level"), and crafty and conceptual wordplay ("I Can't Wake Up"). The album opens with KRS-ONE boasting, even decreeing, that he would "be here forever". At the cross-roads, this album made it seem true. --Joseph Patel

Customer Reviews

ONE OF THE BEST YET
Im keeping this short and sweat with one word CLASSIC so pick it up yess real hiphop

THIS IS REAL HIP-HOP!!!!!!
This is it ladies and gentlemen this is what hip-hop is all about! Krs one is without doubt Hip-Hops voice of awareness of the plight of black americans he feels very strongly about the lack of equality towards the black man in america and uses his lyrics to highlight this whilst also trying to highlight ways for people to get out of the trouble. Krs one isnt so much a rapper hes an educator, a teacher of black history.

Now i got the politics out of the way we can get to the music and this album has a raw angery sound that most artists try and fail to replicate, no where is this more evident than from sound of da tha police which is a hip-hop anthem and the most reconigsable tune that KRS has released (that and step into a world) and needs no explanation.

I have touched on the fact that KRS is a teacher using rap for his lecture and to listen to Black cop this is in evidence, KRS takes this track by comparing the simularities between cops and overseers (black men promoted from the plantations to look over the other slaves) and compared that even though these two positions are spaced a hundred and fifty years apart their roles are very simular.

Brown skin woman is about teaching black women to respect themselves and to try and tell black men to respect them more. Mad crew is just a dope beat with a catchy base line with an even better chorus line "i got the mad mad crew upon the top" which is repeated in a slow down tempo voice and is very much representative to KRS's style.

On a lighter note there is I can't wake up which is about KRS dreaming hes a blunt and that top rappers and other noteable people are smoking him including bill clinton " the joint passes on to bill clinton, he says he will smoke but not inhale..." great line and is a strange but amusing track to find on an otherwise very serious album.

If you like your rap or are just getting into your hip-hop check this out its what Hip Hop is all about.

KRS-ONE is one of the greats and this is his BEST album.
This classic album opens with a cool intro produced by the one and only DJ Premier. Then one of the best albums in hip-hop ever really kicks off. Outta Here is produced by Primo again and is excellent. The album also contains some other great tracks Black Cop, Mortal Thought, the hilarious I Can't Wake Up, Sound Of Da Police and P Is Still Free.
The album is very well produced, leaning towards a very jazzy feel. Lyrically KRS is in outstanding form, proving why he is well respected by anyone who likes REAL hip-hop and not just the junk that tends to make the charts. Made in 1993 this is still relevant and will remain so FOREVER.