X-CLAN - FIRE AND EARTH
More than a diss record, they just happened to remember Kris's humanist stance, and in this pro-black track they had to air it out:
And here's a message to the Rainbow crew
And their fearless leader, Captain Human:
Revolution is not humanism!
Individualism and not separatism!
Even Professor X (RIP) raps on this one, instead of just "sissying" and "pink cadillacing".
Over and under as I progress to this
Got no time to be hanging out with humanists
Raise a flag, fly the, tag the hand, clutch the fist
Serve we nationally comes the diss
Humanity keep it with us we break edicts
On another track ("Grand Verbalizer") from their first album, Brother J also sends a direct hit to KRS:
Go from go from verb to verb,
Sit back and take heed, brother
YOU must learn!
Now to be fair though, there is an interview with Brother J over at Unkut.com where J states that there never was any hostile situations.
"The original situation with me and Kris wasn’t a beef, it was more of a misunderstanding on the audience’s part(...) All I was trying to state was that black people were not ready at the time for “humanism” views – we don’t have our house clean. (...) So my thing was to him [KRS] “You must learn”, take some time back and sit back and let’s build, sit down with some different elders and see it from different perspective before it goes out there like that. And the crowd instantly took it and said “Ohh, you beefing with KRS, the greatest MC of all time!”
Personally I call bullshit. I guess that memo never got to Kris, 'cause he put on his chef's apron and served them some craaaazy beef.
BOOGIE DOWN PRODUCTIONS - BUILD AND DESTROY
The great response by KRS was not only to destroy them as artists, but also went up against their beliefs. The fact that KRS got up in pro-black's asses with his two verses just proved that he wasn't afraid of ANYTHING.
He very cleverly showed and proved that many black men are worse then white devils, using Colin Powell as a great example.
Throw in the towel, the devil is Colin Powell
You talk about being African and being black
Colin Powell's black, but Libya he'll attack
Libya's in Africa, but a black man
will lead a black man, to fight against his homeland
An accomplice to the devil is a devil too
The devil is anti-human, who the hell are you?
He then went up against all philosophies that defend that since the first man from Africa as the original man, therefore all black men are the original man. He even goes up against 5%'s that focus on black man being God.
God is not any black man on the land; God is consciousness
When you understand this you'll see Kris
Until then, you can get dissed
He finishes his diss, or better yet, his lesson, with a mouth smacking teacher-to-student verse:
Yes I am the original teacher
You gotta study the Qu'ran, Torah, Bahavaghita
The Bible, Five Baskets of Buddha Zen
And when you've read them shits, READ them shits again!
But watch what you're repeatin
If you don't know the history of the author
you don't know what you're reading!
Yeah I'm still the original
Leaving MC's lyrically miserable
Their criminal syllables are minimal, show me respect BOY
Cause I build and destroy!
This is a lesser known battle where KRS stomped all over an MC. Brother J never responded, but instead, years later invited KRS to X-Clan's album to "Speak the Truth":
X-CLAN ft. KRS-1 - "Speak the Truth"
-- cenzi stiles
I remember this very well. KRS pretty much shut them up with 'Build and Destroy'.
ReplyDelete"Build and Destroy" was dope, but KRS' flighty "humanism" always seemed so much less compelling than X-Clan's loony but prideful philosophies.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Brother J has aged gracefully in a mature, updated philosophy of pride and empowerment whereas KRS is even more of a basketcase.
ReplyDelete^True, but KRS smashed all competitors prior to '95 in my book, he was unstoppable lyrically and spit knowledge that I still hold true.
ReplyDeleteI never heard this X-clan/KRS track excellent article as all ways. KRS & Poor Righteous Teachers also had a dispute that resulted in their collabo on "Conscious Style". The thing about the nature of Rap music now is that in the past, groups like X-Clan and P.R.T. went against KRS (who was the strongest battle rapper at that time) because they had heart and disagreed on the grounds of belief, and felt justified to defend that. Top shelf rappers today now either have no real beliefs, or are to scared to express them as they will get shut down. Battles today are either manufactured or end up in threats of gun play.
ReplyDeleteIt kind of shows where we are at when at that time KRS and X-Clan/P.R.T. all sat down, built and created after the disputes like intelligent men, as opposed to now where rappers leak phone calls and personal legal papers.
Kinda cool gaining a new perspective on songs you have memories around, in this case Build and destroy. I was never a fan of X-Clan , mainly cause of Isis and X, made me cringe in front of Yo, though I loved Dark Sun Riders to death. So I never listened to X-Clan and missed this thing about the beef. So thanks for an enlightening piece! My two cents on KRS is ACE releases up til I got Next which I consider his last golden moment as a whole. What happened?
ReplyDeletethis shit is of the hook while it buffers to quench their beef to each other way back dem memory lanes if i could recall thats for sure is a real punchline line to pro-black
ReplyDeleteFunny you call these guys intellectuals. KRS One is clearly a more articulate person than that guy called Professor J, but when it comes to geopolitics what those guys were sayin' is just awful stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteKrs is legend and all,But i think x clan took this one...Sucks they had to beef over what really was a misunderstanding.
ReplyDelete