A year after disbanding Boogie Down Productions, KRS-One releases his debut solo album. Often, hip-hop fans wonder what would have happened if, over the course of his career, perhaps at his finest, KRS had spit hardcore bars on beats from a really good producer: it happened homies, the year is 1993, the album is "Return of the Boom Bap", Lawrence Parker's first solo album, that is, the first disk on which he decides to take off the name Boogie Down Productions and put his name on it, delivering hard bars on DJ Premier beats.
Few albums are quotable from the intro of the first track. Here, KRS, launches a quotable from the second 0:00 of the first song. Genius. After two seconds you have the first quotable: «we will be here forever», is something truly exceptional. Then, space for DJ Premier who creates a great intro for KRS-One career, with his mixes and scratches on boom bap jazzy with perfect drum, slow, hard and lively: excellent intro, Premier masterpiece.
The second song is "Outta Here", Preemo's boom bap with hard, pounding and slow drum, good sample, hard and energetic hardcore smoothness delivery by KRS, which revisits his past, gives some personal excerpt and pays homage to his friend Scott La Rock. "Black Cop" is the first socio-conscious political cut of the edition: on an essential and skeletal production made by KRS-One, with a skinny and raw, rough and poor drum, the rapper drops heavy bars with a hardcore and rough delivery, aggressive and powerful.
The producer of Gang Starr creates the rhythm for the fourth cut, battle rap delivered with a ragga style, flowing and light-hearted, on a jazzy boom bap with good samples and a pounding, hard and slow drum machine. In "I Can't Wake Up" comes one of Parker's masterpieces. Premier jazzy boom bap, pounding, hard and quick drum machine, effective simple hook, KRS dope smooth hardcore delivery, who makes a song dreaming of being a blunt smoked by other rappers: he pays homage to many friends here, inspiring generations of future artists to be more imaginative in their lyrics, and probably also giving a cue for that scene in "Scary Movie 2".
Norty Cotto is credited with producing "Slap Them Up", co-produced by Douglas Jones: surprisingly, the rhythm is good, it's not at the same level as those of Premier, it's perceived when the man leaves the keyboard to others, but it works. Fast and pounding dry hard drum, lively and velvet delivery of KRS, still intense in this battle rap performed together with Ill Will Fulton, uncredited guest.
The tune precedes one of the many KRS-One signature songs, produced by Showbiz, "Sound of da Police": classic hook by the MC, magnificent boom bap by the producer, slow, pounding, harsh drum, effortless smooth hardcore delivery of KRS dropping his heavy bars for four minutes in one of his best tracks ever, fantastic. This anthem against police, racism and violence against blacks is followed by two of the least successful songs of the edition, both produced by the rapper himself.
"Mad Crew" is a simple battle rap with a raw rhythm, but that the rapper manages to exploit adequately, thanks to a light-hearted and powerful delivery style, and "Uh Oh": the choice to make a rhythm based entirely on the beatbox is interesting and unfortunate at the same time, it's a tribute that could please old school fans, on which the author decides to perform socio-political bars with a style influenced by the ragga.
Kid Capri is the author of "Brown Skin Woman" boom bap hard, good samples, hard and pounding drum machine, raw and heavy, Parker's powerful smooth hardcore delivery spitting pro-black women bars. KRS-One decides to reserve to himself the production of the title track, this battle rap is the cut that he produces best in the LP: raw musical carpet, hard and pounding drum, hardcore and smooth delivery by Parker, with a powerful and simple chorus.
"'P' is Still Free" is the first track produced by DJ Premier in the second half of the CD: jazzy boom bap with sublime samples and perfect midtempo drum, KRS provides the sequel to "P is Free", a track from Boogie Down Productions' debut album about girls trading sex for crack, delivering his bars with a hardcore, slow and smooth style. Kid Capri produces cut number thirteen, good jazzy sound carpet, pounding, hard and tight drum, simple hook, smooth delivery by the rapper, while the producer manages to spit a couple of lines, uncredited in the latest battle rap.
"Higher Level" is the last song of the project, produced by Preemo: Gang Starr artist makes a splendid work, jazzy boom bap with good sample, slow, hard and pounding drum, but that somehow sounds light and accessible, Lawrence Parker makes a religious cut with socio-political and slavery extracts, performing his own bars with a smooth and hardcore rapping style.
Unlike the efforts of the past, the MC raised in the Bronx decides to rely on external producers: this turns out to be a decisive choice and is probably the key that elevates the whole project to a higher level. Most of the rhythms are provided by DJ Premier, KRS produces five tracks, Kid Capri two, Showbiz and Norty Cotto contribute one beat each. The title is true to the constitution of the project, the soundscape is a fresh and excellent hardcore boom bap, full of lively, hard, pounding and slow drums, good scratches and jazzy samples. Most of the music is flawless, nevertheless, the rapper doesn't give up spending time behind the keyboards, and his simplistic beats lower the overall level on the productive side: even without looking at the tracklist, you can guess when a Lawrence Parker rhythm arrives. The sound is rougher and more skeletal than usual, there's a rusty and rough drum, raw and poor and the samples are just decent.
Thanks to a particularly inspired lyricism and a magnetic performance, the MC manages to fill the few gaps in the project, taking advantage of even the less incisive rhythms. Between so much braggadocio and battle rap, the artist tackles various socio-conscious and political topics including racism, slavery, poverty, street life, institutional racism, black on black violence, drugs and religion, dropping smart, Afrocentric, pro-black, pro-black women verses, and giving several personal extracts. He kills every cut with hardcore, energetic, powerful, unstoppable, technically excellent rapping. Between lyrics and execution, he's at his best, delivering his best performance ever and varying the performance with a ragga style in some tracks.
Distributed by Jive Records, the insiders express themselves favorably, while the disc arrives in the top 40 of pop records and hits fifth in the rap chart. KRS is at the peak in career, fresh, fast, polished, lively and eclectic, deeply flowing, with a dope delivery style: he makes a quality, coherent, honest and intelligent hardcore record, it's an extraordinary comeback album, with no weaknesses. This is his best solo album, one of the best hip-hop records of the season and, with "Criminal Minded", he's vying for the title of his best album ever.
Highlights: "KRS-One Attacks", "Outta Here", "Mortal Thought", "I Can't Wake Up", "Sound of da Police", "Return of the Boom Bap", "'P' is Still Free", "Stop Frontin'", "Higher Level".
Rating: 9/10.
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