KRS drops his third effort in three years and manages to remain relevant in the game, unlike most of the hip hop artists. The boy decides to change the elements of the Boogie Down Productions crew again, including for this album D-Nice, Ms. Melodie, D-Square, Willie D, Harmony and Robocop, among others. Unlike what the scene might expect after two critically and commercially successful albums, KRS continues to follow in the footsteps of his previous albums and remains focused on socio-conscious themes, trying to get his message across without any kind of mainstream concession and without betraying the roots of the group.
The Blastmaster maintains a crisp delivery style and a smooth, good and cold rapping with which he delivers excellent, pro-black, intelligent socio-conscious and political lyrics. On skeletal and minimal boom bap produced by the artist himself, KRS-One moves more towards teaching, sounding hard in an attempt to educate street youngers. The result is a coherent album, remarkably solid and heavily influenced by reggae with pleasant results. Adding even more value to the project is the author's choice not to rely on choruses for a good part of the album.
Released by Jive, it sees a virtually total absence of guests, Afrika Bambaataa is credited to scratches in "Jah Rulez" and D-Nice does the human beatbox in "Breath Control", Pamela Scott and Shelia Pate are credited to background vocals, while D-Nice, Dwayne Sumal and Rebekah Foster are credited as co-producers and the music is supported by live instrumentals played by Val Duglass (bass), Nass-T (drums), Sidney Mills (keyboards), Kevin Batchelor (trumpet), and Jerry Johnson (sax).
Highly praised by critics upon its release and warmly rediscovered by reviewers over the following decades, the whole effort is supported by several singles ("Jack of Spades", "Why Is That?", "You Must Learn", respectively #3, #5 and #15 on the Billboard rap chart), going strong in sales and making inroads into the top 40 of the pop albums and into the top 10 of the rnb records, reaching the gold certification by RIAA in few months. It's possibly the group's best album, at least lyrically, and it's one of the greatest hip-hop records of the 1980s, almost essential.
Highlights: "The Style You Haven't Done Yet", "Why Is That?", "The Blueprint", "Jack of Spades", "You Must Learn", "Hip Hop Rules", "Bo! Bo! Bo!", "World Peace".
Rating: 8.8/10.
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