KRS-one of my favorites

1. 1st quarter - the commentary
2. 2nd quarter - free throws
3. the mc w/ Feel X, Kevin Glover
4. i got next / neva hadda gun
5. heartbeat feat. Redman, Angie Martinez w/ Commissioner
Gordon, Ted Wholson, Ingz
6. step into a world (rapture's delight) w/ Keva, Jesse West
7. a friend
8. h.i.p.h.o.p. w/ Thor-El
9. halftime
10. 3rd quarter - the commentary
11. klassicks (incl. hip hop vs. rap, sound of da police,
illegal business, jack of spades, 9mm, jimmy, still
#1, poetry, my philosophy, super hoe, criminal minded)
12. blowe feat. Redman
13. real hip hop part II feat. Mic Vandalz w/ Lamont Fields
14. come to da party w/ Anthony Mills
15. can't stop, won't stop w/ Commissioner Gordon, Ted
Wholson
16. over ya head w/ Commissioner Gordon
17. just to prove a point
18. 4th quarter - free throws
19. BONUS TRACK: step into a world (rapture's delight)
feat. Puff Daddy

KRS-ONE is a synonymous for excellent hip hop music, espicially lyrically being ahead of his time. Also on his '97 release, "i got next", KRS shows his audience some heavyweight lyrics. The 19-track album is divided by so-called quarters (read: skits) into different parts. With only a small crew of co-mc's on a few tracks KRS saved a lot of place for his own skills, not counting only on other rappers' rhymes.

The first song is already his best. "the mc" awaits the listener with great lyrical rhymes and wordplaying, it is one of the KRS' typical self-assured songs. I dunno, but almost no other rapper can state himself as the world's greatest as does KRS without being too arrogant. Unfortunataly, the album fells off a bit after this milestone song. While songs like "step into a world (rapture's delight)" and "blowe" with Redman represent tight hip hop, you cannot ignore the lack of creativity in songs like "come to da party" and "over ya head", the slow beats and the thrifty loops during the songs make these titles only worth to listen to for hardcore KRS fans. The song "a friend" is a nice story which KRS tells, but musically not too strong. "real hip hop part II" could be a very good song, with excellent rappers spittin on it. But the topic is this old "only east coast got real hip hop"-stuff I don't like. Well, of course it had to appear in 1997... A highlight is the appearance of Thor-El, who is a really tight underground mc.

Musically the album doesn't bring new hot cuts. Of course the beat from "the mc" (by Domingo) is a tight sample of classic strings. Then "klassicks" is (guess what?) a mix of old KRS-ONE classics, that is a really good idea. A lot of songs offer that slow beat music which combines reggae influence. All in all this album is for satisfying old KRS hardcore fans, but far away from being his best album.