He decried the corporate commodification of rap, but once made a Nike commercial. He once opened up for Nelson Mandela and crossed over to MTV via R.E.M., and may have been the first Bronx emcee to work the college and lecture circuit – despite being a vocal critic of academia. The leading force behind the Stop the Violence movement, which called attention to Black on Black crime, he committed a major PR blunder by opening up a can of whoop-ass on PM Dawn’s Prince Be – which Afrocentric rap, once a legit commercial force and cultural tastemaker, never quite recovered from. KRS’ accomplishments are many, as are his contradictions. There was plenty of “–tainment,” however, especially in the last 20 minutes of the set, when a flurry of greatest hits had grey-haired 40 somethings reliving the glory days of their hip-hop youth, reciting lyrics along with the Blastmaster. That was the “edu-“ part of “edutainment,” the term KRS coined during the Afrocentric 90s to describe his style. Because it was a KRS-One show, Sunday night’s live performance at Yoshi’s-his first time at the Oakland location-also included, gratis, a long section where KRS engaged the audience with an a cappella monologue like a motivational speaker.
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