KRS-One

KRS-One: In a very corny sense, God is the inspiration for this album. It’s a wonderful thing when you have a relationship with God and I mention that because I left home when I was about 14 or 15 years of age to pursue God. I was pursuing God through philosophy, through metaphysics, through the questioning of what is real and so on, and that lead me for 14 years through a phenomenal rap career that basically delved into an intellectual side of finding your spirit. All through my life I’ve been on a quest to master my soul. To really try to be Christ-like, to really walk in this world trying to imitate the personality of Christ, of the God Man/Woman, of God’s son, of an enlightened person. I’ve found this fascinating when I was young. Some of the theories I would take and put forth right on the record with songs like, Why Is That?, Higher Level and The Truth. Some of the poems at the end of my albums throughout the 10 years reflect the study I was going through. And a fascinating study it is: the study of religion, the study of the Bible in particular, the Koran, Buddhist, Eight-Fold path, etc. I went through a 14-year period of just studying that, trying to find my spirit.

In 1999, I went to Los Angeles to put a full emphasis on wanting to see the face of God. I packed up my whole family and I said I’m not rapping much anymore. What I’m going to do is take an A/R position at Warner Bros. then this will give me more time to study God. When I got to California, I joined Bishop Clarence E. McClendon’s church. Keep in mind I was already taught of the Riverside Church in New York City under Rev. Mariah Britton; it was a rewarding experience to have a woman pastor ministering over my life. That was a great experience.

At Bishop Clarence McClendon’s church, I was impressed with the fact that he openly embraced hip-hop in his church. The fact that he had break-in in his church, he talked about MC-ing and DJay-ing, but more importantly, he talked about the culture of hip hop. How God has chosen hip-hoppers to come forth and he prophesied that there will be a time where the same kids you see with their pants sagging, standing on the corner, smelling like weed; they’re going to be just the people God is going to pick-up and say boom, here’s the new message.