Hip Hop Lives is the collaborative album from MC KRS-One and producer Marley Marl. This is a historical album in the sense that 20 years prior, KRS and Marley were bitter rivals involved in the legendary Bridge Wars. In an interview with Unkut.com, KRS-One spoke on how the album came together and as it was released 20 years after his debut album Criminal Minded, he and Koch Records wanted something special in celebration of that and decided to get Marley Marl to produce the whole LP.
The album is a quasi-sequel to Nas' 2006 album Hip Hop Is Dead, not a criticism as its title suggests, as KRS-One is known to have agreed with Nas' declaration of rap music's "death". In fact the duo recorded a tribute to Nas for the album which, however, was cut from the final tracklist. It also comes with a 22 minute behind-the-scenes video on the making of the album if bought on iTunes.
"It all happened with one phone call," Marley Marl told AllHipHop.com during a March 2006 interview. "They called me and he jumped on the phone and told me it would be spectacular for Hip Hop...My reason for doing this is to show these kids that [Hip Hop beefs] are not that serious." The first single is "Hip Hop Lives (I Come Back).
Hip hop or hip-hop is a sub-cultural movement that formed during the early 1970s by African-American and Puerto Rican youths residing in the South Bronx in New York City. It became popular outside of the African-American community in the late 1980s and by the 2000s became the most listened-to musical genre in the world. It is characterized by four distinct elements, all of which represent the different manifestations of the culture: rap music (oral), turntablism or DJing (aural), b-boying (physical) and graffiti art (visual). Even while it continues to develop globally in myriad styles, these four foundational elements provide coherence to hip hop culture. The term is often used in a restrictive fashion as synonymous only with the oral practice of rap music.
The origin of the hip hop culture stems from the block parties of the Ghetto Brothers, when they plugged in the amplifiers for their instruments and speakers into the lampposts on 163rd Street and Prospect Avenue and used music to break down racial barriers, and from DJ Kool Herc at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, where Herc mixed samples of existing records with his own shouts to the crowd and dancers. Kool Herc is credited as the "father" of hip hop. DJ Afrika Bambaataa of the hip hop collective Zulu Nation outlined the pillars of hip hop culture, to which he coined the terms: MCing or "Emceein", DJing or "Deejayin", B-boying and graffiti writing or "Aerosol Writin".
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop or rap music, is a music genre formed in the United States in the 1970s that consists of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted. It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching, break dancing, and graffiti writing. Other elements include sampling (or synthesis), and beatboxing.
While often used to refer to rapping, "hip hop" more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture. The term hip hop music is sometimes used synonymously with the term rap music, though rapping is not a required component of hip hop music; the genre may also incorporate other elements of hip hop culture, including DJing, turntablism, and scratching, beatboxing, and instrumental tracks.
Hip-hop dance refers to street dance styles primarily performed to hIP HOP or that have evolved as part of hip-hop culture. It includes a wide range of styles primarily breaking, locking, and popping which were created in the 1970s and made popular by dance crews in the United States. The television show Soul Train and the 1980s films Breakin', Beat Street, and Wild Style showcased these crews and dance styles in their early stages; therefore, giving hip-hop mainstream exposure. The dance industry responded with a commercial, studio-based version of hip-hop—sometimes called "new style"—and a hip-hop influenced style of jazz dance called "jazz-funk". Classically trained dancers developed these studio styles in order to create choreography from the hip-hop dances that were performed on the street. Because of this development, hip-hop dance is practiced in both dance studios and outdoor spaces.
The commercialization of hip-hop dance continued into the 1990s and 2000s with the production of several television shows and movies such as The Grind, Planet B-Boy, Rize, StreetDance 3D, America's Best Dance Crew, Saigon Electric, the Step Up film series, and The LXD, a web series. Though the dance is established in entertainment, including mild representation in theater, it maintains a strong presence in urban neighborhoods which has led to the creation of street dance derivatives Memphis jookin, turfing, jerkin', and krumping.
I come back, every year I get newer
I'm the dust on the moon, I'm the trash in the sewer
Let's go, I come back, every year I get brighter
If you thinkin' hip hop is alive, hold up your lighter
Let's go, I come back, every year I'm expandin'
Talkin' to developers about this city we plannin', c'mon
I come back through any endeavor
This is hip hop, we gon? last forever
Hip means to know, it's a form of intelligence
To be hip is to be update and relevant
Hop is a form of movement
You can't just observe a hop, you gotta hop up and do it
Hip and hop is more than music
Hip is the knowledge, hop is the movement
Hip and Hop is intelligent movement
Or relevant movement we sellin? the music
So write this down on your black books and journals
Hip hop culture is eternal
Run and tell all your friends
An ancient civilization has bee born again, it's a fact
I come back, every year I'm the strongest
KRS-One, Marley Marl, yup, we last the longest
Let's go, I come back ?cause I'm not in the physical
I create myself, man, I live in the spiritual
I come back through the cycles of life
If you been here once you gon? be here twice
So I tell you, I come back ?cause you must learn too
Hip hop culture is eternal
Hip hop, her infinite power
Helpin' oppressed people, we are unique and unequaled
Hip hop, holy integrated people
Havin' omnipresent power, the watchman's in the tower of
Hip hop, hydrogen iodine phosphorous
Hydrogen oxygen phosphorous, that's called
Hip hop, the response of cosmic consciousness
To our condition as hip hop
We gotta think about the children we bringin' up
When hip and hop means intelligence springin' up
We singin' what? Sickness, hatred, ignorance and poverty
Or health, love, awareness and health, follow me
I come back, every year I get newer
I'm the dust on the moon, I'm the trash in the sewer, that's right
I come back, every year I get brighter
If you think hip hop is alive hold up your lighter, let's go
I come back, every year I'm expandin'
Talkin' to developers about this city we plannin'
I come back through any endeavor
This hip hop we gon? last forever
We will be here forever
We will still be here forever
Get what I'm sayin' forever
Marley
I come back, every year I get newer
That's that, that's that
I come back, every year I get newer