My Daddy’s Records #4- “My Philosophy” By All Means Necessary

August 20, 2015

Can you believe that this is the first hip-hop record I’ve shared on My Daddy’s Records (this is a weekly segment where I share the songs that I introduce to the Mighty, because they sure as hell won’t hear them on the radio. Black radio is dead, but that’s another column)?

My big brother is seven years my senior, so in 1988, long before most kids learned about new artists and new songs from the internet, I had my big brother. He had friends that had cousins that lived on the east coast so he always had mixed tapes before mixed tapes were popular. I heard Kane, Public Enemy, G. Rap and Polo, Nice and Smooth, Epmd, MC Lyte and every ground breaking MC from the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Philly and Jersey, before Fab Five Freddy debuted them on Saturday nights.

I thought that Public Enemy, which is my brother Anthony’s favorite group, were rock stars. But every time I talk PE with another hip-hop old head, we can’t end our reminiscing without mentioning BDP; the two are synonymous. It’s like talking Malcolm and not mentioning Garvey. BDP’s front man, KRS-ONE, was a man ahead of his time. His beef battles with MC Shan and Marley Marl were legendary, precise, and always kept on wax. But then he’d hit you across the head with pure, hard core facts; historical gems. He was the first MC, in my opinion, to successfully combine socially conscious lyrics with an elite lyrical acumen. He had skills to go along with his righteously didactic delivery.

So on today, Kris Parker’s aka KRS-ONE’s fiftieth birthday, take a listen to the first song my brother used to introduce me to Boogie Down Productions, “My Philosophy” of of BDP’s 1988 release By All mean’s Necessary.

Salute, Kris. Shout out to my brother D-Nice.