This winter's bitter spat between Nicki Minaj and Remy Ma was merely the latest chapter in a decades-long hip hop battle for supremacy between the Queens and Bronx. The interborough rivalry dates back as early as 1987, when the South Bronx's Boogie Down Productions squared up (lyrically) against Queens' Juice Crew.
BDP formed in the mid-1980s after a then-homeless KRS-One attempted to steal subway tokens from the 166th Street Franklin Armory Men’s Shelter, where Scott La Rock worked. They would soon join force—KRS on the mic, Scott on production—and forge a sharp, politically charged style that would soon be heard New York and the country over.
This article revisits songs from Boogie Down's five albums: Criminal Minded (1987), By All Means Necessary (1988), Ghetto Music: The Blueprint of Hip Hop (1989), Edutainment (1990), and Sex and Violence (1992). Click through the image gallery to read on.
South Bronx
"South Bronx" | Criminal Minded (1987)
The fabled Bridge Wars began when Marley Marl and MC Shan's Juice Crew released "The Bridge," which seemed to claim their native Queensbridge as the true birthplace of hip hop. Affronted, Boogie Down Productions clapped back with the acerbic diss "South Bronx."
Instead of trying to take out LL / You need to take your homeboys off the crack.
The Bridge is Over
"The Bridge Is Over" | Criminal Minded (1987)
"South Bronx" prompted Juice Crew to clap back with "Kill That Noise" — which then elicited what is widely regarded as one of the finest diss tracks in hip hop history, a template for all future diss tracks: BDP's "The Bridge Is Over."
Manhattan keeps on making it, Brooklyn keeps on taking it. Bronx keeps creating it, and Queens keeps on faking it.
Super Hoe
"Super Hoe" | Criminal Minded (1987)
The original Mr. Steal Your Girl, Scott La Rock opens "Super Hoe" by regaling KRS-One with a story about his sordid exploits with "two big-butt females." Impressed, KRS proceeds to gas up Scott's superhuman powers of seduction over the next three verses.
The Super-Hoe is loose in your section / And he's armed with a powerful erection.
Stop the Violence
"Stop the Violence" |
Scott La Rock was tragically gunned down while attempting to mediate a dispute over a girl six months after the release of Criminal Minded. KRS-One spoke on his thought process behind "Stop the Violence," from BDP's sophomore album By All Means Necessary, in a 1998 interview:
"BDP was basically designed for twofold purpose. One was to grasp that street image, the street life we live and to put it in a mainstream sense. Because the ghetto has no one to speak for them.
"None of the rap artists would speak on non-violence because it wasn't cool. It wasn't the fad at the time. So here comes BDP again. We come out with a record 'Stop the Violence.' Now, being that this is on my second album, we had already gained the respect of the ghetto-oriented kid. Criminal Minded is it So they're listening now. Violence really is a way of life. It is the intelligent people who curb it, who rise up above it and say, 'we're gonna try and stop it.' Peace doesn't come with a flower. If you really want world peace, you have to take it."
My Philosophy
"My Philosophy" | By All Means Necessary (1988)
KRS-One is in many ways the model for the modern rapper. On "My Philosophy," he codified his rap blueprint: his opposition to the the whims of the industry, his intention to speak to and for the common man, and his desire to destroy all trifling emcees.
How many MC's must get dissed / Before somebody says, "Don't fuck with Kris!"
I'm Still #1
"I'm Still #1" | By All Means Necessary (1988)
Pusha T has listed By All Means Necessary as among as his favorite rap albums ever.
"KRS-One was the epitome of hip-hop and storytelling," Push told Complex. "KRS-One is a rap god, but he and Chuck D get passes [for being positive]. You look at KRS-One—and who Scott LaRock was to him and how he went down—and he could have easily turned that into angst and anarchy. He could have been like, ‘Fuck it. You just did this,’ and it really could have went all the way bad, and it didn’t. He still kept his stance.
“We sort of succumb to the bullshit and the negativity, and these guys fought against all of that shit. They fought and put out music with the best of them. They still prevailed. These albums are reflections of them, and that’s why I give them that competitive spirit. They didd something harder than probably everybody on my list.”
The Style You Haven’t Done Yet
"The Style You Haven’t Done Yet" | Ghetto Music: The Blueprint of Hip Hop (1989)
KRS-One on Ghetto Music: The Blueprint of Hip Hop, as told by Vibe:
"Let’s look at the music more than just sounds and lyrics. Let’s look at this even from a spiritual point of view…let’s start questioning the philosophies and the theologies that are around us. This is where we started doing songs like ‘You Must Learn’ and ‘Why Is That.’ We were questioning what everyone thought was real. We were questioning the interpretation of the Bible. We were questioning how black kids were being taught in school."
Jack of Spades
"Jack Of Spades" | Ghetto Music: The Blueprint of Hip Hop (1989)
In a 2001 interview with AV Club, KRS-One spoke on hip hop's most encouraging most encouraging characteristic:
"That it is the only place where Dr. Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream' speech is visible. When Dr. Martin Luther King said, "I have a dream... Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain," in his time, Stone Mountain was the Klan headquarters. Today, with the help of hip-hop, they're all hip-hoppers up there. And when I say hip-hoppers, I mean black, white, Asian, Latino, Chicano, everybody. Everybody. Hip-hop has united all races. Hip-hop has formed a platform for all people, religions, and occupations to meet on something. We all have a platform to meet on now, due to hip-hop. That, to me, is beyond music. That is just a brilliant, brilliant thing."
Love's Gonna Get Cha
"Love's Gonna Get Cha" | Edutainment (1990)
KRS-One on Edutainment, as told by Vibe:
“Right around this time the Gulf War is humming. We thought America was setting up for urban warfare in the United States. But it was really urban warfare in the Middle East. It was too controversial to speak of. You really had to speak about these things behind closed doors and with friends."
This is why we started steering hip-hop in an even more conscious direction because we knew it was still commercial. When we were making Edutainment I started talking about hip-hop as a culture. I started really building up an idea of a hip-hop nation."
Duck Down
"Duck Down" | Sex and Violence (1992)
KRS-One on Sex and Violence, as told by Vibe:
"For the album cover I used Robert Williams’ surreal artwork, which depicted the Oracle of Delphi. It shows a half-man, half-woman swooping in on the entrepreneur, squeezing cheese out of a lady that was sitting on a man’s lap. This entrepreneur is obviously in a sexual situation with her and while he’s wasting time the oracle comes in with a clock that points to doomsday. I put that message out in 1992 because I didn’t want to be so blatant with just screaming out things like the New World Order or globalization or the Illuminati. I think we chronicled everything hip-hop was going through on Sex And Violence."