yes he may be self righteous and have a bloated sense of importance but he pulls it off cos hes not a pompous, overtly serious bore about it all. he makes it almost fun! the problem i saw tonight was that he was reciting the same old platitudes from the mind of KRS, the usual '5 elements of hip hop' spiel, the same old 'im taking you to a higher level', the same 'this is what REAL hip hop is' speech. i wasnt convinced. this may be cos i am now 25 rather than 15 but it just seemed a bit hollow and unconvincing. perhaps im just a patronising cynic but i cant help thinking that krs is still simply just a bullshit merchant who in between the occasional astute observation, simply gets by by talking pure bollocks! hes like a hustler of intelligence!
in his favour though, KRS has a lot of charisma, hes a fantastic performer and well, at least he tries to say something about issues that are on his mind, which is more than most rappers these days. that would imply krs is still relevant today though, but im not sure how true that is.
the other thing that struck me about the show is how stuck in time it was, i dont think i heard one new beat being played for him to rap over, it was all typicall 90s classics, which was actually, dull, predictable, and akin to a nostalgic oldies show in a way. youd think the 'teacher' would stay up to date and at least show he hasnt lost touch. he might not agree with a lot of what passes for hip hop content these days, but stylistically, he now sounds several leagues behind the llikes of bun b or paul wall. still, despite his incenssant babbling (which cut in quite severely into the number of songs he actually performed), he puts on a good show. and hes made lots of good records.