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Avg: 4.5 (8 ratings)
- Date Released: September 15, 2009
- Genre: Hip-Hop/R&B
- Style: Hip-Hop, Rap
- Label: Duck Down Records / Iris
The teacher returns for a lesson in lyricism
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We Say...
"I only speak when I have to speak," raps KRS-One on Survival Skills. If only it were so! For a certain school of backlash, this New York team-up with Boot Camp Clik's Buckshot might be the un-self-censoring rapper's first album worth his baggage since Boogie Down Productions' classic 1987 debut, Criminal Minded. Paired with perpetually laid-back underground lifer Buckshot amid beats by Havoc, 9th Wonder and Black Milk (with guests including Mary J. Blige, K'NAAN, and Slug of Atmosphere), KRS-One's emphatic anxiousness never sounded more focused or welcome: His juicy enunciation is a hip-hop pleasure as evergreen as the 9/11 paranoia he sometimes lapses into at the podium.
The way KRS shapes it, "Robot" is more than a Roger Troutman-upping lampoon of Auto-Tune overuse: The song takes robo-music as a metaphor for robo-thinking. "We Made It" redefines "making it" as every personal breakthrough of growing up, while "Think of All the Things" finds the Teacher preaching at his most zestfully to young women: "You keep seeking little boys who only want sex from you/Real men want the rest of you." Nothing you haven't heard maybe, but the rapper's urgency springs eternal: In his mid-40s, he truly sounds "hungry like I never had a meal." -
They Say...
With old-school legend KRS-One teaming with Boot Camp Clik member Buckshot, you can expect high-caliber rhymes and an anti-sellout attitude, but Survival Skills is a diverse, welcome surprise. The radio-friendly, and more importantly, radio-worthy single "The Way I Live" with Mary J Blige is a slicker package than usual from this revolutionary duo, but the polished production is actually from Black Milk, an underground tastemaker who provides a beat right in line with the ambitious spirit of the album. The guest list is an unexpected mix of Slug, K'naan, Pharoahe Monch, Sean Price, and reggae singer Bounty Killer, while production is ably handled by the likes of Nottz, 9th Wonder, Ill Mind, and Mobb Deep's Havoc. It's Havoc who outshines them all on the key cut "Robot," an anti-Auto-Tune track with a massive hook and KRS shaking the stick at the younger generation with the usual disgust ("Go online, look up Kraftwerk/Everything you doin' is past work/We already wore that hat, those pants, and that shirt"). Buckshot is hardly a household name and KRS-One's post-2000 discography is alienating with too many releases, but casual fans of more literate hip-hop should check Survival Skills since it's easily accessible and rewarding at the same time. Loyal hip-hop heads with a taste for the old-school boom-bap shouldn't think twice and won't be disappointed.
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| 01. |  |
ROBOT (produced by Havoc of Mobb Deep) |
4:06 |
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01 Total Tracks, 4:06 Total Length
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Credits
- Alex Rodriguez - Staff // Michael Sarsfield - Mastering // C4 - Engineer // Alexander Richter - Photography // Lou Smith - Promotions Director // Dan the Man - Mixing // Greg Gigendad Burke - Radio // Joe Monte - Staff // David Kim - Assistant // Killa Ben - Engineer // Noah "Noha" Friedman - Project Coordinator // Fred Bear - Studio Manager // Ashley Mapp - Staff // Matt Conaway - Publicity // Giambi - Engineer // M Nasty - Engineer
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