KRS-One recently addressed mainstream radio stations during an interview where he was asked why he “never went mainstream.”
“If the radio ever played my music, I would sue them,” KRS-One said in a recent interview with whomag.net. “And they know it, which is why they don’t play my music. If you play KRS, I’ll sue you. Straight up. I don’t even want my music on mainstream radio. They don’t deserve it. They destroy careers.”
“Here’s a secret,” KRS continued. “I’m going to drop a jewel on you right now. Less is more. Small is big. Marketing and promotion is shit. Physics, mathematics, and cosmology. Why do we breathe? What is oxygen? This is the truth. I only want the truth. I existed before the mainstream. Why would I join them? I watched the mainstream come up and now I’m watching it collapse. I don’t want to be a part of that. I was born in Hip Hop. That’s all I ever needed. That’s it.
“As long as I do that, the devil can’t get me on any angle,” KRS continued. “I’m faster than the devil. Always. Now, how do you know? You have to go to hell first. You cant just say your better than the devil just out your mouth. No, face the devil face-to-face and tell him, ‘God has arrived. Now here’s what you are going to do.’ And you direct the devil. Only if you’re God though. What does that mean? Jive Records dropped everybody in 1999, A Tribe Called Quest, DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince, everybody. They signed Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys and N’Sync and got rid of their entire Rap roster. I went to Warner Bros. I asked God, ‘What I should do?’ He said, ‘Go to California.’ I went to California. I linked up with my man who was A&R of another label in Cali who I met at Columbia. He quit Columbia and went to Warner Bros. I went to Warner Bros. He made me Head of A&R for Warner Bros., actually of Reprise Records, but since it was Warner Bros., the whole label bugged out.”
One of KRS-One’s most celebrated songs, 1997’s “Step into a World (Rapture’s Delight),” was released on KRS’ I Got Next album via JIVE.
On “Step into a World (Rapture’s Delight),” KRS-One discusses his views on “marketing and promotion.”
“Yo, I’m strictly ’bout skills and dope lyrical coastin’,” KRS says on the song. “Relying on talent, not marketing and promotion.”
Beyond this, the song’s first verse also features KRS’ thoughts regarding record labels.
“Stop wastin’ your money on marketing schemes,” KRS says on the track. “And pretty packages pushin dreams to the fiends / A dope emcee is a dope emcee / With or without a record deal, all can see / And that’s who KRS be, son / I’m not the run of mill, cause for the mill I don’t run.”
The video for the song, now featured on KRS-One’s homepage, can be seen below.
