Happy 30th Anniversary to Boogie Down Productions’ fourth studio album Edutainment, originally released July 17, 1990. (Note: Select sources cite August 7, 1990 as the official release date.)
When I paid tribute to Boogie Down Productions’ Ghetto Music: The Blueprint (1989), I wrote how the group, led by Lawrence “Kris” Parker (a.k.a. KRS-One), made a conscious choice to take the load less travelled with the project, using the success of By All Means Necessary (1988) to move towards even more explicitly using their releases as a means to educate their audience. This was exemplified in singles like “Why Is That?” and “You Must Learn,” both musical history lessons.
Well, radio didn’t exactly warm to in-depth lyrical essays on how Moses was, in fact, Black, so songs from Ghetto Music didn’t receive a lot of play on the airwaves. Although Ghetto Music went gold, it wasn’t as embraced by conventional media. But rather than course-correct, BDP doubled-down with Edutainment, their outstanding fourth release.
Released 30 years ago, BDP constructed their longest album around educating the masses on complicated and thought-provoking issues in the most entertaining way possible. Filled with both “poetry, beautifully articulated” and in-depth dissertations on history and morality, it’s another near flawless album by the crew. KRS-One had already been considered the “Teacher” of hip-hop for years, but Edutainment is where he dedicated the most energy to his role as an educator.
KRS-One is never one to mince words and he lets loose in the liner notes for Edutainment. Here he positions himself as a dedicated teacher, lambasting those who don’t back up their talk. “I believe that it is good and healthy to have people in communication communicating,” he writes, “uplifting messages to the masses of people. However, I’ve witnessed frauds of revolution stand up and take a false stand. In one breath they call themselves the teachers and in another breath they’re gangster pop star pimps acting the way the government wants Black people to act.”
But even with the venom he directs at these “false prophets,” Edutainment leads by example, actively seeking to educate the listeners with some of BDP’s most entertaining music. Even the skits serve this purpose: taken from what sounds like a joint lecture by KRS-One and legendary activist Kwame Ture, they function as pockets of knowledge and humor interspersed between the tracks.
“Blackman In Effect,” Edutainment’s opening song, is a continuation of “Why Is That?” and “You Must Learn.” After proclaiming that “I don’t teach hate, I just set the record straight” and declaring that he’s not interested “in silence, but science,” he argues for Africa’s forgotten position as the original source of scientific and mathematical thought as we conceive it. He espouses and supports the notion that Africa is the cradle of human civilization, which was still considered a fairly radical idea in the mainstream three decades ago.
KRS is interested in teaching more than the history of civilization on Edutainment. “Beef” serves as a lengthy lesson on why you are what you eat and is one the first hip-hop tracks to advocate against factory farming. He also rails against the FDA for having the United States “strung out on drugs in beef, no doubt.” Meanwhile, “Ya Strugglin’” delves into issues of self-image in the Black population in the United States, while “Homeless” deals with the lingering sense of displacement African Americans, as “prisoners of war,” feel living in this country.
KRS examines racism from an academic perspective on “The Racist.” Though he decries racist attitudes, he examines the different types of racism and how they manifest themselves, explaining the root causes and often providing solutions on how to “cure” racist individuals from these poisonous belief systems. His lyrics still resonate 30 years later, as he argues “if Black and white didn’t argue the most, they could clearly see that the government’s screwing them both.”
“Love’s Gonna Get’cha (Material Love),” the best-known track on Edutainment, was an odd choice for a first single. It’s a nearly 7-minute “message” story rap, featuring a very non-commercial beat and no catchy hook. The musical backdrop, produced by Pal Joey, is low-key, carried by a minimalist drum-track and sprays of sampled vocals, atmospheric scratches, and percussion. Even in 1990, it’s hard to imagine any artist, even one as eclectic as KRS-One, deciding that this would be the single that they were going to promote a new album with, much less a major-label signing off of it.
But it’s one of BDP’s most enduring ’90s hits. Though KRS frames the song as an anti-materialism missive, it’s notable that the song’s “narrator” originally just seeks a better life for his family. Needing extra money to put better food on the table and better clothes on his family’s back, KRS begins running drugs for the neighborhood drug dealer Rob. But once he gets a taste for the game, his obsession with what his money and power can get him leads to a bloody end.
Reggae and dancehall are of integral importance to BDP’s soundscape. KRS had adopted dancehall style cadences and sampled various forms of Jamaican music all the way back on Criminal Minded (1987), while Ghetto Music subsequently relied heavily on dancehall riddims and techniques. Edutainment continues in this vein, most prominently with the title track, where KRS raps over a horn-heavy sample of the ska track “Man In the Street.”
KRS addresses many topics throughout the song, such as the perils of mixing religion and politics, but homes in on the transcendent power of language and music. He notes that people should view his album as a means to inspire positive change in their lives, but that his music alone doesn’t create this change. Later he notes, “My point is that do not concentrate / On what I state, create, or debate / I might be great, and you might admire / But what I say is to take you much higher.”
KRS continues to utilize dancehall-based sensibilities throughout the album, particularly on a pair of anti-police tracks. On “100 Guns,’ KRS regales the audiences with tales of a bloody cross-country gun-running excursion, bucking down officers of the law with reckless abandon. He juxtaposes this extreme violence with a breezy, light-hearted groove, all while reinterpreting Carlton Livingston’s “100 Weight of Collie Weed” and Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson’s “Ebony & Ivory.”
KRS later tries his hand at a sing-songy delivery, transforming White Mice’s “True Love” in the somber “30 Cops of More.” He addresses police violence against the Black population and disproportionate responses throughout the track. In between vocal samples from the 1971 film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, he implores African Americans to come together in the face of oppression, stating, “If he would wake up and unite / The police department would lose the fight.”
BDP always includes a few lyrical exhibitions on each album, allowing the Blastmaster to continue to establish his dominance as a pure emcee. “Ya Know the Rules” is one of those tracks, sporting an old school feel, with KRS flexing a bouncy bassline. KRS-One has long expressed disdain for aloof rappers who view themselves as royalty, contrasting these aloof divas to himself, a champion of the streets. “I horrify and terrify the super-duper rap guy,” he boasts, “because you’re soft as a lullaby.”
On “Breath Control II,” a dancehall-influenced sequel to the track on Ghetto Music, KRS extols BDP’s virtues as a live act, eschewing dancers, lighting, and effects for a meat and potatoes approach to rocking a crowd. “The Kenny Parker Show” serves as a virtual live show, with KRS flowing with constantly shifting delivery and rhyme patterns. He orders his critics to “save the microscopic miniature small talk and walk / and put a little pep in your step / KRS-One will destroy any ignorant reputation / In the nation, in creation / Princes, Kings, Queens, or any occupation.”
“7 Dee Jays” is Edutainment’s most ambitious track, an over nine-minute posse cuts, featuring many members of the extended BDP crew. Some, like D-Nice and Ms. Melodie, contribute six to eight-bar verses, while KRS and Jamal-Ski both drop multiple verses, frequently employing dancehall chatting. Harmony (Melodie’s sister) proves herself to be a solid singer, with Heather B. making a memorable debut, rapping with the grit and determination that she’d become known for, wrecking shop against heads of state like George H.W. Bush, Margaret Thatcher, and F.W. de Klerk.
KRS brings everything together on “Original Lyrics,” probably Edutainment’s best overall song. Letting forth a two-and-a-half-minute stream of immaculately put together rhymes, KRS re-asserts himself as a trend-setter and innovator, re-evaluates his career and the impact of each BDP release, and decries those who chase pop success. “I am the manifestation of study,” he asserts. “Not the manifestation of money / Therefore, I advance through thought / Not what’s manufactured and bought.”
Edutainment was the capper to an all-time great four-album run by BDP. Though their crew’s studio follow-up, Sex & Violence (1992) is also a great album, it’s arguable whether or not it can be included as part of a great five-album run. For one, BDP released the concert album Live Hardcore Worldwide (1991) in-between Edutainment and Sex & Violence; it was a decent album, but only the first half of it really captured the live BDP experience.
For another, Edutainment was the last BDP album that featured an expansive roster, as KRS pared the group down significantly between the two studio albums. Some of this had to do with personal reasons, as KRS divorced Ms. Melodie, so she and Harmony were no longer part of the core. Furthermore, D-Nice left the fold after launching his own solo career. He released the dope debut LP Call Me D-Nice (1990) right around the same time as Edutainment and released another album before joining the newly reconstituted Flavor Unit crew. So, Sex & Violence served as a soft reboot for the leaner and meaner version of the group, a transitional album before KRS eventually went “solo” with Return of the Boom-Bap (1993).
Three decades later, BDP’s dedication to finding a way to simultaneously educate and entertain is more unique than it should be. Even some rappers considered to represent the best of the newest generation still balk at the idea of using their music to teach, for fear of it being “corny.” Meanwhile, KRS believed that he had a responsibility to share knowledge with his audience and encouraged them to learn more on their own. Albums like Edutainment might not get made anymore, but these days, they’re more vital than ever.
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