24. September 2018 By Walter Price 0

STORYTELLERS: KRS-ONE / Boogie Down Productions – “Love’s Gonna Get’cha (Material Love)” (Edutainment LP)

KRS-One is available @ iTunes.

Season Two of Luke Cage is a rare example of a show getting better with age. Albeit a young age. The characters and storylines are beefier, but what really drives the series for me is the music. More precisely the musical guests playing on the Harlem’s Paradise stage. Stellar performances from Ghostface Killah, Gary Clark Jr., Faith Evans, Kingfish and more.

Episode 12, “Can’t Front on Me”, musically, was the highlight for me. With a profound and memory jogging appearance by Hip Hop royalty KRS-One. He hit the club’s stage with a way back Boogie Down Production classic “Love’s Gonna Get’cha (Material Love)”. And immediately I remembered why rap was, once, a window into a world us white kids had no idea about.

This track, taken from 1990’s ‘Edutainment’, tells the tale of having nothing and that nothing turns to envy (disguised as love) for the things that shine. Taking the life of a well adjusted and understanding youth’s life down a daunting a path all too familiar in the ‘hood’.

KRS’ skill as a storyteller is well documented and highly respected, but for my money, this track is a cinematic masterpiece laid out in lyrics, arguably, his best. Heartbreaking and cautionary, real and precise. The old days of hip-hop and its poets are missed.

We gonna bump the beat a lil’ something like this
I’m in junior high with a be plus grade,
At the end of the day I don’t hit the arcade,
I walk from school to my moms apartment,
I got to tell the sucaks everyday “don’t start it”,
Cause where I’m at if your soft your lost,
To say on course means to roll with force,
A boy named Rob is chillin in a Benz,
In front of my building with the rest of his friends,
I give him a pound, oh I mean I shake his hand,
He’s the neighborhood drug dealer, my man,
I go upstairs and hug my mother,
Kiss my sister, and punch my brother,
I sit down on my bed to watch some tv,
(machine gun fire) do my ears deceive me,
Nope, that’s the fourth time this week,
Another fast brother shot dead in the street,
The very next day while I’m off to class,
My moms goes to work cold busting her ass,
My sisters cute but she got no gear,
I got three pairs of pants and with my brother I share,
See there in school see I’m made a fool,
With one and a half pair of pant you ain’t cool,
But there’s no dollars for nothing else,
I got beans, rice, and bread on my shelf,
Every day I see my mother struggling,
Now its time I’ve got to do something,
I look for work I get dissed like a jerk,
I do odd jobs and come home like a slob,
So here comes Rob he’s cold and shivery,
He gives me two hundred for a quick delivery,
I do it once, I do it twice,
Now there’s steak with the beans and rice,
My mother’s nervous but she knows the deal,
My sister’s gear now has sex appeal,
My brothers my partner and we’re getting paper,
Three months later we run our own caper,
My family’s happy everything is new,
Now tell me what the fuck am I supposed to do,