Hip Hop Lives

Though they were sworn enemies in their youths, KRS-One and Marley Marl eventually joined forces in old age: two sage gunfighters united against a younger and more reckless generation. Though the chilling “Kill a Rapper” is one of KRS’s most pointed admonishments, Hip Hop Lives mostly avoids allocution and instead focuses on capturing the distinct flavor of the duo’s shared home, New York City. From the Jamaican and Puerto Rican flourishes of “Nothing New” and “Musika” to the thrillingly murky “All Skool,” the album extols everything that is—or was—jubilantly dangerous about the city where rap was born.