Songtext Hiphop knowledge KRS-One

Hiphop knowledge

You know.. life is funny..
If you don't repeat the actions of your own success
you won't be successful
You gotta know your own formula, your own ingredients
What made you, YOU..
1987 I was at the Latin Quarters
Listenin to Afrika Bambaata give the order
The call of the order was to avoid the slaughter
He said, ""Record companies ain't got nuttin for ya!""
Without a lawyer, he taught The Infinity Lessons
In how hip-hop could be a, many a blessing
And that was great, so in 1988
there was no debate, we had to end the hate
The name of the game was ""Stop the Violence""
and unity, knowledge, and self-reliance
We - started talkin bout Martin and Malcolm
Had these ghetto kids goin, ""Huh, what about him?""
1989, Professor Griff speaks his mind
but his freedom of speech is declined
1990 came with the West coast
East coast, West coast, who is the best coast?
Lookin back now, of COURSE it was bogus
The whole argument was where we lost focus
We got hopeless; not with the lyrics and music
but with hip-hop, and how we used it
Or abused it, you know how the crew get
""You like it cause you choose it""
1991, we opened our eyes
with Human Education Against Lies, we tried
to talk about the state of humanity
But all these others rappers got mad at me
They called me ""Captain Human"", another message was sent
""Self Destruction don't pay the {fuckin} rent""
Remember that? Nobody wanted conscious rap
It was like - where these ballers at?
Where can they call us at? All was wack
Hip-Hop culture was fallin flat and that was that
So in 1992, I found my crew
They said, ""Yo Kris, what you wanna do?""
I said, ""Damn - why they wanna get with me?
If I bust they {shit} I'm contradict