KRS-One Says new album was a way to say thank you to Juice Crew

By: Yves Erwin Salomon

Legendary rapper KRS-One and super-producer Marley Marl will release a joint project, titled Hip Hop Lives, on May 22nd on Koch Records. The two men were once embroiled in the biggest hip hop beef of all time between KRS-One's Boogie Down Productions and Marley Marl's Juice Crew in the late '80s but they've since resolved their differences. The beef was ignited when BDP released the single, "South Bronx," in 1987 in response to Marley Marl and MC Shan's single, "The Bridge."

KRS-One explained that on the new album he expresses his thanks to Marley Marl and the Juice Crew because they allowed him to launch his career. He said: "I also wanted to thank Marley Marl openly. I said to him, 'I want to explicitly on the album thank you, thank Shan, thank Mr. Magic, for the start of my career.'"

The rapper added: "I want to say in recording, in a recording, 'Thank you Marley Marl, and if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be here. You are the greatest producer of all time.'That's it."

The first single from the project is "Kill A Rapper." The song focuses on the unsolved murder of several rap stars.