. Hollywood
Inglng
He vy D., Ro ie Perez,
John Singleton, Jan t Jac on,
Regin King, Kadeern Har­
di on (with Cree Summer),
Tyra Ferrell, Demi Moore
(without Bru Willi), Deb­
bie Allen with hubby arm
ixon, Cuba Gooding Jr., J -
. mine Guy, and "Basic In-
tinct" tar Sharon Stan with
boyfriend, country tar'
Dwight Yoakum, and Holly
Robinson all turned out for the
premiere of "White Men Can't
Jump".
But don't ru h to the
theaters. This on ' a leeper.
Unless u like hooting th
breeze th boyan the
court (A W-H-O-L-E LOT).
.
: On the
.: hom front
Oprah Winfrey reportedly
shelled out $4.4 million in
cash for a house and 80 acres
in Telluride, Colo. Her plans
are aid to include the con­
struction of another home.
The existing house would
be used for guests. It features
three master bedrooms (each
with a jaczzi), a massive
fireplace, n t quarters,
Affair Of
The H art
Whi tley (Ja mine Guy)
will go to the alter thi season
on, NBC' "A Different
World", but not with Dwayne.
Instead, it is Joe Morton
(the politician) who will walk
her down the aisle
.. .In real life, folks are
wondering if Acapulco will be
the si te of a propo al from
.Ouincy Jones, 59, to his 31-
year old actress girlfriend,
Nastassja Kinski.
The two are set to vacation
with Lionel Richie, Oprah
Winfrey and Stedman Graham
in the romantic sea-side pot.
-I Refu e To Dle"
"I refuse to die" is what was
going through the mind of
actor Richard Lawson (Lucas
Barnes on ABC's "All My
Children''), who found him­
self engulfed in real life drama
- aboard USAir's flight 405,
which crashed at New York's
LaGuardia Airport recently.
According to Lawson, "it
was 30 minutes of pure hell."
The 45-year old actor wound
up in ive feet of water think­
ing this wa it. "Then I
thought to my elf, 'I refuse to
die.'"
Lawson freed him elf of
the wreckage and made it to
shore in the chilling 40-degree
waters, drenched in jet fuel.
Suffering only cuts and
bruises, he's due back on the
set thi week.
Death Row
Record
N.W.A. 's Dr. Dre recently
formed his own label, Death
Row ecords. But hi plans
may be nagged by a law uit
filed recently by N.W.A.
le der, Eazy-E.
The uit, which name Dre
and Death Row recording art­
i t D.O.C., might prevent the
rappers from pursuing their
own projects. There arc al­
ready 15 acts igned to the
label.
- oomplled by K. Bark
- Special contributors:
RadIoScope ... The Cofumn & Usa
Collins (Behlnd- The-Soen )
Y HOCKROCK
Boogie Down Production i
compri ed of KRS-O E (Kri
Parker), and his extended family
from the South Bronx. A runaway at
13, Parker devoted the next even
years of hi life to learning and ur­
vival, spending hours in the public
library between being bounced from
ubway to public h Iters.
At the Bronx's Franklin Shelter,
a public shelter for homeless men,
Kris Parker met his greatest inspira­
tion: a charismatic counselor named
SCQtt Sterling -a.k.a. DJ Scott La­
Rock - who encouraged him to
hone his burgeoning poetic talent.
KRS-ONE (Knowledge Reigns
Supreme Over Nearly Everyone)
and Scott then formed BDP in
homage to the borough that spawned
them, the "Boogie Down" Bronx.
From its inception, BDP dealt
frankly with the bitter realities oflife
in urban America with songs like
"Crack Attack," the group's self­
financed debut single, which was an
underground success. Soon there­
after the group began work on what
would become the legendary debut
LP, Criminal Minded, released inde­
pendently in 1986. Packed with
bleak, hard-hitting and sometimes
ironic portraits of street life, such as
"Poetry, "Super Hoe," "The Bridge
I 0"," d the ti Ie tra
"Criminal Minded," the record ex­
ploded on the streets. A contract dis­
pute with label who distributed the
record prevented BDP from receiv­
ing their royalties from its sales, but
the worst wa yet to come.
One night in August, Scott was
shot and killed after he and four
friends had gone to a housing project
in the South Bronx to settle a
misunderstanding. Shaken by the
incident, some members of BDP
didn't want to carry on, but Kris, in
the spirit of the group, had to con­
tinue the battle: "Scott wanted us to
move on and up." And so they did.
IN 1987, Boogie Down Produc­
tions, now on Jive Records, released
By All Means Necessary, a landmark
establishing rap as a tool for en­
lightenment. Using the Malcolm X­
inspired title and cover art, Parker
appealed to the criminal-minded ele­
ments of his audience and then
focused them in a more positive
direction ..
"I'm concerned about the kids
who don't know what time it is," says
Parker. "I want to show them that
there are different ways to be radi­
cal." With hits Yli ke "My
Philosophy," "I'm Still #1," "Stop
The Violence," which wer co-writ­
ten with Scott LaRock, BDP pear­
headed th consciousne -rai ingera
in hip-hop. Kri and hi crew h d
evolv d into a vehicle for teaching
th meta an uncompromisingly
funky beat.
In the fall of 1989, KRS-ONE,
along with everal rap industry
figures, formed the S top The
Violence Movement intended to in­
crease the public's awareness of the
effects of Black-an-Black violence
on the African-American com­
muni ty. Sale of itSelf Destruction, n
an all-star rap single and video
featuring Kri , Public Enemy, MC
Lyte, Kool Moe Dee, Stetsasonic
and other , have raised over
$500,000 for the National Urban
League to fund youth programs tar­
geting illiteracy and crime.
With his next two LP's, "Ghetto
Music: The Blueprint of Hip Hop, "
and "Edutainmeni," both certified
gold, Parker and his BDP crew shar­
pened their vision to attack
hypocrisy, materialism, and the
Eurocentric view of history. On
Ghetto Music's "Why Is That," Kris
raps "It's like teaching a dog to be a
cat/you don't teach white kids to be
Black." and on the powerful "Love's
Gonna Getcba (Material Love)" ,
m E�1I4 BDP depicts a
young drug dealer's rise and fall, as
materialism gets the best or the worst
of him. On "The Homeless," Parker,
over a slow, 'almost tribal rhythm,
asserts that "every Black man' is
homeless" even if he has somewhere
to live.
With the released of Live
Hardcore Worldwide, rap's first
legit live record, and the all-star
album released by KRS-ONE's
H�E.AL. (Human Education Against
Lie ) coalition, Parker maintained
his coveted position as an the un­
disputed hardcore and wicked, yet,
thinking and teaching Me. Live
Hardcore features a host of several
live performances from around the
world as well as several songs from
Criminal Minded. Joined by such
propounds his humanist philosophy
with H.E.AL. "Many people peg me
as being pro-Black," comments Kris.
"But I am a human being before
color, religion, and occupation."
With Sex And Violence, BDP's
new album for 1992, Parker and
posse confound all expectations.
The album's title is intended as a
critique of the consuming public'S
rather narrow range of interests; the
LP itselfis BDP's best attempt yet to
HOT 10 SINGLES
1. "UUH'AHH"
.......................................................... Boyz II Men (Motown)
2. "SAVE THE BEST FOR LAST"
....................................... Vanessa Williams (Wing/Mercury)
3. "REMEMBER THE TIME"
...................................................... Michael Jackson (EPIC)
4. "LATIFAH'S H D IT UP 2 HERE"
................................................ Queen Latifah (Tommy Boy)
5. "OOOCHIE COOCHIE" ,
............................................................ MC Brains (Moto,#l)
6: "DON'T BE AFRAID"
. , Aaron Hall (SouVMCA)
7. "I WANNA ROCK"
................................. Luke (Luther Campell) (LUKE Records)
8. "EVERLASTING LOVE"
................................................. : Tony Terry (EPIC)
9. "EVERYTHING'S GONNA BE ALRIGHT"
............................................................... NBN (Tommy Boy)
10. "WHY ME"
................................................................. Keith Sweat (Electra)
{
-(
owledge eigns upreme Over early veryone)!!
broaden the agenda of public dis­
course while keeping the music close
to the street, proving once again the
KRS-ONE' skills as a rapper
remain uncontested. When Kris
takes a breather from the mic to into
the LP with a multi-layered in­
strumental, his message is clear: this
time he's teaching with beats as well
as words.
THE FIRST INGLE, "Duck
Down," is a might battle cry to all
sucker MC's reminiscent of the spirit
of "The Bridge Is Over. "
" ... the poetry is, yes, too trong
for thee/Maybe we should rethink
the strategy, see/Poetry I speak
fluently I think you a sucker 'cause
the/Only word you know is/Mother­
fucker/Yo, you don't see ya whole
HOT 10 ALBUMS
1. "CYPRESS HILL"
............................................ Cypress Hill (Ruffhouse/Columbia)
2. "JUICE"
....................................................... Soundtrack (SouVMCA)
, 3. "DIAMONDS & PEARLS"
.............................. Prince & The N. P. G. (PaisleyParkIWB)
4. "PRIVATE LINE"
........................................... Gerald Levert (Atco/East-West)
5. "OOOHHH-ON THE TLC TIP"
........................................................... TLC (Atco/East-West)
6. "THECO FORT ZONE"
....................................... V�nesS8 Williams (Wing/Mercury)
7. "FOREVER MY LADY"
................................ po Jodeci (Uptown/MCA)
8. "BITCH BErrA HAVE MY MONEY"
......................................................... AMG (Select Records)
9. "FINALLY"
........................................................... CeCe Peniston (A&M)
10. "KEEP IT COMIN'"
........................................................... Keith Sweat (Elekta)
race in bondage/No you grab the
microphone and feed them garbage."
With Prince Paul, Pal Joey,
Kenny Parker, D-Square and Kri
him If providing the hardest hip­
hop beats imaginable; KRS gets on
the mic to et the record straight on a
host of topics. On "Build and
Destroy" he calls for greater elf­
awareness: "The white man ain't
the devil I promi elY au wanna see
the devil take a look at Clarence
Thoma /Now you aying who? like
you were an owl/Throw in the
towel/Tbe devil is Colin Powell."
From the hard-core ing-a-Iong
"Drug Dealer" to the musical
catechism of "Question And
Answer" and the rootsy-style "Ruff
Ruff" - which features guest
rhymer Freddie Foxx .L- Sex And
Violence' as ruthles as its title
promise . On "13 aDd Good," Kris
tell a hard luck tale of a jail-bait
skeezer and her m d daddy. Two
tracks, "Sex. and Violence," and
"How Not To OetJerUd" feature tbe
propul ive production of Prince
Paul, the latter track flaunting a fat
aco tic b riff and the following
pe of wisdom: "Rap is a rebel-
lio music/Therefore only rebels
hould use it."
And KRS-ONE and B.oogie
Down Productions are the un­
di puted rap rebel .
Comest : In 35 words or less,
what does Boogie Down Produc­
tions mean to you? A selected win­
ner will win "Sex And Violence,"
BDP's new cassette. Send to:
Michigan Citizen, P.O. Box 03560,
Highland Park, MI 48203.
----�=O::==,.::..'