Alex Henderson

IBoogie Down Productions

By All Means Necessary (Expanded Edition)

It’s safe to say that August 27, 1987 was one of the darkest days in the life of rapper Lawrence Kris Parker, a.k.a. Blastmaster KRS-One. That day, KRS’ musical partner Scott Sterling, a.k.a. DJ Scott La Rock (b. March 2, 1962), was shot and killed in the South Bronx at the age of 25.

KRS and La Rock had been the co-leaders of Boogie Down Productions (BDP), one of the most important East Coast hip-hop groups to emerge in the mid-1980s—and their partnership resulted in 1987’s Criminal Minded, a hardcore rap classic. The musical alliance of KRS and La Rock was so strong that when La Rock was murdered, many hip-hop heads assumed that BDP would break up. But that was before BDP bounced back stronger than ever with their second album, By All Means Necessary.

To fully appreciate the importance of By All Means Necessary, one needs some knowledge of BDP’s history. KRS (b. August 20, 1965) was in his late teens when, in 1984, he met La Rock (b. March 2, 1962) in a homeless shelter in the South Bronx. At the time, La Rock had a day job as a social worker but would spin records as a hip-hop deejay at night and on the weekends—and KRS was living in that shelter when they met. The two of them went on to join forces in a short-lived group called Scott La Rock & the Celebrity Three, which also included rappers Levi 167 and MC Quality. KRS and La Rock were both politically minded, and the group’s lone single, “Advance” (which talked about preventing nuclear war), reflected that. After the breakup of Scott La Rock & the Celebrity Three, KRS and La Rock continued working together in a group that was formed in 1985: Boogie Down Productions, whose original lineup also included rapper/deejay Derrick Jones, a.k.a. D-Nice.

The first BDP single, which came out on Rock Candy Records in 1986, indicated that BDP would be every bit as sociopolitical as Scott La Rock & the Celebrity Three had been: “Say No, Brother (Crack Attack, Don’t Do It)” described the horrors of crack cocaine. And BDP continued to move in a sociopolitical direction with their first album, Criminal Minded, released by the independent B-Boy Records in early 1987. Full of references to urban crime and violence, Criminal Minded was a tough, gritty, no-nonsense album that painted a brutally honest picture of life in the South Bronx.

After La Rock’s murder, a BDP breakup seemed like a strong possibility. Some members of BDP wondered if the group should call it quits out of respect for him. But KRS decided that La Rock would have wanted BDP to continue.

In a 1988 interview for Black Beat Magazine, KRS (who was 22 at the time) told this journalist: “They were basically speaking out of grief. None of them really wanted to quit the group. Our number-one man was killed—quickly, instantly thrown into a new life. I listened to what they had to say and gave them about a week to gather their thoughts. Then, I just called them up and said, ‘Come on, we’ve got a show to do. Let’s go.’ And they knew what time it was.”

KRS continued: “Scott’s death made me sad, but my determination, my goals and my intelligence overruled my sadness. They said, ‘OK, you’re sad, but you have to keep going. You must.’”

KRS went from being the co-leader of BDP to the leader of BDP, and By All Means Necessary was released in 1988. By All Means Necessary was not only BDP’s second album and their first without La Rock—it was also their first album for Jive/RCA Records.

Any doubts about KRS’ ability to function musically without La Rock’s input were dispelled when By All Means Necessary hit the streets. The album outsold Criminal Minded and was certified gold in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales exceeding 500,000 units. The singles “My Philosophy” and “Stop the Violence” both became hits.

But the move to a major label didn’t inspire BDP to become any less sociopolitical. From “Jimmy” (a quirky, humorous commentary on sexually transmitted diseases and the need to practice safer sex) to “Illegal Business” (which candidly discusses the drug trade in the United States) to “Stop the Violence” (which decries violence at hip-hop events), this album addresses a lot of social and political topics.

“Stop the Violence” is not only the name of a song on this album—it is also the name of an organization that KRS founded in 1988. That year, KRS put together the Stop the Violence Movement, a coalition of East Coast rappers speaking out against inner-city violence. But on “Necessary,” KRS points out that violence didn’t start with hip-hop events and asserts that the U.S. in general has an unhealthy obsession with violence. While By All Means Necessary is mostly a hip-hop album, “Necessary” is more spoken word.

On “I’m Still No. 1,” KRS brings up the subject of rappers who had peaked in popularity in the late 1970s and early 1980s and were being critical of younger rappers in 1988. These days, MCs who were popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s are considered old school. But when By All Means Necessary came out 25 years ago, the terms “old school rap” and “old school hip-hop” were used to describe early rappers such as Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, Melle Mel, Kurtis Blow, the Sugarhill Gang, the Treacherous Three (which Kool Moe Dee belonged to before he went solo), the Sequence, Afrika Bambaataa and Spoonie Gee—and the MCs who became popular in 1983, 1984 and beyond were being called “new school rappers” or “second generation rappers.”  When KRS wrote “I’m Still No. 1,” he wasn’t trying to belittle the contributions of hip-hop’s pioneers; on “South Bronx” (one of the hits from Criminal Minded), he celebrated hip-hop’s early years in the Boogie Down Bronx and expressed his admiration for hip-hop’s pioneers. But at the same time, KRS felt that in 1988, hip-hop was too young an art form for MCs to be calling themselves old school.

“No one’s from the old school in rap,” KRS said during that 1988 interview. “To me, old school is people from the ‘50s and ‘60s who pioneered certain (R&B and rock) music and brought it up to where it is today. Chuck Berry, Gladys Knight & the Pips, the Who, the Temptations, the Rolling Stones, Little Richard—these are the old school people who’ve been around for 30 years. Rap has only been around about 13 years. We can’t even begin to classify ourselves as old school.”

Back in 1988, the front cover of By All Means Necessary was a real attention-getter for those who were politically minded: the cover depicted KRS holding a gun and looking out a window in a way that recalled a famous photo of the late civil right leader Malcolm X (who was assassinated the year KRS was born). In fact, the album’s title was KRS’ variation of Malcolm X’s phrase “by any means necessary.”

During that 1988 interview, KRS explained: “The ‘by any means necessary’ concept was written by Malcolm X. I chose to call mine ‘by all means necessary.’ Malcolm felt that his life was in danger; so he was exercising his right to bear arms. It became a historic poster of him standing there with a gun peeking out of a window, and it was called by any means necessary. I called my album By All Means Necessary and used the same exact pose as Malcolm—only updated.”

KRS continued: “I did this because just as he felt his life was in danger, I feel that the life of rap music is in danger. Stereotypes are hurting rap immensely. It’s the stereotype that all rappers are like, “Yo, man! Pass the gold.’ That stereotype is killing us. It’s become a poison. And by all means necessary, this has got to stop. One way to do it is to show an alternative. OK, you have the gold chains and the flamboyant side of rap, but you also have the intelligent side. You have the guys who are talking about political issues, world issues, public awareness, black awareness.”

Indeed, By All Means Necessary did a lot to reinforce BDP’s reputation as a major force in political hip-hop. When one thinks of political rappers of the late 1980s and early 1990s, BDP’s name is at the top of the list along with Public Enemy, Ice-T, Ice Cube, N.W.A, Gang Starr and Paris. BDP didn’t invent political hip-hop—

Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five’s seminal 1982 classic “The Message” preceded BDP’s first single, “Say No, Brother (Crack Attack, Don’t Do It),” by four years—but BDP were major contributors, and By All Means Necessary is widely regarded as one of the most important political hip-hop albums of all time.  This expanded edition of By All Means Necessary contains some bonus tracks, which include two alternate mixes of “I’m Still No. 1,” an extended vocal version of “My Philosophy” and an instrumental version of “My Philosophy.”

BDP did a lot to popularize the fusion of reggae and hip-hop in the 1980s, starting with “The Bridge Is Over” and “9mm Goes Bang” on Criminal Minded. And BDP’s hip-hop/reggae fusion continued with By All Means Necessary. Reggae is incorporated on “Part-Time Suckers” and “Illegal Business” as well as on “Stop the Violence” and “T’Cha, T’Cha.” Meanwhile, “Ya Slippin’” (which borrows the guitar riff from Deep Purple’s “Smoke in the Water”) is easily the album’s most rock-influenced offering.

During the 1980s, a long list of rappers combined hip-hop and rock—and that combination gave us classics like Run-D.M.C.’s “Rock Box,” the Beastie Boys’ “Rock Hard” (which sampled AC/DC’s “Back in Black”), Ice-T’s “Rhyme Pays” (which sampled Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs”), the Fat Boys’ “Rock-N-Roll” and LL Cool J’s “Go, Cut Creator, Go” (which combined a heavy metal guitar riff with some lyrics that recalled Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode”). The Beasties, in fact, started out as a punk band before evolving into a rap group. And on By All Means Necessary, BDP made their contribution to rap/rock fusion with “Ya Slippin’.” The song’s fusion of heavy metal guitar and hip-hop beats made it a song that both hip-hoppers and headbangers could appreciate.

KRS is known for having eclectic musical tastes, and the wide variety of samples employed on By All Means Necessary underscores that fact. In addition to sampling Deep Purple on “Ya Slippin’,” KRS samples everything from Smokey Robinson & the Miracles’ “Mickey’s Monkey” on “Part-Time Suckers” and War’s “Galaxy” on “Nervous” to Jefferson Starship’s “Rock Music” on “Illegal Business.” Jazz saxophonist Stanley Turrentine’s 1972 recording of pianist Weldon Irvine’s “Sister Sanctified” (from Turrentine’s Cherry album with Modern Jazz Quartet vibist Milt Jackson) is sampled on “My Philosophy,” and the rhythm of Paul McCartney & the Wings’ 1976 hit “Let ‘Em In” is employed on “Jimmy.”

 KRS’ creative and artistic winning streak continued in 1989 with BDP’s third album, Ghetto Music: The Blueprint of Hip-Hop (which also went gold), and the Stop the Violence Movement’s hit “Self-Destruction” (an all-star single that united KRS with Kool Moe Dee, Heavy D, Doug E. Fresh, Chuck D and Flavor Flav of Public Enemy, Just Ice, MC Lyte and members of Stetsasonic). KRS didn’t back down one bit from his sociopolitical message on Ghetto Music, and KRS maintained a heavily sociopolitical focus with 1990’s Edutainment and 1992’s Sex and Violence as well as with the solo albums he recorded after that. KRS’ solo career started with 1993’s Return of the Boom Bap, and he has since recorded more than 10 albums as a solo artist.

KRS, now 47, continues to keep busy as both a rapper and a political activist. But his biggest sellers are still the albums he recorded during BDP’s commercial heyday, and 25 years after its initial release, By All Means Necessary remains a hip-hop milestone.

—Alex Henderson, June 2013

Alex Henderson’s work has appeared in Billboard, Spin, Creem, The L.A. Weekly, JazzTimes, Jazziz, AlterNet, Cash Box, HITS, CD Review, Skin Two, Black Beat, The Pasadena Weekly, Black Radio Exclusive (BRE), Music Connection, Latin Style, The New York City Jazz Record and many other well-known publications. Henderson (alexvhenderson.com) has also contributed several thousand CD reviews to The All Music Guide’s popular website and series of music reference books.