BDP/KRS-One

Deceivingly simple drum loops, tar-pit-thick bars of bass, and KRS-One's booming mic delivery have always been the crux of Boogie Down Productions and KRS' solo work. There's a quality to such consistency though, and it's the reason why half of these Basics have been sampled and swiped by everyone from the Beastie Boys to Mos Def and Talib Kweli.

KRS-One calls himself "The Teacher" and backs it up with a syllabus of incendiary singles. Though all of these tracks have a beat to nod to and bass that hits you in the back like a screen door, they also examine tough issues, such as AIDS ("Jimmy") and deadly turf wars (the stop-the-violence single "Self Destruction").

Our Deep Cuts reveal KRS-One's development from a startling, cutting MC into a political and philosophical figure, like that of an elementary school teacher who went back to school, got a doctorate, and started teaching upper-level college courses. And no matter how preachy he gets, the music still heads straight for your feet and your soul.

Many artists have impacted the polarized arenas of Afrocentric, positive hip-hop or hardcore, gangsta rap, but few can claim a lasting influence on both quite like Boogie Down Productions and the group's peerless leader, KRS-One. Both phases of KRS' career have changed with the times, constantly switching between street narratives of sex, drugs, and violence, and pulpit-pounding lyrics that double as lessons in how things really are. Hence the New York Times offering KRS a column and college campuses making him hip-hop's leading lecturer.