KRS-One, Decency Zero
New York Daily News, Oct. 13
If Osama Bin Laden ever buys a rap album, he’ll probably start with a CD by KRS-One.
The hip-hop anarchist has declared his solidarity with Al Qaeda by asserting that he and other African-Americans “cheered when 9/11 happened.”
The rapper, whose real name is Kris Parker, defiled the memory of those who died in the terrorist attacks as he spouted off at a recent New Yorker Festival panel discussion.
“I say that proudly,” the Boogie Down Productions founder went on, insisting that, before the attack, security guards kept black people out of the Trade Center “because of the way we talk and dress.
“So when the planes hit the building, we were like, ‘Mmmm — justice.’“
The atrocity of 9/11 “doesn’t affect us [the hip-hop community],” he said. “9/11 happened to them, not us,” he added, explaining that by “them” he meant “the rich . . . those who are oppressing us. RCA or BMG, Universal, the radio stations.”
Parker’s screed drew a loud boo from novelist Tom Kelly, who was in the audience. “I lost six friends there on 9/11,” Kelly told us afterward.
Parker also sneered at efforts by other rappers to get young people to vote.
“Voting in a corrupt society adds more corruption,” he added. “America has to commit suicide if the world is to be a better place.”
Ex-Nirvana rocker Krist Novoselic, who was on the panel, yelled back: “That is wrong, man. Suicide is not the answer.”
But, judging by Parker’s downward-spiraling career, he’s already bent on self-destruction.