The Old Testament has been kicking around in various incarnations for something like four millennia now. And even the so-called New Testament is almost 2000 years old. The Qur'an is getting a little long in the tooth too: almost 1400 years long, to be precise. Yes, eschatological obsessives and spiritualists of all stripes can agree: We're overdue for another revelation. And hip-hop legend and activist KRS-One is stepping into the fray to offer up his own collection of received wisdom: The Gospel of Hip-Hop: The First Instrument.
The 600-page tome aims to examine the spirituality of hip-hop culture, which KRS says serves as life lessons and guidelines for fans and artists: "It explores the spirituality of Hip-Hop, the divinity of Hip-Hop. I'm suggesting that in 100 years this book will be a new religion on the earth," he explained to AllHipHop.
“Now you talk about controversy, there’s some Christian ministries if you go online, look up some ministers, they dissing right now. 'Who the hell does he think he is?' Well, I think I have the authority to approach God directly, I don’t have to go through any religion [or] train of thought. I can approach God directly myself and so I wrote a book called The Gospel of Hip Hop to free from all this nonsense garbage right now. I respect the Christianity, the Islam, the Judaism but their time is up.”
Is KRS-One the next L. Ron Hubbard? As far as we can tell, KRS didn't start his religion as a moneymaking bet with a fellow MC, so there's that. The Gospel of Hip-Hop is out in Sept. 2009, and you can preorder here.
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