Knowledge Is King - Kool Moe Dee (1989)

Quality or nostalgia: There are things I really loved when I was younger, and when I hear them now I’m never sure if I’m really hearing the music or if I’m just hearing my fond memories. So I’m going to add in this little feature to explore whether younger me was onto something, or just on something

Kool Moe Dee was an original rap crew MC, and like a lot of similar MCs I don’t think he ever quite got over it. The years he had the best chance at success were spent re-litigating how younger rappers didn’t pay proper homage to Dee’s generation of trailblazers.

Of course he’s still a skilled rapper, and his string of late 80s records (produced by super-producer-in-waiting Teddy Riley) are a lot of fun even if they’re a bit throwaway.

The lyrics are mostly positive, or at least that slightly arrogant take on positivity and self-reliance that is part self-improvement and part fragile ego.

So is it Quality or Nostalgia?

Despite still being able (for the most part) to flow along with I Go To Work, I don’t know that there’s a lot here for me. Pump Your Fist might have been my first introduction to the ideas of social justice and the struggles of the modern African American. It would have hit me harder if I hadn’t discovered Public Enemy at almost the same time.

Tracks I Liked

I Go To Work - will always be a favorite