KRS-One

Lawrence Krisna Parker (born August 20, 1965) is an emcee born in Park Slope, Brooklyn, USA. Over his career he has been known by several psuedonyms, including Kris Parker, KRS One, The Blastmaster and The Teacha

Lawrence Krisna Parker (born August 20, 1965) is an emcee born in Park Slope, Brooklyn, USA. Over his career he has been known by several psuedonyms, including Kris Parker, KRS One, The Blastmaster and The Teacha. KRS One is a highly respected figure in the hip hop community and is often referenced in works by other hip hop artists.

Born Lawrence Parker in 1965, the future KRS-One (an acronym for Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone) grew up with his brother Kenny with their single mother in assorted inner-city neighborhoods of Brooklyn and the Bronx. According to interviews he's done in The Source Magazine, one fateful day when he was 12, he and Kenny prepared a pan of flavored rice, which was to be the family’s dinner for the evening. But the hungry pair ate the whole thing, and when their mother came home from work, she kicked them out of the apartment in a fit of anger. On a whim, they stayed gone for two whole days before the younger Kenny decided to go back home, while Larry decided to stay gone. He spent the better part of the next seven years homeless, spending much of his time in local libraries. By the time he was around 17, he fell in with some marijuana dealers and became a courier. Using a bread delivery truck as a cover (!), Parker and his partner had garbage bags full of the product that they would drive around town to make drops. One day, a police car pulled up behind them and started flashing their lights. Parker’s partner—who was driving—panicked, and decided to lead the cops on a several-miles-long chase, after which the truck was finally crashed, and the duo were apprehended. At the trial, the judge made the ironic commentary that the only reason the cops initially tried to pull them over was because they had private plates on a commercial vehicle—they initially had no intention of searching for drugs. Parker, still a minor, claimed he was a ward of the state, and got sent to a juvenile home for his sentencing, after which he was moved to a Covenant House youth homeless shelter. It was there that he met Scott Sterling, a recent college graduate who just started working at the shelter as a social worker. Soon, Parker found that Sterling moonlighted as a hip-hop DJ under the name Scott LaRock. By this time, Parker had earned the nickname ‘Kris’ from the relationship he had developed with local Hare Krishnas that evangelized near the shelter. Heavily influenced by Eastern philosophies, he was also an aspiring rapper, and practiced routines in verbal spars with the other shelter residents. The pair, along with two other fellows, decided to form a rap group together, initially calling themselves Scott La Rock and the Celebrity Three. That was short-lived, however, as the two peripheral members quit, leaving Parker (now calling himself KRS-One) and Sterling. They then decided to call themselves Boogie Down Productions. “Success is the Word”, a 12” single release on indie Fresh/Sleeping Bag Records (under the puzzling group name 12:41) didn’t go anywhere; soon after, the pair approached another NY indie, Rock Candy Productions, for a deal. As it turns out, the ‘entertainment’ company was allegedly a front for a pornography operation—but Sterling and Parker convinced the boss to front them the money to record an album, under the newly created ‘subsidiary’, B-Boy Records. After a few 12” single releases, the Criminal Minded album finally surfaced.