Knowledge Is King

Kool Moe Dee | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 12, 1989)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Jive
• ASIN: B0000004V0
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #87,272 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I want these days back again, NOW, December 30, 1999

By 

punkviper (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Knowledge Is King (Audio CD)

Way back in the days when rap was inventive and meant something, there was Kool Moe Dee. Blowing the roof off of nearly every other rapper around. Always taking the high ground, never stooping to gangsta posturing or pretty-boy posing, he came at you with an amazing ability to rhyme and poignant subjects that make today's rap look just plain silly. It's a shame rap had to be co-opted by tough-guy-wannabes and pointless airheads, because Moe Dee could still be topping the charts today. A forgotten legend.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A FORGOTTEN CLASSIC TRACK and some other great stuff!, June 13, 2000

By 

Stopheles (Ridgewood, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Knowledge Is King (Audio CD)

I'm giving this 5 stars on the strenth of track 3 alone..."I Go to Work" is an absolute lyrical masterpiece, it seriously stands up as strong as Eric B and Rakim's "Follow the Leader" (and any head will tell you that's a TALL order)...Kool Moe Dee is best on this record when he's hitting the uptempo battle rhymes like "I Go to Work" but he's also strong on his serious tracks like "Knowledge is King" and the venomous "Pump Ya Fist"...even the no-I-ain't-got-no-girlfriend track ("They Want Money") works as well at a party as it does in headphones.

A record which deserves to be better known than it is, coming from the Golden Age of Hip hop, when you had to be NASTY on the mic to get a record deal.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The dollar is moot, Knowledge is King!", October 22, 2004

By 

DukeOfEarl (Phoenix, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Knowledge Is King (Audio CD)

This is the first album I ever got of Kool Mo Dee's. His albums are hard to find in stores. Anyways, this album represents an interesting scenario, since Mo Dee is old-old school (starting in the late 70's with The Treacherous Three), and this his third solo album, in which the world of Hiphop had changed drastically beforehand in '87,'88, and '89. So it's interesting to see if he's still relevant in those changed times.
The album actually began with 3 of the first 4 tracks being lighter and less serious than expected (excluding "I Go To Work" of course), but even these songs have messages denouncing women's materialistic ways, and declaring he wants a woman with a strong mind and personality. "I Go To Work," if you didn't know, is one of the best songs of his career. This one has superb lyrics covering his approach to this craft and some battle rhymes (KMD is one of the all-time greats at battling). I usually prefer mellow music, but "I Go To Work" just gets me AMPED! Otherwise, the remaining six tracks are all serious and brilliant in their own ways. Still, the highlights out of these are the title track (great rhymes promoting intellect and study), "Get The Picture," "I'm Blowing Up," and the last "Pump Your Fist"(promoting black pride and denouncing drugs; a true gem from this era). You will have to listen to all these over and over to catch everything.
Kool Mo Dee is known as the prelude to Rakim, in that he raised the bar lyrically and how he rhymed every sentence. And this is the work he did after Rakim & a few others had advanced the Hiphop art. Kool Mo Dee's vocabulary is vast, maybe the best I've ever heard in a rapper. He still uses his old-old school style of shouting over flowing, but I think he sped it up a little in this album to adjust with the times. His voice sounds a lot like Ced-Gee's from the Ultramagnetic MC's, or it should be said the other way around based on KMD's legacy. The musical backgrounds usually hit pretty hard, and have aged well, and there were even some rock elements included in a couple of the songs.
It's funny how I bought this album right before I bough Mos Def's brand new album "The New Danger," and it all sounds good to me. I don't need to play this one over and over again just to understand what was going on in '89 compared to modern day stuff, or vice-versa. Hiphop at its best is timeless! Kool Mo Dee himself stated in his book ("There's A God On The Mic") that this is his best work. I recommend getting this because Kool Mo Dee is one of the pioneers before Rakim, before KRS-One, before Big Daddy Kane, and he proves he's still relevant in a time when those three were kings. His music still offers valuable insight today, and his legacy and contributions to Hiphop are irrefutable!