KRS One responds to RMHH
This was posted on 11/20/95 - I don't know if the author is actually KRS, but it was at the time of the Basketball is Revolution Nike Campaign. I think a lot of the news about them using sweat shops to make their shoes started to surface, and the internet hip hop identity was starting to form.
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Dear Heads,

The following is a response to your concerns regarding KRS-One's endorsement/commercial with NIKE Inc. After reviewing this newsgroup's postings regarding his credibility, he felt compelled to respond to the hypocrisy and mis-information regarding, him, the revolution and the evolution of HIP HOP!
(Please send your response to my email address so I can make sure he receives your replies)

NOW LISTEN TO THE MASTER TEACHER:

INTERNET by KRS-ONE

"Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam of thine own eye; And then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."

I've said this to you over two thousand years ago and on several occasions in this century, how is it that you still do not see clearly. Woe unto you true hypocrites who hid behind your computers typing up all sorts of ignorant conversations unto yourselves.

Woe, unto you hypocrites that claim to understand revolution yet print your messages against a true revolutionary for various government agencies to read.

Woe unto you hypocrites so eager to have something to say, you type empty, meaningless conversations to one another in an attempt to impress your ego and your friends.

Woe unto you hypocrites, for it is you that I write my songs against. It is you that become intoxicated with the mentality of Satan regardless of color. It is you that look for my down fall and so with any smell of contradiction, brought on by your own failure to view the whole, you seek to destroy the teacher!

Woe unto you hypocrites who strategizes the revolution within songs and dances only. Who retaliate within the limited scope of fanatic, groupie emotionalism. Repent now, before the internet has parental advisory stickers on its screens and you are not so free to type in your ignorant responses to strategic moves in Hip Hip culture.

Repent now, before the blinding light of KRS-ONE fills the very room you type in. And your own very limited emotions turn on you becoming your limitless feelings of guilt. Repent and know that I have incarnated so that Hip Hop may have everlasting life. Nothing that I do can ever be looked upon as a non-productive action because I am Hip Hip and Hip Hop is mental energy that takes over whatever environment it enters.

Blessed are those who do not judge the actions of a teacher as he is teaching and as they are learning. Blessed are those who question everything, including the teacher as well as themselves. Blessed are those who trust the teacher and makes all assumptions about the teacher when the teacher has ended.

Blessed are those who listen to the teacher's albums and not the teacher's commercials for the album. Blessed are those who are not addicted to the internet.

Haven't I asked you before, "is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed?" When you are the one that sheds light you cannot hide yourself "underground." You hypocrites would rather KRS- ONE speak of revolution and self improvement to the ones that are already familiar with his message. You hypocrites talk revolution amongst yourselves and think you are getting somewhere. But, behold you don't even speak of a true revolution because revolution, which is, any fundamental change or reversal of conditions, must be brought to the world of the mainstream.

Your revolution is more like that of a planet. You are trapped by the gravitational pull of a given topic, so you go around it forever, never making any new progress or change in the universe! Whereas, I take my concept of revolution to the very poeple I feel are in need of being revolutionized.

And so, as I manifest through Nike I ask, if someone who doesn't have my album suddnely hears my voice and recognizes it, reminding them to pick up my album or at least listen to it, where is the contradiction. All of my work is revolutionary in the true sense and meaning of the word.

Where is the contradiction if I, "myself" advocate new ways of thinking and then do a shoe commercial. In fact, it should be the other way around, that incites the idea of contradiction. Someone who never advocated a rising in consciousness suddenly advocating a rise in consciousness to sell a shoe, should be looked at as contradictory. But still, you would rather praise an artist who claims to be a hustler, a pimp or a gangster to do a remake of Blow Fly's material before you acknowledge the Edutainment attempt at knowledge to the masses.

Woe unto you hypocrites! Before you discuss revolutionizing the world you should first revolutionize your concept of a revolutionary. It is now time for the teacher to enter the mainstream with messages of African unity and human awareness. Do not become confused with Nike this, and Coca-Cola that. Hip Hop culture is just as much an institution as Nike and Coca-Cola.

I'ts just that you hypocrites refuse to let Hip Hop evolve into it's next level. It's not about selling shoes, it's about preparing the mainstream ears for a new kind of voice. The voice of the streets, the voice of oppression, the voice of Hip Hop, the voice of KRS-ONE!