Remy Danton
All Star
In the late 1980s, the Juice Crew and Boogie Down Productions were involved in one of Hip-Hop’s most legendary battles. KRS-One and Scott La Rock released records dissing Marley Marl, Mr. Magic, Roxanne Shante, and MC Shan, among others. However, nearly 30 years later, MC Shan refutes the history that he and KRS-One ever battled by definition.
Following Shan’s Marley Marl-produced 1986 single “The Bridge,” B.D.P. responded with“South Bronx” and “The Bridge Is Over.” Both records attacked the Queens, New York-based Juice Crew members—over what was the real founding borough of Hip-Hop. Shan would respond on his 1987 Down By Law debut with “Kill That Noise.” Both MC figureheads of “the Bridge Wars” would trade shots on albums into the 1990s. However, Shan maintains that battling on wax—or records is completely different than doing it on stage.
Speaking with Murder Master Music Show, MC Shan said, “Me and [KRS-One have] never battled, ever. I don’t care [what some say]; any Hip-Hop historian knows a battle is two cats on stage, doin’ what they do. I just went off on him a couple of months ago. He’s my man and all that, but yo, I’m tired of [KRS-One] sayin’ that [he] took me out, when you ain’t never did shyt!” MC Shan says that he wants a promoter to pay for he and KRS-One to battle on stage, as done in the Battle Rap leagues. “I’ve got a fukkin’ five-page [verse] in the drawer. See, what nikkas thought I was gonna do was make the rhyme and put it out there and give him a chance to rebut that shyt. No, nikka! When we come to that point when a [promoter] will pay for us to [battle], I’m gonna have some shyt [that] you won’t be able to understand where it’s coming from.”
Shan elaborated on why he feels he would win such a battle. “Let’s be real, [KRS-One] is a book-smart mothafukka. You know all that book shyt—that’s some shyt that you interpreted from somebody else’s [writing]. Yeah, you do your lil’ activist shyt and all that shyt, but when it comes down to mothafukkin’ lyrics and makin’ stories and metaphors, nikka, you can’t fukk with me! If you listen to my songs and his from back in the day, they are two different types. He’s a boom-bap, go-in-the-club and hype-the-club-up MC. nikka, you’ll kill me at a show! Any day. I’ll give that to him. At a show, nikka, you will tear me down.” However, while Shan concedes that KRS-One may be a better Rap performer, he asserts that he is the supreme lyricist. “My lyrics gon’ speak. I ain’t gotta make nikkas jump up and down. I’m there to make your mind mothafukkin’ [stimulated]. I’m there to make you say ‘oooh.’ The closest me and him to face-to-face doin’ anything… I mean, we was on shows together, but we never actually stood toe-to-toe, rhyme-for-rhyme, back-to-back, and did anything—other than the Sprite commercial, and I duffed you on that!”
MC Shan Challenges KRS-One To Settle The Bridge Wars Once & For All…With A Battle (Audio)
Following Shan’s Marley Marl-produced 1986 single “The Bridge,” B.D.P. responded with“South Bronx” and “The Bridge Is Over.” Both records attacked the Queens, New York-based Juice Crew members—over what was the real founding borough of Hip-Hop. Shan would respond on his 1987 Down By Law debut with “Kill That Noise.” Both MC figureheads of “the Bridge Wars” would trade shots on albums into the 1990s. However, Shan maintains that battling on wax—or records is completely different than doing it on stage.
Speaking with Murder Master Music Show, MC Shan said, “Me and [KRS-One have] never battled, ever. I don’t care [what some say]; any Hip-Hop historian knows a battle is two cats on stage, doin’ what they do. I just went off on him a couple of months ago. He’s my man and all that, but yo, I’m tired of [KRS-One] sayin’ that [he] took me out, when you ain’t never did shyt!” MC Shan says that he wants a promoter to pay for he and KRS-One to battle on stage, as done in the Battle Rap leagues. “I’ve got a fukkin’ five-page [verse] in the drawer. See, what nikkas thought I was gonna do was make the rhyme and put it out there and give him a chance to rebut that shyt. No, nikka! When we come to that point when a [promoter] will pay for us to [battle], I’m gonna have some shyt [that] you won’t be able to understand where it’s coming from.”
Shan elaborated on why he feels he would win such a battle. “Let’s be real, [KRS-One] is a book-smart mothafukka. You know all that book shyt—that’s some shyt that you interpreted from somebody else’s [writing]. Yeah, you do your lil’ activist shyt and all that shyt, but when it comes down to mothafukkin’ lyrics and makin’ stories and metaphors, nikka, you can’t fukk with me! If you listen to my songs and his from back in the day, they are two different types. He’s a boom-bap, go-in-the-club and hype-the-club-up MC. nikka, you’ll kill me at a show! Any day. I’ll give that to him. At a show, nikka, you will tear me down.” However, while Shan concedes that KRS-One may be a better Rap performer, he asserts that he is the supreme lyricist. “My lyrics gon’ speak. I ain’t gotta make nikkas jump up and down. I’m there to make your mind mothafukkin’ [stimulated]. I’m there to make you say ‘oooh.’ The closest me and him to face-to-face doin’ anything… I mean, we was on shows together, but we never actually stood toe-to-toe, rhyme-for-rhyme, back-to-back, and did anything—other than the Sprite commercial, and I duffed you on that!”
MC Shan Challenges KRS-One To Settle The Bridge Wars Once & For All…With A Battle (Audio)
Im a Shan Fan since the Down By Law / WBLS days....
