My Voicebox Locks And Accels Like A Rocket

Check Google Earth

A few years back the blogopshere and the internets in general were taken aback when KRS-One revealed to Vibe Magazine that he had engaged in a rather unconventional conversation with the rapper Nas:

KRS-One: Oh, Nas is “the one.” But you want to talk about someone caught between the CEO world and the movement -- Nas has issues. He’s in the hood, Queensbridge projects, he’s gotta keep it real with the fellas. Then he picks up the phone and talks with me discussing NASA and the universe and hip hop’s role on Mars. When I asked him, “Nas I want you to speak at NASA,” he hung up the phone on me. He couldn’t take it. He called me back an hour later saying, “Yo, man. I’m sorry man. Yo, man. Yo, you just too much man. I had to take a breather.” I said, “Stop being afraid. It’s just a building. You go and you talk and you leave.” But he wants the training. He’s interested in the training and he’s not afraid. It’s just I’m a crazy guy.

Riiiight ... just a building. Uh-huh. The hiphop nation collectively backed out of the room slowly after reading that one. Well, it turns out that this rather odd revelation may have had some basis in a reality external to Kris Parker's terror-dome, as indicated by this mtv.com article from 2004:

As part of his Temple of Hiphop's seventh annual Hip-Hop Appreciation Week, KRS-One is organizing a Hip-Hop Cultural Conference to be delivered at NASA's headquarters in Washington, D.C., on May 19. The game plan is to bring in 100 students from the D.C. area — possibly ranging from elementary- to college-age to hear members of the hip-hop community, social activists, spiritual leaders and NASA scientists promote the powers of math and science. "Nas is the keynote speaker," KRS said on Monday en route to a lecture at the University of Illinois. "Chuck D will flank him. Afrika Bambaataa is supposed to come as well."

I'm not sure if this event ever took place, and I cannot tell you whether or not Nas delivered the keynote address, but the brothers seem to have had their hearts in the right place and I doubt this is the last we will hear about these homeboys and outer space. The future (of space-rap, anyway) is looking bright and I can see just it now - future b-boys and girls uprocking zero gravity to a cosmic megamix that includes Nas' "Star Wars" and KRS-One's "Step Into A World."