KRS infused spirituality into his music since the beginning, but there was always a vague non-denominational pluralism to it, mixing bits of Christianity, Islam/NGE/NOI & (especially) the Rastafari movement, while preaching hiphop as a religion unto itself with the 1996 founding of the Temple of Hiphop. It always seemed like any 1 religion was too small to contain Kris's worldview, so it was a bit surprising in 2002 when he dropped Spiritual Minded, a full-on gospel rap album complete with church choirs & bible citations in the liner notes for each song. On the other hand, the African-American Christian church is tightly entwined with the history of hiphop, & it's common for rappers of Kris's generation to use its aesthetics & messaging in their music. But I'm very unqualified to speak on that, so I'll move on.
Despite the gospel trappings, in some ways Spiritual Minded sounds like any other KRS-One album. There is a mixture of messaging & rappity-rap, usually within songs rather than between them. He uses a lot of his time on the microphone bemoaning what he sees as the woeful state of commercial hiphop: "Take It to God," "South Bronx 2002," "Never Give Up," "The Conscious Rapper" & more all center on this theme. Like I said, typical topics for him, & the bars are up to his usual standard. But somehow, Kris's born-again righteousness makes his condescending attitude harder to swallow here than it is on his more secular albums. On Spiritual Minded, he's not just being preachy, he is literally preaching. Also, the older I get the less utility I see in loudly complaining about the materialism of mainstream rap because (a) it's never going to change & (b) life's short, enjoy what you enjoy.
A few songs stand out for their more focused content. "Good Bye" is one of the most intriguing, a new-agey gospel sounding song about losing loved ones, to death & otherwise. "You gotta die before you die so when you die you don't die." "The Struggle Continues" is an odd message song about, among other things, how we should bring back prayer in schools. I would have thought Kris would be in favor of the separation of church & state, but apparently not. "Ain't Ready," aside from having a laughable chorus challenging rival churches, choirs, ushers, deacons etc. to something akin to a rap battle, suffers from "no true Scotsman" syndrome where Kris accuses Christians who don't Christian like he Christians of not being real Christians. Then there's the album's single, "Take Your Tyme," a big choir-heavy song that's dedicated to slut-shaming. If you've read more than 1 or 2 of my writeups in this series, you'll know how I feel about men preaching to women about how they should conduct themselves sexually, & that shit's no better when it has a choir robe on. Fuck this song.
I've written here before about how the early 2000s were not a good time for indie hiphop production, & this album is no exception. There's a cheap quality of production here, lots of low-budget MIDI & brickwalled compression. When it breaks out of the FL-back-when-it-was-called-Fruity-Loops rut, there are some memorable beats, like the Domingo-produced "Never Give Up," with a smoky chorus sung in Cantonese. Domingo, the best beatmaker Kris worked with during this era, also laces "Know Thy Self," another boom-bap highlight. The closer, "Power," is another more analog production, with live guitar & keys & eerie layered vocal harmonies. The rest of the beats, though, tend to be pretty forgettable.
As we all know, Kris's shift to gospel wasn't permanent. After this he went right back to making secular albums--with roughly the same level of lyricism, better production, a little more cursing & a little (very slightly, but still) less high-&-mighty. All of which is fine by me.
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