Live Hardcore Worldwide

Though KRS-One didn’t become famous until the late '80s and early '90s, he was old enough to remember the rap culture of the '70s, when live performance was as important to a rapper’s career as recordings. By the time Live Hardcore Worldwide came out in 1991, KRS was already known as one of hip-hop's best live acts, an accolade that only became more important in the following decades. Recorded in 1990 at concerts in New York, Paris, and London, the raucous atmosphere captured on Live Hardcore Worldwide is deeply informed by the dancehall culture of Jamaica, where using a voice to command the attention of an impatient audience is of paramount significance. While many musical artists require high-end acoustics for their music to be accurately translated in concert, the cold echoes and boxlike spatial dynamics of rock venues only served to enhance the bare-bones beats of Boogie Down Productions. In some instances, the live versions of these songs feel truer than their cleaner studio counterparts.