This week Princeton, New Jersey emcee Kyle Rapps released his EP RE-Edutainment. Many Hip Hop fans will get the title’s reference to the gold 1990 album from KRS-One‘s Boogie Down Productions, Edutainment. Rapps explained that the allusion is very significant to his influences as well as living experiences. “Touring middle schools and youth detention centers with my poetry group, Mayhem Poets, made me want to share some newer generation vibes. Lately, I’ve been connecting the dots between how I grew up and how young people nowadays experience education and coming of age.”
While Kyle sees “edutainment” in his personal life, it’s also a meaningful reference to Tha Teacha, who worked with him on the EP’s “Rent (Remix)”
. “Boogie Down Productions’ classic record, Edutainment, really spoke to my generation during the ’80s and brought empowering messages in a fun capsule. I figured I would enlist KRS-One along with some more contemporary artists [such as] Joell Ortiz, U-N-I to make an updated version of the BDP classic that not only addresses the challenges and advantages today’s youth growing up in the age of smart-phones, social networks, and [President] Obama; but also highlight the true desire for all humans to feel grown, sexy, successful, and loved — all over Kev Brown production you can shake your ass to while you reminisce and re-learn.”
The eight track RE-Edutainment is available on Mayhem Entertainment.
