4 votes

Boogie Down Productions - 13 And Good (1992)

4 comments

  1. [2]
    AnthonyB
    Link
    Hi, could you please get out of my brain? I randomly had Sex and Violence in my head yesterday so I listened to this album last night right before bed. I woke up about an hour ago thinking about...

    Hi, could you please get out of my brain? I randomly had Sex and Violence in my head yesterday so I listened to this album last night right before bed. I woke up about an hour ago thinking about this song and here it is.

    As for my thoughts on the song itself, I'm not great when it comes to dissecting songs and searching for meaning, and I am not that familiar with this album. Personally, I think this is a case where KRS-One is singing from one perspective and hoping the listener will take an opposing view. It's hard to tell though, because usually when he does something like that he has a verse where he will come in and own himself but that doesn't happen here. The same can be said about Say Gal which is fucking awful and leaves less room for interpretation than this song. The thing that makes this album so confusing and why I cant take either song too literally is the song Sex and Violence where he basically says that this is all bullshit and that our society has a really twisted relationship with the two. I kind of see that as the self-own verse, but for the entire album. But again, I don't really know what I'm talking about so I'd love to hear someone else's thoughts.

    1 vote
    1. culturedleftfoot
      Link Parent
      He's not personally taking sides as much as presenting a story to explore these kinds of situations. You'd expect most people who happen to hear it to be on one side of the fence, but it could...

      He's not personally taking sides as much as presenting a story to explore these kinds of situations. You'd expect most people who happen to hear it to be on one side of the fence, but it could well be heard by those on the other side too and I see no reason why it's not just as aimed to them. That's the point of the fourth verse. KRS himself invalidates the justification of "But it was good!" at the end. I'm not sure how so many YT commenters can listen to that and think he was being pro-pedophile.

      Maybe it's a matter of exposure, but people complaining seem to be missing the fact that the song mirrors the kinds of convos that happen in real life. I have a friend that my group used to ridicule mercilessly when we were in our early 20s because he had slept with a girl who was 16 or 17 (can't remember which). They apparently met under somewhat similar circumstances as the song and for a while, so they knew each other's age beforehand. His argument was that she was old enough to know what sex was and if she wanted to have it, and he was straightforward with her about what they'd end up doing... and I mean, that's got some validity to it, but we all still bashed him on principle. He was just being indiscriminatory; he didn't even have problems getting girls his own age. So, anytime he got out of line, someone would tease him about taking her to prom, or shaving all his facial hair to go meet her parents (he never actually did anything like that). We all, him included, came from backgrounds where we personally knew of grown men in their 20s and older who liked, put bluntly, "young pussy," i.e. that 13 to 15 age range, and we didn't look on it favorably. We didn't leave any doubt that if he had designs on any girls younger than her, we'd better not find out about it or we'd beat the shit out of him. On the other hand, while we didn't accept it as an excuse, we also knew that those relations were not solely the results of advantageous, unidirectional pursuits.

      As for Say Gal, why do you find it awful? Is it the actual music/delivery or the message?

      1 vote
  2. [2]
    culturedleftfoot
    Link
    I was on a KRS-One binge recently and was surprised to find that this song had apparently become controversial to some commenters in recent years. I'd be interested to hear any opinions.

    I was on a KRS-One binge recently and was surprised to find that this song had apparently become controversial to some commenters in recent years. I'd be interested to hear any opinions.

    1. JXM
      Link Parent
      KRS-One is an...interesting dude. A friend of mine went to see him speak at a record store in Atlanta about 15 years ago and he said that KRS-One basically spent an hour talking about particle...

      KRS-One is an...interesting dude. A friend of mine went to see him speak at a record store in Atlanta about 15 years ago and he said that KRS-One basically spent an hour talking about particle physics and how people could just phase through walls if they concentrated enough.

      I was disappointed I wasn’t able to go because it sounded like a wild talk...

      1 vote