Words by Jesse Serwer
You might have heard that KRS-One is about to drop a new album, Just Like That, produced entirely by a resurgent Mad Lion at the top of next year. Knowing that doesn’t make their new “Holiday Gift Style” Christmas video, in which they and ’80s dancehall crossover legend Shinehead battle against a swagged out industry Grinch over some “Strawberry Letter #23,” any less unexpected, though.
It’s “just something for the holiday season, for no reason,” KRS says at the top of the clip but leave it to the Blastmaster to drop some provocative food for thought in a throwaway Christmas song: “Grown ass men still calling women mommy (Mami?)/Playing video games as hobbies/I refuse to sit in the lobby/That’s why on radio you can’t find me.” Shinehead drops through with his trademark fast chat, while an as-gruff-as-ever Mad Lion puts his Gargameled-out stamp on the tune to “My Favorite Things”: “Mics and turntables, machine MPC/These are the tools to make fat beats like these.” Look out for Just Like That on Lion’s Killah Pride label at the top of next year.