3. KRS One – “I Can’t Wake Up” (1993)
Room is proper, now I’m passed off to Shabba/Shabba’s voice gets low like a tuba/He said, “Me no follow no the rumor” and passed me to Grand Puba.
On this DJ Premier-produced track from 1993’s Return of the Boom Bap, KRS One’s first official album as a solo artist, the former Boogie Down Productions chief imagines himself as a “blunt getting smoked.” Specifically, a blunt getting smoked by various rappers, from House of Pain to Cypress Hill to Das EFX to Black Sheep, who eventually pass him off to Shabba. What can we say. KRS has made some weird moves over the years, but this might be his trippiest.