It must be amazing to look at the world from the perspective of KRS-One:

This was a man who was homeless, living in shelters in the late 70s. Living hand-to-mouth and self-educating as a black man in the South Bronx. 

In the 80s he would meet Scott ‘LaRock’ Sterling and start building a discography that now easily dwarfs any artist in the history of the genre. Also to this ‘music’ he was the primary intellectual consciousness for two schools of the artform, gangsta rap and so-called conscious rap. Essentially the ‘style/sensibility’ godfather to both Jay-Z, Biggie, 50 Cent, Snoop AND Common, Mos Def, The Roots, Lupe etc.  When Obama was brushing his shoulders off on the way to becoming President, KRS-One was tagged on the side of the podium in a fat marker—”We Will Be Here Forever” [tan3000]