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By Toure Muhammad

When Poor Righteous Teachers hit the national scene in 1990 with the release of their first album, it was clear they would become Hip Hop legends.

Now, of course they can boast respectable record sales and a loyal following, and they didn’t have record-breaking CD sales, but that has NEVER been the criterion for REAL Hip Hop. If that were the case, then MC Hammer, with 10 million copies, Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt ‘Em sold, would be THE best rapper of all-time. And even Oaktown’s 357 know that’s not the case.

Yeah, what PRT represents is the BEST of the Hip Hop rap genre: lyrical excellence, powerful, thought provoking content, and some straight up head nodding beats. This trio put together a flavor that makes brothers like me proud of what hip hop means and can do when we have knowledge and love of self and knowledge of our enemy.

PRT’s music exposed the pain, poverty and destruction in the black community and always shed light on the hidden hands that fostered those conditions. They inspired me.

And now, the front man for PRT, Wise Intelligence is releasing a solo CD, Wise Intelligent is…The Talented Timothy Taylor. He recently gave an exclusive interview to Bean Soup Times. I told him the news of his new release was like water in the desert. Can you believe we haven’t heard from PRT since 1996 with the release of New World Order?

And After listening to A Genocide, it’s no doubt; the people are in for a cool and refreshing treat.

With this solo project, Wise is ready to stand once again, with the best Hip Hop has to offer. He knows how to put it together. "It’s about music, message, and flow all being up to a par," said Wise Intelligent. Wise brings it with "A Genocide" which has the melodic lyrical flow and head-nodding beat with some serious content, as he talks about the "birth" of the modern dope game in the black community.

In the rap, Wise talks about Freeway Rick and the whole CIA, Contra, Black community drug triangle that was exposed via the reporting of former San Jose Mercury News reporter Gary Webb.

Webb was crediting with breaking the story and doing lot’s and lot’s of legwork in Central America to corroborate the story initially told to him by Freeway Rick which was that he was provided drugs by the Contras with the CIA’s knowledge. Since then, Webb reported committed suicide by putting TWO holes in his own head with a shotgun. Makes you go hhhmmm.

Wise wants to make a point with A Genocide. "I want black youth to know, they’re not the cause of the problem. When it was over, Freeway Rick felt like a strawberry. He wasn’t the king pin, he was a runner," said Wise.

"Lotta innocent lives are lost, black communities paid the cost…
All the drugs and guns we bought we financed CIA dirty wars…
I’m just a young boy born down in a ghet-to…
Hanging out on corners cooling with my fel-la’s…"
--A Genocide

To get a sample of A Genocide go to http://www.myspace.com/wiseintelligent.

Many Hip Hop historians will talk about how conscious rap took a fall in the early 90s as record labels moved to promote gangsta rap. "I’m a ghetto political MC," said Wise who witnessed the attack on political hip hop artist like X-Clan, Public Enemy, Brand Nubian, KRS One and others in the early 90s.

Record labels began very deliberately taking money from the promotion of conscious rap to gangsta rap. "I witnessed it happening," said Wise. "They cut the money for promotion of PRT to spend more money promoting people like DJ Quick."

"Did you know that Easy E was the FIRST rapper to be invited to the White House?" Wise added.

Word? Imagine that.

One goal Wise has in mind with this latest project is that, "these rhymes were about change and getting a brother to see himself in that brother he’s pointing the gun at," he said. As always, Wise is about self-love, respect and unity.

Citing the huge void in lyrical content, outside of current rappers Talib Kweli, Mos Def, and Dead Pres, the "best thing about hip hop today is that poor kids from the hood are finally making some money," explained Wise.

Another must listen to cut on his myspace.com page is the classic Conscious Style featuring Boogie Down Productions’ KRS One. Both MCs remind you of what hardcore conscious rap should be. 

Speaking on current events, Wise explained why black folks on roofs crying for help might be the best thing to happen in recent history. "When I saw it, I was like, hell yeah! That’s what needs to happen. Maybe we’ll begin to rely on self now! If nothing else, Hurricane Katrina will teach black folks to do for self."

This brother is deep. After you check out his new music on myspace.com, read his blog that gives and extensive list of books to read. It’s more than 100 books so before the interview concluded, I asked him which five would he recommend to Bean Soup Times readers.

"First, I’d recommend "A People’s History of The United States" by Howard Zinn

"Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys," Volumes 1, 2 and 3 by Jawanza Kunjufu," said Wise. "OK, that’s three (laughs). And the last one, this may surprise people, but the last one would be "No More Prisons" by William Upski, because in that book he tells you how to organize."

"The last thing I want to say is get knowledge, get wisdom but in all of your getting, get the understanding." Yes sir, brother Wise. Yes, sir.