`Teacher' keeps preaching.

Byline: Matt Cooper The Register-Guard

Born in Brooklyn in 1965, Lawrence Krisna Parker changed his name to KRS-One - "Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone" - and became a hip-hop pioneer.

He broke out with 1987's "Criminal Minded." His university lectures at such institutions as Harvard, Yale and Stanford earned him the nickname, "The Teacher."

KRS-One's latest efforts include a book and an online community devoted to the preservation of hip-hop (www .templeofhiphop.org). He plays tonight at the WOW Hall.

In a telephone interview, he had this to say:

Question: So tell us about the new album.

Answer: The new album is called `Keep Right,' just like the traffic sign. It reminds me to stay on the right side of life, stay righteous, stay on the path of my purpose.

This album is an advocacy for hip-hop to come together as a community. This is a call to the listener to take hip-hop beyond entertainment and think about the fact that hip-hop is what we are called in world history.

Question: And you've got a book out, "Ruminations"?

Answer: It's really a philosophical book. How does metaphysics and spiritual life actually work in my physical daily life? Across the entire book, it brings so-called abstract ideas into real, physical, where-you-can-touch-them kind of reality.

Question: Rolling Stone called your group - Boogie Down Productions - "one of the most influential and important hip-hop groups." Why?

Answer: First to do hip-hop reggae, first to introduce gangsta rap, first to use digital recording technology. We were one of the first to do sampling. Nobody came out and said, `We are a crew,' almost close to a gang, and flaunt that on national TV.

You check out the `My Philosophy' video. You'll see us rolling around with the posses, with the crew - it's all this macho-ism and we can do it all, and people really loved it; they wanted that in their own lives.

Question: Your song, "Jack of Spades," was a hit in the Keenan Ivory Wayans movie, "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka." Where'd you get the inspiration?

Answer: (Laughing) George Clinton gave me the inspiration for that. Wayans flies me to L.A. to do this record, and right there at the old Holiday Inn, in walks (funk superstar) George Clinton, and he's dressed like a page out of a magazine. And he walks up on me and goes, `Yo, KRS, you gotta sign this!' and pulls out a picture of me - George Clinton pulls out a picture of me.

What was really the ultimate about that particular song, I went to see this movie three or four times just to see the reaction of the crowd at the end - `Every superhero needs a theme music, hit it boys' - we saw the whole theater just rising up in the aisles, dancing to it.

Question: What do you think of rap and hip-hop today?

Answer: Dr. Dre, Eminem, 50 Cent - I really appreciate what they have done. They're not fronting. I would prefer to walk with prostitutes, whores and pimps. There's no fronting there.

I'm tired of those people who are up in the church, up in the temple, at the universities, posturing as if they are educated and civilized and conscious and refined. You front like you're a vegetarian, but at the end of the day you want a steak and a beer and some wild sex.

Why don't you stop fronting? That's what we're surrounded with in our `conscious rap community.'

Question: Do you still consider yourself a teacher? And what's the lesson today?

Answer: Of course. The lesson today is: Let us realize that hip-hop is the name of our identity in world history.

See, the fact that you are not white, you are not Asian, you are not Native American, you are not black - you are hip-hop.

It means, `I'm going to take the best aspects of my previous ethnicity and become a brand new nation with the best of what my previous ethnicity had to offer.'

Question: Are people learning?

Answer: Yes. In 1996, when I first said, `Rap is something we do, hip-hop is something we live,' everyone laughed. People were amazed and shocked and angry and scared and called hip-hop a cult.

Today, I can say the first half - `Rap is something we do' - and the whole audience will say, `Hip-hop is something we live,' and they'll say it with vigor.

Let's organize - that's the lesson. I am a role model. I'm aware that a 5-year-old is going to see me punch this cat in his face. I have to have an explanation for that. At the end of the day, I'm still a role model. I'm still a leader here.

That's the lesson, man - if you have nobody else that you can trust to lead this culture, then go ahead and get with KRS-One."

Matt Cooper can be reached at 338-2317 or mcooper @guardnet.com.

CONCERT PREVIEW

KRS-One with Genus Pro and others

What: All-ages hip-hop and rap

When: 9 p.m. today

Where: WOW Hall, 291 W. Eighth Ave.

Tickets: $20 at CD & Game Exchange, CD World, Face the Music, House of Records, Taco Loco, the Erb Memorial Union ticket office and the WOW Hall, 687-2746

CAPTION(S):

KRS-One will spread the gospel of hip-hop at the WOW Hall tonight. The righteous rapper has a new CD, "Keep Right."