KRS-ONE. Mr. Hip-Hop. Arguably one of the most influential Hip-Hop artists of all time, he is still a formidable force in the music today. From MCing, to producing, to discovering the next big hit, he has done it all. He has won battle after battle and kept it "real" all the while. When it comes to best MC of all time, he is in nearly everyone's top 10 list. Even if you don't like him, you can't deny his accomplishments - numerous gold albums, 15 plus years in an industry that discards its artist as fast as they arrive and a bid for most classic Hip-Hop album of all time with his debut Criminal Minded. Whether you consider him as a member of Boogie Down Productions or just KRS-ONE himself, there is no denying his place in Hip-Hop today.

With all of this under his belt, and his legendary status in the industry, what more could he possibly do. It's simple - create a foundation to preserve the culture of Hip-Hop and document its history, while still recording and making way for its future. His current project, the Temple Of Hip-Hop, is planning to do just that. KRS sat down to explain a little of what the future of Hip-Hop has in store.

JC: With the Temple Of Hip-Hop project, what is your first goal?

KRS-ONE: The first goal is to establish the common spirit of Hip-Hop culture. We all talk about preserving Hip-Hop and that's really the first step. Do we even want to preserve this thing? So the second step is, yeah we want to preserve it. How do we? One way, I believe, is to first create a Hip-Hop common spirit. A set of definitions, or what we call "refinitions." A way to view the culture. Hip-Hop is not Rap. That's our biggest concern right now. Hip-Hop is a culture. A consciousness. A way to be. An awareness. A behavior. Rap is an effect of that. Once it becomes common knowledge that Hip-Hop is, then we give some "refinitions" of what it is. But most important is that Hip-Hop is a culture. Then we can move to step three. This album is about that common spirit, all the music. If you notice the album, it says "Criminal Justice: From Darkness to Light." We start with the darkness. Straight thugged-out, underground craziness. Then at the end of the album, we give the "refinitions." Then number three now. The building itself. Our museum and archive. I would like to have several of them, the main one being in the Bronx, of course. We went through Human Education Against Lies, and we learned from these movements, how to organize Hip-Hop, and what it takes to organize Hip-Hop. This thing costs a lot of money too. Now imagine, Hip-Hop is from black, from poverty. But to preserve it, it's going to take millionaires. That's the challenge.

So have you had any prospective millionaires willing to donate money to get this thing going?

Well, Warner Brothers is the first and foremost millionaire backing our project. The most beautiful thing happened, Hip-Hop became an executive at Reprise Records (points to himself). This is how you get in this. That's why it's happening, because finally someone who is Hip-Hop, someone who believes strongly that you are Hip-Hop, that he is Hip-Hop, I'm Hip-Hop. Those that feel the culture are now in executive positions to make moves. There's movies coming. We are right now discussing Wild Style 2. At the end of the day, the Temple Of Hip-Hop is a Hip-Hop preservation society, right now, but really forever. But we are waiting for the opportune time to erect the building. Hopefully this album will finance some of that. But if it doesn't, it doesn't. The point of the album is to raise awareness.

Aside from the people on the album, who else has been supporting the Temple Of Hip-Hop?

That's a tough question, because in one breath the Temple Of Hip-Hop is self-contained and secures itself. We learned about attaching names to an organization to strengthen it. It doesn't work. We have a membership of about 25,000 people. They signed up on the I Got Next album. And we are now getting back to them. So in one breath, our membership is what we will be relying on, and our albums, videos, movies, Internet, interaction and radio shows around the country. Other than that, we are internal. Now of course anybody that would like to help out in any way, from donation to volunteer, we will always accept humbly. But we learned that we can't rely upon it. It's sort of like we learned with Human Education Against Lies, about donations. It's cool to take a donation but you can't survive like that. So this is what it is. Eventually we would like kids to come into an actual building. Saturday afternoon bring the youth group. Sunday we discuss philosophy, God, whatever.

Since you have started doing this, and you are an executive at Reprise Records, has your solo career taken a back seat?

No. That's actually an upfront seat. I've recorded about three albums already. Every time I record an album, something happens and it doesn't come out. So right now I'm discussing with Jive Records how I can work with Reprise (Records) as an artist, and either leave Jive or stay with Jive. I am in a very unique situation. I'm an artist on one label and I'm an executive at a competing label. So you can imagine the politics around me. It gets real bizarre at times. So yeah, I am going to put music out.

The final question. If you had everybody in Hip-Hop listening to you, what is the one thing you would want to say to them?

Love yourselves. Don't be afraid of who you are. Love yourself man. We are it. We may not be here forever, but right now at the turn of the century, we that s**t.