Monday, March 15, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
DJ Wonder Presents: Get Well Soon (The Guru Respect Mix)
1. Dwyck – Gang Starr
2. Doe In Advance (Unreleased) – Gang Starr
3. The ? Remainz – Gang Starr
4. Full Clip – Gang Starr
5. I’m The Man – Gang Starr/Lil Dap’/Jeru The Damaja
6. Step In The Arena – Gang Starr
7. Soliloquy Of Chaos – Gang Starr
8. Just To Get a Rep – Gang Starr
9. Trust Me – Guru/N’Dea Davenport
10. No Time to Play – Guru/N’Dea Davenport
11. Hustlin Daze – Guru/Donnell Jones
12. Patti Dooke – De La Soul/Guru
13. Borough Check – Digable Planets/Guru
14. B.Y.S – Gang Starr
15. Mass Appeal – Gang Starr
16. Fed Up (remix) – House of Pain/Guru
17. Speak Ya Clout – Gang Starr
18. What I’m Here 4 – Gang Starr
19. A Little Spice (Gang Starr Mix) – Loose Ends
20. 1/2 &1/2 – Gang Starr/M.O.P.
21. Royalty – Gang Starr/K-Ci & Jojo
22. You Know My Steez – Gang Starr
23. All 4 The Ca$h – Gang Starr
24. Moment of Truth – Gang Starr
WEBSITES:
www.myspace.com/guru7grand
www.twitter.com/gurugangstarr
www.youtube.com/7grandrecords
www.myspace.com/gangstarr
Contact
guru.promo@gmail.com
Monday, January 25, 2010
GangStarr Moment of Truth [Album]
Download Apple itunes
Possibly the greatest duo in the history of rap music (certainly one of the longest lasting), Guru and DJ Premier have built up a well-deserved reputation thanks to their unwavering dedication to "real hip-hop" and total unwillingness to concede to industry trends. Their fifth album, Moment of Truth was released in 1998, an awkward time for NYC rap music that saw Puff Daddy working with Jimmy Page, Jay-Z jacking Annie, and DMX barking over Swizz Beatz' Casio presets. Gang Starr stayed true to their longtime formula; Guru spitting his trademark monotone flow over Preem's rock-hard drums, scratched hooks, and funkdafied loops. The result is one of their greatest albums, 20 tracks of straight bangers, including favorites like "You Know My Steez," "Above the Clouds" (with Inspectah Deck), and the thunderous posse cut "The Militia" (featuring the always intimidating Freddie Foxxx and Big Shug). While they have never put out a bad album, Moment of Truth could very well be their best.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Gangstarr Hard to Earn [Album]
Apple iTunes
iTunes Review
Much like Missy Elliot and Timbaland, the relationship between Gang Starr's Guru and DJ Premier achieved a synthesis particularly enviable in a hip-hop world that so often feeds off sheer ego. Hard to Earn assembles a lineup of the shady characters in Gang Starr's world and squeezes the trigger. Guru lands crushing uppercuts on "Mass Appeal," "Coming For Datazz." and "Suckas Need Bodyguards." As for production, it doesn't get any cleaner than "Code of the Streets," "Dwyck" and "Mass Appeal."
Gangstarr Daily Operation [Album]
iTunes Review
“Never takin’ shorts cause Brooklyn’s the borough” murmurs the one and only Guru on Daily Operation’s opening track “The Place Where We Dwell,” a veritable love letter of a song that finds Guru delivering a besotted panegyric to his adopted home. Though neither Guru nor his partner DJ Premier originally hailed from Brooklyn, together they managed to create the perfect sonic counterpart to the borough’s trash-strewn avenues, crowded ball-courts, and sweltering summer block parties. Daily Operation is never saccharine or overblown, Premier’s beats are steady and true, and Guru smartly skirts hyperbole with his unvarying monotone. If anything, Daily Operation is an ode to a Brooklyn landscape that might have been, one filled with aspiring MC’s and hard edged hustlers looking for something better, and defined by an all encompassing need to get over. An entire generation of MC’s would look to Guru’s tales of Brooklyn life for inspiration while countless producers would attempt, often with little success, to replicate the fearsome precision of Premier’s beats. A masterpiece in every sense of the word, Daily Operation will still be considered a classic long after the Brooklyn that Premier and Guru eulogized has passed from existence.
Gang Starr Step In the Arena [Album]
Apple iTunesiTunes Review
The Rubber Soul to Daily Operation’s Revolver, Gang Starr’s 1991 sophomore LP represents half of a two-album knockout blow that helped to define the sound of hip-hop in the early ‘90s. Step In the Arena presents a foundational formula: Take the juiciest parts of records from the ‘60s and ‘70s; loop them; add enough well-placed scratches to remind us of hip-hop’s roots; then get an MC to kick imaginative wordplay that draws on the laid-back styles of forbearers Rakim and EPMD. Gang Starr may not have invented the blueprint, but no other groups could match their skill in drawing succinct illustrations of hip-hop style. Expanding on the James Brown riffs that had dominated the late ‘80s, DJ Premier begins to dig deeper into his crates of vinyl for Step In the Arena, kickstarting a taste for obscure samples that would take hip-hop to new heights. And with his unhurried flow, Guru rejected the fast-rapping phenoms of the previous era and proved to his peers that speaking slow and low was the ultimate demonstration of control and confidence. There isn’t a weak track on Step In the Arena; it remains a milestone in the history of the genre.
GangStarr No More Mr. Nice Guy [Album]
Album Review
You don't hear much of Step in the Arena on Gang Starr's first album. In fact, aside from some scrupulous lyrical stances by Guru ("Manifest," "Positivity") and some of DJ Premier's hallmark brilliance behind the turntables, this Gang Starr isn't instantly recognizable as the duo who would soon become one of the most respected rap groups of the 1990s. The Gang Starr of No More Mr. Nice Guy still has a leg knee-deep in the old-school aesthetic. As a result, Premier's beats are quite a bit simpler and sometimes cruder than fans have come to expect (though they are still several cuts above the rest of the class), and Guru spends considerable energy talking up his own microphone skills and tearing down the next MC's (sometimes electrifying, as on "Gotch U"). That is not the same thing, however, as saying that No More Mr. Nice Guy is a subpar album. It is not, by any means. In fact, it's quite good in its own way, but it's also safe to say that the recording is not representative of the Chrysalis-era Gang Starr that devotees would eventually come to revere. Approach this album on its own terms, though, and it has a lot to offer, namely its early, tentative steps into the sampling of jazz. The most conspicuous attempt in this direction is the fine "Jazz Music," which was, nevertheless, reworked to much better effect a few years later for the soundtrack to Spike Lee's Mo' Better Blues as "Jazz Thing." The scratching showcase "DJ Premier in Deep Concentration" is an antiquated delight that dips into jazz as well, while the conscientious "Cause and Effect," the steely "2 Steps Ahead," and the uncharacteristic guest production from DJ Mark the 45 King on "Gusto" are all classics waiting to be rediscovered. Indicative or not, fans of the group will want this album, as will those with a jones for the original new-school revolution. More casual fans can probably start their collections with Step in the Arena, which is a required purchase. [The 2001 Wild Pitch Classics reissue adds three bonus tracks, the strongest of which is "Here's the Proof."]
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