Gang Starr
One Of The Best Yet
To The Top/Gang Starr Enterprises
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If aliens were to land on Earth tomorrow seeking representative examples of hip-hop music, I’d give them a Gang Starr album. Very little typifies what hip-hop is and could be like the music of the duo, comprised of Keith “Guru” Elam and Chris “DJ Premier” Martin. Between 1989 and 2003, they graced us with six full albums, a two-volume “greatest hits” release, and some of the best music of the era.
Guru died in 2010, and hip-hop has been worse off for it. It’s missed his smoky, monotone vocals, and his cool presence. It’s missed the chemistry that he and Premier created on the dozens of tracks they recorded and released together. Guru was an accomplished artist on his own, releasing some great solo albums (most notably the Jazzmatazz series) and DJ Premier is considered one of the most accomplished producers of all time. But they were always at their strongest when they worked together.
When Guru passed, it had been seven years since the pair had released The Ownerz (2003). In the intervening years, Guru had struggled with substance abuse issues and recorded a number of albums with producer John “Solar” Mosher, his business partner and overall controversial figure. Sadly, Guru’s death seemed to signify the premature and heartbreaking end of Gang Starr’s era. However, through a lot of maneuvering and negotiation, Preemo was able to put together One Of The Best Yet, the group’s first album in 16 years. Happily, the album is a worthy posthumous entry to their catalogue.
Preemo has said One Of The Best Yet is the result of about a year’s worth of effort. Knowing Guru’s recording habits, Preemo said he’d had long suspected that there was a stash of unused Guru verses that Solar had in his possession. Preemo knew that to get access to these verses, he’d have to negotiate with Solar, something that he was loathe to do. Since they were on worse than non-speaking terms (Preemo won’t even say his name in public), Preemo asked his lawyer to find a way to liberate the verses. Eventually, for an undisclosed (and likely not small) sum of money, Preemo ended up with about 30 unused Guru verses and hooks.
Preemo crafted the tracks around these verses, developing the concepts for the songs from Guru’s lines. Whenever possible, Preemo put together multiple-verse songs using the verses, but at times he brought in guests to round things out. The album features many of the remaining Gang Starr Foundation members (Jeru the Damaja, Group Home, Big Shug) longtime affiliates (M.O.P. and Bumpy Knuckles a.k.a. Freddie Foxxx), likeminded artists and friends (Q-Tip, Talib Kweli, and Royce Da 5’9”) and occasionally someone that Guru never knew (J. Cole). Preemo even went the extra step to give Guru a “presence” in the studio: a bag containing some of his ashes was always sitting on the mixing board during the album’s recording sessions.
Posthumously created/released albums have a spotty history in hip-hop, but One of The Best Yet works really well. It doesn’t sound like the over-produced cash grabs that were The Notorious B.I.G.’s Born Again (1999) or the more than half a dozen 2Pac albums that were cobbled together by Interscope Records after his death. This new Gang Starr project isn’t quite as good as A Tribe Called Quest’s We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service (2016), but it’s a little better than Sean Price’s Imperius Rex (2017), which was good in its own right.
Much of the album’s success likely has to do with its length: even with 16 tracks, it’s only a 37-minute endeavor overall. In terms of construction, it’s the most similar to Step In The Arena (1991), in the sense that the tracks are brief and keep moving; there are only four songs that top three minutes in length. You can rarely see the seams of how the songs were put together; only “Family and Loyalty,” the album’s first single, sounds like it was pulled together from separate elements.
Most importantly, One Of The Best Yet feels like a Gang Starr album. Though Preemo has said most of the verses were originally recorded in the mid-’00s, nothing sounds dated. And Preemo crafts tracks that sound like Gang Starr beats, rather than tracks that he’d put together for his other collaborators. Like all the best “reunion” albums, it sounds like the type of album that the two would have recorded in 2019 if Guru were still alive. And it definitely makes you miss the chemistry that the pair shared.
There has always been something timeless about Guru’s lyrics. On “Bad Name,” the album’s second single, he uses his sole verse to vent his frustration about the state of hip-hop, sentiments that are as evergreen last week as they were 15 years ago. He decries the music’s increased commerciality and artists’ willingness to compromise their morals for quick cash. “Nowadays it's like everybody’s losing it,” Guru raps. “Instead of them preserving this gift, they’re all abusing it.”
Guru tackles the increasing disposability of hip-hop on “So Many Rappers,” observing the preponderance of one hit wonders that dot the music’s landscape. Over a majestic horn sample, he indicts the entire record industry machine, from the wannabe superstar rappers with delusions of grandeur, to the record executives that exploit them, to the various media outlets that feed into the phony hype. Meanwhile, “Bring It Back Here” is a fun little one-verse verbal exercise, as Guru kicks some fly braggadocio over a peppy string sample. “Wet behind the years while I've been spitting darts for years,” he warns. “Don’t make me embarrass you in front of your so-called peers.”
Some of One Of The Best Yet’s guest appearances are better than others. Frequent Gang Starr collaborators M.O.P. appear on the boisterous “Lights Out,” riding hard-hitting drums and a severe piano sample, with Lil’ Fame boasting that “for the bread I’ll leave your head smoking like a muffler.” “What’s Real?” is another solid entry, Guru and Royce Da 5’9” deliver rugged verses over a shimmering track evocative of Gang Starr’s Moment Of Truth (1998) era. Group Home makes their return on the song as well, delivering a solid hook.
Q-Tip shows up on “Hitman,” but it isn’t his best moment. While Guru’s twin verses about the life of a cold-blooded contract killer are strong, as is Preemo’s thundering piano-driven track, Q-Tip’s hook is borderline embarrassing. According to Preemo, Tip had been recovering from throat surgery, so his voice wasn’t up to recording an entire verse. Though Tip’s rasp adds to the song’s vibe, his attempts to repeatedly mimic the sound of a machine gun are best forgotten.
“Take Flight (Militia Pt. 4)” is another worthy entry in the group’s “Militia” series, feeling like a logical extension of the previous three installments. Big Shug and Freddie Foxxx join Guru in blessing a bombastic string-heavy track, complete with blaring horns on the hook. Though his vocals sounds a little muffled, the power of Guru’s rhymes shine though as he raps, “Hell, my clientele is the most regal / I crush brain cells, my name rings bells to most people.” But Freddie Foxxx is in rare form, delivering a goose-bump inducing verse that’s one of the best performances of his career. He first snarls, “On Gu' and them, I’ll never let Solar rest” and declares, “I write what rappers wanna be like in real life.” He then proclaims, “And you bitches are mad ’cause you spit a façade / For sad n****s who thought hip-hop was really gone / But not for very long, I’m back to carry on / Like I’m Marshawn Lynch, running through every song.”
One Of The Best Yet comes to a fitting end with “Bless the Mic.” It begins with a sample of a riff by comedian Sinbad speculating on the scarcity of future “rap reunions” and the likely dearth of middle-aged emcees. Guru then launches into a pair of verses, each demonstrating that rappers in their mid-forties can still very much bring the heat. He raps, “When it's concerning these bars, I'm leaving permanent scars / On you half-ass rappers, you ain’t earning it, pa / So come to my class, then I can son you real fast / Just ’cause you coming with cash, you still a wannabe ass.”
If Guru were alive today, he’d be significantly closer to 60 than 50. However, I have few doubts that he’d still be recording and releasing music. Almost 20 years ago, when I thought about artists and groups who I thought would and could continue to record music into their fifties and sixties, Gang Starr topped the list. It’s tragic that we weren’t able to see the partnership of Guru and Preemo continue to mature as they progressed through middle age. Preemo has hinted that he plans on releasing one last Gang Starr album using the leftover vocals. I look forward to whatever more comes, but still lament what we’ve lost.
Notable Tracks: "Bad Name" | “Bless The Mic” | "Take Flight (Militia Pt. 4)" | “What’s Real”
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