The Gang Starr albums Guru loved the most: “It’s a tie”
Gang Starr, made up of DJ Premier and the late Guru, were a hugely important hip-hop group, helping to forge jazz rap as a popular style and inspire countless other artists who arrived later. So many of their albums were hugely influential, but which of them stood out to Guru the most?
Gang Starr’s history traces back to the mid-’80s, when Guru, operating under the stage name of MC Keithy E, formed the group with his college friends Big Shug and DJ Suave D. Preemo was nowhere to be seen in those days.
This early iteration of Gang Starr didn’t work out, after Big Shug was sent to jail and Suave D, his younger brother, decided to quit. Guru was unperturbed, though, and he recruited new members and cycled through a number of producers. Material was recorded in 1986, with singles being released in 1987 and ’88 via Wild Pitch Records.
The following year, though, the group broke down once again. But Guru remained committed to the project, as he had done before, so he reached out to DJ Premier, who called himself Waxmaster C at the time, and brought him on board. The duo then both moved to Brooklyn to try and get their music careers off the ground.
Guru and Preemo’s first single as Gang Starr was ‘Words I Manifest,’ which came out in 1989. Guru, who once spoke about it with Wax Poetics, always retained a soft spot for the song that kickstarted Gang Starr’s career.
“It is very special to me,” he said. “I was finding myself as a rapper and forming more spiritual beliefs. I wanted to be true to my lyrics. What I mean by that is that I wanted to have themes behind my words. I wanted to say things that were true to me.”
Guru’s rapping stood in contrast to a growing preoccupation with wealth in hip-hop culture at the time. “Rappers, then and now, would always talk about things they didn’t have, like diamond rings, furs and money,” he explained. “But I didn’t want to talk about that stuff cause I didn’t have any of it! So I started to talk about what I knew and that record was the start of that. This was very important because I was defining my identity.”
Gang Starr’s first album, No More Mr Nice Guy, was also released in 1989, and that was followed with Step in the Arena two years later. Album three was 1992’s Daily Operation, four was ’94’s Hard to Earn, and five was ’98’s Moment of Truth. The Ownerz, released in 2003, was the last Gang Starr album to be released in Guru’s lifetime, although the controversial One of the Best Yet was released in 2019, nine years after he died.
Of all of those albums, some of which are widely considered to be golden age classics, Guru couldn’t choose his absolute favourite — but two of them stood out. “It’s a tie depending on my mood,” he said of his highlights. “Step in the Arena or Moment of Truth, definitely.”