Why did Gang Starr break up?
The Beatles. The Clash. ABBA. Perhaps the only thing more difficult than assembling a genre defining, zeitgeist leading band is keeping the band together throughout the years. This is certainly the case for Gang Starr, who erupted onto the scene in the late 1980s and became one of the most influential and respected duos in hip-hop history.
Trading on a sound that blended jazz-infused beats with lyrics that were as witty in delivery as they were socially astute in observation, duo DJ Premier and rapper Guru were celebrated key fixtures across the East Coast’s retrospectively labelled Golden Era of hip-hop. Their albums are today considered classics of not just the jazz-rap they pioneered, but rap at large: and the respect they commanded across both genres is seen in their collaborations with jazz musicians and hip-hop stars like Snoop Dogg, Havoc, and Scarface.
To be critically celebrated, beloved by music fans, and respected by industry peers is every musician’s dream. So what shattered the union of Guru and DJ Premier?
Speaking to Forbez DVD to promote the release of the documentary Breakup of the Chain & Starr, original Gang Starr foundation member – the term given to the scene of collaborators and friends that surrounded Gang Starr- Gusmo shared what he believed to be the root cause of the notoriously bad blooded fall out.
“[The DVD is] exposing how the whole shit went down and why Guru left. And the situation why he left, there was drugs involved and all of that. Preem, you know what I’m talking about,” Gusmo said. “N*ggas was cracking that fucking nose candy. I ain’t saying everybody, but Preem know what I’m talking about. N*ggas getting high, taking money, n*ggas robbing tour money… Guru just got tired of it and said fuck that, I’m out.” As fans will know, Preem is a common nickname for DJ Premier.
“What really happened was ego. It was ego. Preem had the ego,” Gusmo continued. “He wanted to be the n*gga in charge and try to run shit and tell n*ggas what to do and who can go on tour and do this and do that. Guru was always fighting for n*ggas to go, but he didn’t want certain n*ggas to go on the road. So I guess Guru got tired and wanted to do his own thing and that’s what it was.”
“I’d say it was around the Ownerz album,” he said. “I think it was over the money and what Preem was doing was he was doing beats for porn. Guru was getting tight because he was like, ‘I don’t represent that.’ Guru got tight and was like, you know what? I’m out. He didn’t want to deal with the situation no more. Plus, it was over sample clearances, they were getting sued. Guru was like, I want to do my own thing and I’m going to just move forward and move on. And he left everybody, but he stayed in contact with me.”
Guru tragically passed away from cancer in 2010. In 2019, DJ Premier paid tribute to his life and legacy with the release of album One of the Best Yet under the Gang Starr name, which used unreleased vocals from Guru, alongside appearances from J. Cole, Q-Tip, Talib Kweli, and others.
The album, which received favourable reviews from critics, came with its own difficulties to produce. One last legacy from the feud, former collaborator provided a note from Guru stating that Guru disowned DJ Premier from obtaining any of his unreleased works. And while the note is disputed and widely held in suspicion, Solar made it very difficult for Preem to obtain the posthumous material. The matter was eventually settled in court and an alleged agreement, something Solar disputes.