You can’t run from your past or maybe you can. Guru of the legendary group GangStarr chooses not to live off his past glory but wants the respect for continuing to make quality Hip-Hop music and take rap forward. When asked by Hip-Hop Wired was there any chance of a reunion with DJ Premier or if he kept up with former GangStarr foundation cohorts like Bahamadia, he emphatically said no. Not really going into what the tension between him and his former partner and squad was, he told Hip-Hop Wired:
“I am Gang Starr, everything that I do is Gang Starr, and that’s pretty much it. As I move forward, adding this illustrious chapter on to a great career, I move forward with my label 7 Grand, the NYC’s brightest producer Solar and all the great new projects that we are coming forth with. That was then, this is now. The new, improved Guru for ’09.”
Recently dropping his latest project Guru 8.0: Lost & Found, produced entirely by Solar, the man who once spit such classics as “Manifest,” “Take It Personal,” “Suckas Need Bodyguards,” “Just To Get a Rep,” and “Royalty” also added:
“Lost & Found represents the fact that Hip-Hop itself has been lost and you have all kinds of hybrids that are not really connected to the root of Hip-Hop. You have Pop-Hop, R&B-Hop, and there are just so many derivatives of it, but you can’t go back. Lost &Found defines what Hip-Hop should sound like now and it creates a lesson for the cats out there now that are trying come up now and how they can put together their Hip-Hop for ’09 and beyond. People are stuck on what’s real Hip-Hop and are starting to lose the whole concept of what it really is, so we’re coming back to define what it really is as opposed to throwing something out there that isn’t really Hip-Hop.”
The Boston born and Brooklyn bred MC also made clear that he isn’t hating on the new jacks in the game and gives them their props for keeping the culture moving forward but did stress that there needs to be a medium.
“Hip-Hop now is in need of some balance and that is what 7 Grand represents. Coming with 8.0, we are shaking things up a bit and bringing in our interpretation of Hip-Hop for ’09 and not Hip-Hop for 2000 or ’98. We are bringing it live and direct. Some artists in Hip-Hop have become so influenced by the corporate business that they don’t realize the audience is more intelligent than that and will go out to find the Hip-Hop that they like. Big ups to those heads out there that have been supporting, finding our music and coming to our shows worldwide. It’s a beautiful thing.”
