Monday, April 26, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Precisely the Right Rhymes
waking up every morning, one of the 1st things i do is check the latest twitter feed from the people i follow to see what's going on in the world. so, on tuesday at 3:30am, i read the newest and 1st tweet where i last left off at before i crashed for the night. murs wrote "RIP Guru. Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal. Tonz of Gunz probably my favorite song Hard To Earn favorite album. Classic material".
as many in the hip hop community was, when they first heard the saddening news, i was in complete shock. mouth dropped, frozen, instant flashes of all his videos, my favorite tracks he rapped on, his voice as the soundtrack to fun times with my homies, flashed by me in minutes.
i couldn't move for many minutes and after my state of shock was over, my 1st thought? i'm just gonna have to be late to work, because, i knew i didn't have a single digital track from him on my iphone. i know, shame on me. but rest assured, you should know that i have every gang starr album...on vinyl. yeah! with my secured wi-fi, my iphone was able to download "step in the arena", "daily operation" & "hard to earn" in less than 30 minutes. i was set for the day and pretty much for the rest of the week with the best albums from gang starr on my phone. something to note is that itunes doesn't have "no more mr. nice guy" available as an album download, only a-la-carte.
i was 18 in 1989 when i first saw gang starrs' video to "manifest" from the "no more mr. nice guy" LP. what a classic, but, needless to say, i was a fan since then. his voice and east coast rhyme pattern backed by dj premiers' beats did it. nothing complicated about this duo. just an mc and a dj, which nowadays, is hugely missing from many popular "rappers". his sophomore effort "step in the arena" cemented gang starr as a group to respect and hale. that album right there told me guru and dj premier are the real deal and are gonna make an impact. typically, the sophomore effort was a jinx and pretty much a failure with most hip hop groups back then and typically, to get the "classic album" nod, sophomore effort had to be better than your freshman start. so it didn't stop there...as i immersed myself into the hip hop culture by re-inventing the b-boy (combining breakin' and free dance - think flare into jazz-splits into the rogger-rabbit).
many of my dance styles and battle routines were created with gang starrs' early efforts from '89-'94 - that's "no more mr. nice guy" to "hard to earn". gang starr reached my homies and i, all the way over to the west coast in a very small hip hop community city of san jose california. so many dopeness in a span of 5 years. these albums along with other talented artists that birthed and/or grew during the strongest era in hip hop music, was the soundtrack to my living movie. so many memories of good times with my homies (tone 3, verse, bah bah) creating memories by battling on the dance floor and kicking our own rhyme styles and freestyles all over the bay area - oakland, san francisco, berkeley and yes, san jose. many times mimicking gurus' voice and reciting his rhymes. we all took turns and we all cracked the fuck up because we couldn't quite sound like him but we were trying anyway. it just sounded and looked funny as we failed many times. many times our trunks rattled gang starr on our way up to oakland or san francisco. many times we just chilled at each others pads, drank/smoke and listened to gang starr. our favorite albums? "step in the arena", "daily operation" & "hard to earn". word.
yesterday, i dedicated my entire day to guru. i played all gang starr and jazzmatazz albums which amounted 10+ hours. along with a few friends, i drank, ate, listened, reminisced and analized guru. i celebrated guru. yesterday.
thank you guru for your love and respect to hip hop and jazz. you kept it true and you gave me many many many good memories that i still cherish to this day. i'm sure your family members and people that were close to you will miss you, but your voice will live until i'm pushin' up daisies. fa-sho.
respect.
photo credit: shot by me; july 28, 2005 11:49pm @ agenda lounge in san jose, california.
as many in the hip hop community was, when they first heard the saddening news, i was in complete shock. mouth dropped, frozen, instant flashes of all his videos, my favorite tracks he rapped on, his voice as the soundtrack to fun times with my homies, flashed by me in minutes.
i was 18 in 1989 when i first saw gang starrs' video to "manifest" from the "no more mr. nice guy" LP. what a classic, but, needless to say, i was a fan since then. his voice and east coast rhyme pattern backed by dj premiers' beats did it. nothing complicated about this duo. just an mc and a dj, which nowadays, is hugely missing from many popular "rappers". his sophomore effort "step in the arena" cemented gang starr as a group to respect and hale. that album right there told me guru and dj premier are the real deal and are gonna make an impact. typically, the sophomore effort was a jinx and pretty much a failure with most hip hop groups back then and typically, to get the "classic album" nod, sophomore effort had to be better than your freshman start. so it didn't stop there...as i immersed myself into the hip hop culture by re-inventing the b-boy (combining breakin' and free dance - think flare into jazz-splits into the rogger-rabbit).
many of my dance styles and battle routines were created with gang starrs' early efforts from '89-'94 - that's "no more mr. nice guy" to "hard to earn". gang starr reached my homies and i, all the way over to the west coast in a very small hip hop community city of san jose california. so many dopeness in a span of 5 years. these albums along with other talented artists that birthed and/or grew during the strongest era in hip hop music, was the soundtrack to my living movie. so many memories of good times with my homies (tone 3, verse, bah bah) creating memories by battling on the dance floor and kicking our own rhyme styles and freestyles all over the bay area - oakland, san francisco, berkeley and yes, san jose. many times mimicking gurus' voice and reciting his rhymes. we all took turns and we all cracked the fuck up because we couldn't quite sound like him but we were trying anyway. it just sounded and looked funny as we failed many times. many times our trunks rattled gang starr on our way up to oakland or san francisco. many times we just chilled at each others pads, drank/smoke and listened to gang starr. our favorite albums? "step in the arena", "daily operation" & "hard to earn". word.
yesterday, i dedicated my entire day to guru. i played all gang starr and jazzmatazz albums which amounted 10+ hours. along with a few friends, i drank, ate, listened, reminisced and analized guru. i celebrated guru. yesterday.
thank you guru for your love and respect to hip hop and jazz. you kept it true and you gave me many many many good memories that i still cherish to this day. i'm sure your family members and people that were close to you will miss you, but your voice will live until i'm pushin' up daisies. fa-sho.
respect.
photo credit: shot by me; july 28, 2005 11:49pm @ agenda lounge in san jose, california.
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