Gang Starr

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Essential Albums

  • Hard to Earn
    Hard to Earn
    Hard to Earn

    Though Gang Starr's four '90s albums represent one of East Coast rap's most consistently great runs, 1994's Hard to Earn is arguably the duo at their fullest flower, a defining document of boom bap full of hard-nosed boasts and hard-knocking beats. Producer DJ Premier was bristling somewhat from Gang Starr being saddled with the "jazz-rap" tag after three albums of smooth samplework and MC Guru's mellow, critically acclaimed Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1 side-hustle. So with the decade's third outing and their fourth overall, they delivered a minimal, deeply funky head-cracker, returning to the noise of Public Enemy with a slick groove all their own (though the walking bassline of "Mostly Tha Voice" shows they didn't abandon jazz cool altogether). This is DJ Premier at his absolute peak of influence and reach, emerging in the same year that would find his staccato pulse on Nas' Illmatic, The Notorious B.I.G.'s Ready to Die, Jeru the Damaja's The Sun Rises in the East and elsewhere. Befitting the grindmode title, Guru is in full offensive mode, taking out chumps, herbs, soft rappers, posers, suckers, rookies, snakes, people that don't pay dues and—on the breakout single "Mass Appeal"—sellouts. In his game-defining voice, Guru raps, "Just like the seashore I'm calm/ But wild, with my monotone style/Because I don't need gimmicks/Give me a fly beat and I'm all in it," laying down an ethos for the next 20 years of true-school underground rap. However, Hard to Earn's most lasting lyrical contribution may be the silly, slick, undeniable line "Lemonade is a popular drink and it still is" from the giddy Nice & Smooth collabo "Dwyck", a 1992 song so unstoppable it still warranted placement here.

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About Gang Starr

Characterized by rapper Guru’s street-conscious lyrics and producer DJ Premier’s jazzy beats, the venerated East Coast duo Gang Starr were defining figures of hip-hop’s golden age. • Performing under the name MC Keithy E., Guru formed the original incarnation of Gang Starr with DJ 1 2 B Down. They delivered three singles before breaking up in 1989. • Guru tapped Houston-born DJ Premier to form the new Gang Starr. The duo released their debut album, No More Mr. Nice Guy, in 1989. • The albums that followed—1991’s Step In the Arena and 1992’s Daily Operation—are widely regarded as hip-hop classics. • Gang Starr made their first appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Mass Appeal”, off their 1994 album Hard to Earn. • The duo’s 1998 album Moment of Truth debuted atop Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. • The group split up following the release of their 2003 album The Ownerz. • Guru died in April 2010 after a battle with cancer. He was 43. • In 2019, DJ Premier released One of the Best Yet, a compilation of unreleased Gang Starr songs featuring the likes of Q-Tip, Talib Kweli and J. Cole.

ORIGIN
Boston, MA, United States
FORMED
1985
GENRE
Hip-Hop/Rap

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