Soundtrack to our lives RIP GURU

Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal AKA GURU has left this world and left behind a legacy of albums and collaboration filled with wisdom and knowledge uncomparable to any rapper or hip hop Artist.

Here are some of my favorite tracks

When I started writing the first part of Soundtrack of our Lives, the second feature was always going to be Moment of Truth, the fourth studio album by Gang Starr with Guru on the mic and DJ Premier on production and DJ duties.

Maybe this is something new for younger readers but back in the day you had albums you could listen to without skipping a track, Moment of Truth was that Album and it’s title track made me hopelessly fall in love with hip hop to the point where I wanted to be part of the community.

Guru was never comfortable with only working with DJ Premier and sadly you can read a lot of that between the lines of his final letter to his fans.

He had many side project, solo project and collaboration of which the Jazzmatazz series was the most succesfull.

But for hip hop fans there was nothing that could compare to the magic of Guru and Primo together. I had the opportunity to see them both live separetly in concert but never together, it saddens me that I will never have that chance again.

Here are some of my favorite tracks I could find.

Full Clip

The clubs still go crazy with this beat whenever premier says Big L rest in peace we know what’s coming! GURU Rest in Piece!  This song featuerd on Gang Starr‘s Greatest hits album.

Militia- from Moment of Thruth

Awesome beat and a great collobaration by Freddie Foxx AKA Bumpy Knuckles

Royalty

One for the ladies with KcI and Jojo

Last Gangstarr album:

I felt Guru increasingly got more and more frustrated with the lack of respect and sales for such a talented and prolific group (maybe KRS-One or Immortal Technique but they both remained firmly part of the underground and never sold albums even close to the numbers of Guru‘s oeuvre) especially when seeing less talented groups on the rise, The Ownerz was their last attempt. It didnt meet the expectations that Guru maybe had but it still has many classic cuts.

Right Where you stand ft Jadakiss

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6_tHXqnhYI

Skillz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCHk-MzNvgM

Earlier Work:

I discovered most of his work in depth after discovering Moment of Truth. My respect for them grew with every old number I discovered but nothing matched what I felt for my first love (does it ever?)

Mass Appeal

Living Proof

Le Bien, Le Mal ft MC Solaar

One of the first cross Atlantic collaborations with MC Solaar, not to be confused with Solar his manager and Dj of final years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV0b74LLGk0

In any case there will be many tributes to follow, people will probably want some explanation from Premier about the reason for Gang Starr’s split, and a lot of people will say his Jazzmatazz work was the best.

I dont care. I jsut wanted a place to listen to some of his tracks.

Let us know what your favorite Guru, Gang Starr, Group Home or Jazzmatazz tracks were in the comment section below!

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