RIP Guru

Guru (of Gangstarr fame) dead of cancer at 43. Those of you listening to Hip Hop in the 90s probably know
"Step in the Arena" and "Code of the Streets." When he was released from the hospital after being in a coma, I thought it sounded like cancer. Really had an interesting sound, a mix of rap/jazz with a lot of horns and the like.

Step in the Arena was like the anthem for our football team in the fall of 92. RIP Guru.

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/hip-hop-legend-guru-dies-at-43/39498?nc

 

Gangstarr never got the mainstream acclaim which they deserved.

 

Bummer. I have a few of his Jazzmatazz records. Really cool stuff. RIP.

 

Jazzmatazz was the truth. Beat US3 ("Hand on the Torch") by a few months and was an eye-opener for me. Saw Gang Starr a few years back in Denver and had no idea what I was witnessing. Webster has it right, too; Gang Starr, not 50 Cent/Lil Wayne/TI, should be in everyone's ear now.

RIP, bald-head slick.

 

Damn. I'm between places to live right now, so I've been online for about an hour out of the last 96 and am just seeing this. Damn sad news.

 

Saw them opening for Rage Against the Machine in New Orleans back in 2000. As the first song began, they came out from backstage one at a time (a la Parliament) every five minutes or so until were about 12 guys on stage, including a couple of guys who just sat down on a sofa and looked menacing (seriously).

The last guy came out wearing a burlap sack over his head (with the mic pressed up against the sack and rapping the whole time), with chains around his ankles and carrying a sledgehammer. One of the weirdest fucking things I've ever seen in person.

I never felt so white in all my life, though I don't think the Rage crowd --- which included one chubby 12-year-old with "Free Mumia" scrawled on a white T-shirt --- was really their target audience, either.