While we're on this 90s kick, I feel I must post something out of respect for Guru, aka 1/2 of Gang Starr, who passed away earlier this week.
Without a doubt, Gang Starr has been one of the more influential groups on my own music taste. They made some of the first music outside the mainstream that I regularly bumped in my disc-man, and Guru's rhymes became the gold-standard for my future judgments on hip-hop.
There's much to admire about Gang Starr's body of work, but I really appreciate the duo's uncompromising musical aesthetic. Try out "Check the Technique" off their sophomore classic, Step in the Arena (1991). Contrast that with a personal favorite, "Skills", from their last album. The Ownerz (2003). Though over a decade apart, these tracks could easily be off the same album. Gang Starr is one of the few rap groups that emerged from the old-school era to still be relevant in 90's ( and 00's to a lesser degree), and they did it without compromising their idea of what "hip-hop" should sound like. I won't even begin to mention the laundry list of MCs who, for better and for worse, changed their style to, in the words of the late great himself, chase mass appeal.
Sorry, didn't have these tracks at work, but here they are from lala...
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