Author Topic: Gang Starr - One of the Best Yet (Official Discussion Thread)  (Read 1805 times)

Marco

Gang Starr - One of the Best Yet (Official Discussion Thread)
« on: October 22, 2019, 02:05:24 PM »


1. The Sure Shot (Intro)
2. Lights Out (feat. M.O.P.)
3. Bad Name
4. Hit Man (feat. Q-Tip)
5. What’s Real (feat. Group Home & Royce da 5’9")
6. Keith Casim Elam (Interlude)
7. From A Distance (feat. Jeru The Damaja)
8. Family and Loyalty (feat. J. Cole)
9. Get Together (feat. Ne-Yo & Nitty Scott)
10. NYGz/GS 183rd (Interlude)
11. So Many Rappers
12. Business Or Art (feat. Talib Kweli)
13. Bring It Back Here
14. One Of The Best Yet (Big Shug Interlude)
15. Take Flight (Militia Pt. 4) [feat. Big Shug & Freddie Foxxx]
16. Bless The Mic


Quote
DJ Premier has blown the lid off the new Gang Starr album. Titled One Of The Best Yet, the historic project is a 16-track trip down memory lane with the late Guru’s unmistakable voice peppering every track.

The album, which has been years in the making, boasts a healthy amount of notable guest features, including Q-Tip, Royce Da 5’9, J. Cole, Talib Kweli and M.O.P.

“This album means everything to me,” Preemo said in a press release. “It’s a continuation of what I never wanted to end. It’s a very foreign place for me and very emotional. I get happy, sad, excited; my feelings are kind of all over the place. But predominantly, just very happy to be making music with Guru again.”
« Last Edit: November 01, 2019, 03:24:50 PM by Marco »
West Coast Connection // www.dubcnn.com/connect // West Coast Connection
 

doggfather

Re: Gang Starr - One of the Best Yet (Tracklist)
« Reply #1 on: October 23, 2019, 01:53:57 AM »
Looks promising.
https://twitter.com/dggfthr

HELP

I'm an ol' school collecta from the 90's SO F.CK DIGITAL, RELEASE A CD!

RIP GANXSTA RIDD
RIP GODFATHER
RIP MONSTA O
RIP NATE DOGG
RIP BAD AZZ
 

Invincible

Re: Gang Starr - One of the Best Yet (Tracklist)
« Reply #2 on: October 23, 2019, 12:21:20 PM »
Jeru and Group Home back on a Primo beat. Haven't looked forward to an album for a while.

doggfather

Re: Gang Starr - One of the Best Yet (Tracklist)
« Reply #3 on: October 31, 2019, 09:27:19 AM »
Album leaked.
Toughts?
https://twitter.com/dggfthr

HELP

I'm an ol' school collecta from the 90's SO F.CK DIGITAL, RELEASE A CD!

RIP GANXSTA RIDD
RIP GODFATHER
RIP MONSTA O
RIP NATE DOGG
RIP BAD AZZ
 

Jome

Re: Gang Starr - One of the Best Yet (Tracklist)
« Reply #4 on: October 31, 2019, 05:11:44 PM »
Album leaked.
Toughts?

After a 15 min listen: This is something serious!  :o
 

Marco

Re: Gang Starr - One of the Best Yet (Official Discussion Thread)
« Reply #5 on: November 01, 2019, 03:06:06 PM »
Album is really great! 8)

EDIT:

CD's coming November 15th and the vinyls in Dec 6th. Primo just confirmed me on IG.
« Last Edit: November 05, 2019, 02:40:33 PM by Marco »
West Coast Connection // www.dubcnn.com/connect // West Coast Connection
 

doggfather

https://twitter.com/dggfthr

HELP

I'm an ol' school collecta from the 90's SO F.CK DIGITAL, RELEASE A CD!

RIP GANXSTA RIDD
RIP GODFATHER
RIP MONSTA O
RIP NATE DOGG
RIP BAD AZZ
 

Sccit

Re: Gang Starr - One of the Best Yet (Official Discussion Thread)
« Reply #7 on: November 03, 2019, 01:06:21 AM »
Album is really great! 8)

CD's coming November 5th and the vinyls in December 6th. Primo just confirmed me on IG.

good news i’m on that
 
The following users thanked this post: Marco

The Predator

Re: Gang Starr - One of the Best Yet (Official Discussion Thread)
« Reply #8 on: November 03, 2019, 06:55:36 AM »
Album knocks.

-------------------

Quote
Gang Starr: One of the Best Yet review – rap duo stand tall beyond the grave

Though rapper Guru died in 2010, DJ Premier avoids the usual pitfalls of posthumous releases, deploying neat verses and brilliant production tricks



4 / 5 stars 4 out of 5 stars.
‘Squarely aimed at existing fans’ ... Gang Starr.



Posthumous “new” albums are everywhere these days, but no other genre has taken the concept and run with it quite like hip-hop. From Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Eazy-E to XXXTentacion and Lil Peep, it seems no rap artist is capable of going to the grave, however prematurely, without having their unreleased recordings turned into product following their death. Tupac Shakur managed to crank out seven new albums in the decade following his murder. His nemesis, Biggie Smalls, unexpectedly popped up 20 years after his death thanks to a new album of duets with his widow, Faith Evans. And revered producer J Dilla’s posthumous discography vastly outweighs the solo releases he put out in his lifetime.

Whether you file this kind of thing under merciless exploitation or giving fans what they want, DJ Premier’s reactivation of the Gang Starr name, 16 years after their final album and nine after rapper Guru died of cancer, is a cut above. As indeed were Gang Starr during their career. They never sold vast quantities of records – their biggest commercial success, 1999’s Moment of Truth, went gold in the US, respectable rather than earth-shattering sales by the standards of the era’s blockbusting hip-hop hits – but from their second album, Step in the Arena, onwards, the duo seldom put a foot wrong artistically.

There’s a compelling argument to be made that Guru was the most gifted east coast rapper of his era. Premier’s production style, meanwhile, proved hugely influential: commercial but raw, big on grimy drums, filtered bass lines, samples that literally sounded gritty – the crackle of old vinyl as proud testament to his crate-digging skills – and old lyrics from the artist’s back catalogue scratched into the mix. In the 90s, his signature sound ended up everywhere from Nas’s Illmatic to D’Angelo’s Voodoo to, alas, Limp Bizkit’s Significant Other. Two decades on, more than one writer has been moved to suggest it embodies the spirit of pre-gentrification New York itself.

It’s a sound much in evidence here: you never want for boom-bap beats, artfully warped orchestral samples, evidence of aged vinyl or scratching. One of the Best Yet is released into a very different hip-hop landscape to Gang Starr’s last album, 2003’s The Ownerz, but it doesn’t make any attempt to relocate Gang Starr into a more contemporary setting. For all Guru’s talk of “real hip-hop” and “true artists” on the brilliant Bad Name or the bemoaning of fly-by-night talents on So Many Rappers, this is clearly not an album designed to lure kids away from today’s massed ranks of face-tatted mumblers. Rather, it’s squarely aimed at existing fans, who may well be inclined to remark on how brilliantly the old tricks still work: the drama of the strings on Take Flight (Militia, Pt 4), or the muted, soundtrack-like backing of Bless the Mic.


Premier avoids the pitfalls of posthumous releases. The material he has to work with isn’t stretched too thin – tracks linger long enough for Guru to make his point, then stop; the whole thing clocks in under 40 minutes – and the cameo roles seem to have been filled on the basis of compatibility rather than commerce. The one big contemporary name is J Cole, whose position as upholder of traditional hip-hop values and conscience of mainstream rap is well-established. “Who’d have thought J Cole would be rhyming with ghosts?” he wonders, over a beautifully mournful piano figure on Family and Loyalty. Mostly, the guest microphone is ceded either to Guru’s contemporaries or Gang Starr associates: Q-Tip, Jeru the Damaja, Big Shug, and Group Home, whose turn on What’s Real belies the obscurity into which the duo have fallen since the mid-90s.


There was a time when Gang Starr’s story seemed to have ended rather sadly. The duo’s split clearly wasn’t without acrimony. Worse, on Guru’s passing, his controversial latter-day producer Solar published a bizarre letter, supposedly written by the rapper on his deathbed, insisting that he wanted Premier to “have nothing to do with my name, likeness, events, tributes etc”.Some people insisted the letter was faked by Solar, and alleged abuse and neglect on his part. But you didn’t have to take sides to think this was no way for one of hip-hop’s most intelligent voices to go out. In that context, a genuinely strong final album with Gang Starr’s name on it, even an artfully patched-together one, feels not unlike righting a historical wrong. One of the Best Yet does exactly what long-term fans might expect a Gang Starr album to do. As a full stop to their career, it works perfectly. In the pantheon of posthumous albums, it lives up to its name.


 

« Last Edit: November 03, 2019, 04:55:12 PM by The Predator »
 

dnjp4life

Re: Gang Starr - One of the Best Yet (Official Discussion Thread)
« Reply #9 on: November 03, 2019, 07:12:49 AM »
As a Gang Starr fan this has come as a pleasant surprise, I never knew Premier was making one last album.  The review makes it sound like an essential listen for fans, so I'll definitely be getting this when I see it in stores.
 

doggfather

Re: Gang Starr - One of the Best Yet (Official Discussion Thread)
« Reply #10 on: November 04, 2019, 06:42:49 AM »
Album is really great! 8)

CD's coming November 5th and the vinyls in December 6th. Primo just confirmed me on IG.

good news i’m on that


+1
https://twitter.com/dggfthr

HELP

I'm an ol' school collecta from the 90's SO F.CK DIGITAL, RELEASE A CD!

RIP GANXSTA RIDD
RIP GODFATHER
RIP MONSTA O
RIP NATE DOGG
RIP BAD AZZ
 

Mak_Corleone

Re: Gang Starr - One of the Best Yet (Official Discussion Thread)
« Reply #11 on: November 05, 2019, 08:05:15 AM »
Imo, this a classic album.
Def gonna buy this, i didnt think i would be so energetic to hear another Gang Starr album.
Best song are Hit Man, Family & Loyalty, Bad Name, Take a Flight, Lights Out, From A Distance, Get Together, Bring It Back Here, So Many Rappers & Business of Art.
I mean shit, even the Intro gets u amped up
 

Sccit

Re: Gang Starr - One of the Best Yet (Official Discussion Thread)
« Reply #12 on: November 05, 2019, 01:27:39 PM »
link to the hard copies in this mufucka please

Marco

Re: Gang Starr - One of the Best Yet (Official Discussion Thread)
« Reply #13 on: November 05, 2019, 02:39:15 PM »
link to the hard copies in this mufucka please

CD will be available Nov 15th and vinyl in Dec 6th, here:

https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/gang-starr/one-of-the-best-yet
West Coast Connection // www.dubcnn.com/connect // West Coast Connection
 

Sccit

Re: Gang Starr - One of the Best Yet (Official Discussion Thread)
« Reply #14 on: November 05, 2019, 02:58:27 PM »
link to the hard copies in this mufucka please

CD will be available Nov 15th and vinyl in Dec 6th, here:

https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/gang-starr/one-of-the-best-yet

that’s the uk link

but just copped .. $17 bux shipped