Am I to understand people here aren't talking about the new Gang Starr record?

After Hard to Earn (which was great), why did they even bother to continue?

This, on the other hand, is the thing that makes me sort of ambivalent about them. Their stated reason for continuing, which I prett much buy (I find it difficult to believe Preem, for example, is hurting for money), is that they're "protecting" "real" "hip-hop," which is to say hip-hop that sounds more or less like Gang Starr. I don't know if that's hip-hop rockism or something, but jeezis, what a puddish thing to say.

"Fakes," presumably. Sigh. It's difficult when a band whose aesthetic you love embraces that aesthetic for profoundly dumb reasons.

On earlier albums, especially Moment of Truth, Gang Starr seemed sort of at one remove from the pop-rap landscape, like they just didn't have too much to do with it and that was fine. On this one, they're like, "Fuck you, Nelly! Fuck you, Sean Paul! Fuck you, Chingy! We're gonna openly disparage all the fucking great production of the past five years! Come and get some of this monochromatic snare loop and cliche horn sample action!" And it's just not on, especially since the past couple of years have been very, very good to the pop-rap landscape.

I'm gonna go drink beer and listen to DJ Quik cuz it's Friiiiday. If anyone wants to argue with me about the fundamental shittiness of the new Gang Starr, save it till Monday, when I'll be bored enough to care again.

Wait, a Hip Hop artist, being egotistical? While I never!

The new single, with Jadakiss = best rap single I've heard in a longgg time. I love love love that beat. Very emotive.

It's not the egotism of the statement that bothers me. It's the artistic philosophy behind it, which reads, essentially, "That which is not grimy and jazz-sampling and full of raspy voiced invocations of skills is not to be countenanced! It is still 1993!"

Unfortunately, I really like rap which is grimy and jazz-sampling and full of raspy-voiced invocations, etc. It's just not the only thing I like. And since this philosophy has effectively ruined NY underground rap (aside from the Def Jux willful avantgarde types, who have been ruined by pretension), I don't like to hear it from bands I like.

I thought "Royalty" was a great cut of the record after Hard to Earn (Moment of Truth) but yeah ... the rest of that record was garbage. esp. the song about getting fitted at the mall ... I believe it was called "The Mall".

Daily Operation is a classic and is totally solid from top to bottom though. They did have their defining moment ... it was just years ago..

simple: gangstarr has a style.

John ain't talking about the new Aceyalone, because it's not very good. Keith Murray? Possibly. Haven't heard his new one yet. Couldn't be PMD (whose new album "features EPMD"...??!?!?)

Daily Operation, while easily Gang Starr's finest, is hardly without it's clunkers. "Mostly Tha Voice" comes to mind.

Well, I guess we're assuming that you agree with me that Def Jux is, to one degree or another, "ruined." (This is not, of course, unilaterally true.) But there's a high level of "We are not fun! We are not listenable! We are innovative!" in a lot of the Jukies work. Which wouldn't be bad if a lot of it weren't so unfun and unlistenable.

simple: gangstarr has a style.

That's true, and it's a style I quite like. But it's also true that there's no practical need for me to have as many Gang Starr records as I do -- except for a tendency to slow down and simplify as time has gone on, they sound almost exactly the same as they did nearly 15 years ago. There's nothing wrong with that, exactly, but my point is that the rhetoric that surrounds the aesthetic is stupid in the extreme.

Let me guess: you've heard one, no, two Aesop Rock songs and that I Phantom album-ending posse cut about nuclear apocalypse.

Ding ding ding ding ding! We have a winnah!

Nate get your ass off ohhla and listen to the record, it's completely completely great

NB this is one of only a sprinkling of religio-ish lines on the record, which is part of why it's good

Naw. If anything, I'm responding more to older stuff -- Funcrusher, etc. -- and, aside from Rj and Can Ox (both of which are really great), it seems pretty obvious to me that the Def Jux crowd is kind of fun-averse. (Well, there's some punchline-heavy guys like Murs, but maybe he's not fun to me.) Especially when you put them against comparable work like the Stone's Throw crowd or even the Automator's stuff, the Jukie aesthetic is just too ahhhhhtistic for my tastes.

Murs got Humpty Hump to guest on his album = he is Fun Itself

Whoah. Whoah. How was I not informed of this? What have I been doing with my life? This changes everything.

But oh dear lord stay AWAY from PFAC.

Yes, oops was right, that was on Hard to Earn.

That beat ... YUM. Shuffling, swanky, and that bass line is DEEP.

My date tonight told me a great Guru story, but I don't have permission to retell it yet, and it involves a gun...

???

it's surprisingly good

whiney's review is good!

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/gang-star-one-of-the-best-yet-review-907757/

so good to hear Jeru again

it was fine, but it inspired me to revisit the ownerz, which is way better than i remembered

xp and group home guy

huh I didn't even notice Jeru

yeah that's a fine review good work Whiney

richard pryor sample on the last track is a+

This is great until J Cole appears.

yeah that's exactly when i turned the record off then put on the ownerz instead lol

Lil' Fame & Billy Danze, national treasures

Yo, a wise man once said, "Fuck what a wise man said"
Bitch, gimme that bag otherwise y'all dead

......

Now fuck who ya crew is
fuck what the true is
Gang Starr forever
fuck what the new is

I'm not a J Cole fan but his verse is fine

i never listen to j cole so i don't recognize him when he comes on, win/win

Tom was wrong as hell itt

thanks, guys!

I really hope John's talking about the new Keith Murray album, which pretty much destroys the new Gang Starr.

tbf this is a hilarious challop