Published on May 30, 2003
If you ever simplified the genius of hip-hop music, or
considered rap to be a violent, angry form of urban noise with
nihilistic poetry over drum machines that anyone could do passably,
then you never really
listened to any of it, particularly New York’s Gang Starr, a
duo who lurk in the upper reaches of my skyscraper of all-time
favorite artists.
Full Clip is an excellent point of entry for the curious
onlooker who’s heard the names ‘Guru’ and ‘DJ Premier’ bandied
about enough times in the past few years, but figures (correctly)
that neither of them ever get “jiggy with it” much, or have time to
jump up in silly suits and say
“Propah!” clutching soggy chicken wings like The Funky
Headhunter (MC Hammer).
This double-disc, twenty-one song set proves that Guru (the Mic
Controller), and Primo (on the wheels of steel), together are
easily one of
the best reasons to drop whatever the hell you’re doing and
listen closely.
“Now more than ever I’ve got my whole shit together. More than a
decade of hits that’ll live forever.”
Gang Starr have five other indispensable albums that would make
your music collection sound a lot better if you owned any of them
(and don’t download and burn copies of ’em either, you cheap
sumbitch). Better yet, if you do own even one, like 1994’s seminal
Hard to Earn, but file it behind your Joy Division CD and
lay them both casually on your coffee table (along with, say,
anything by Fela Kuti) to impress your friends when they pop over,
shame on you! And let’s finally take that Diet-Cars (Weezer)
bullshit out of your stereo and turn the disc into a coaster like
it was intended.
The
Clip is
Full with such notable inclusions as “Just to Get a Rep,”
“You Know My Steez,” the spooky “All Tha Ca$h,” “Mass Appeal,”
“Soliloquy of Chaos,” “Take It Personal,” “The ? Remains” and the
previously unreleased title track with the opening shout to the
late Big L.
We’re in a relatively good time period for hip-hop, but while
there’s lots & lots & lots of so-called “competition,” I
don’t see many even getting close these two. I’m afraid you need
this.