The 50 Greatest Gang Starr Songs

A year ago today, Keith "Guru" Elam passed away. Celebrate his life by revisiting all his classics.

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Image via Complex Original
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Consistency. Diligence. Longevity. Not the characteristics we normally associate with a hip-hop world forever festooned with stunted career trajectories. But then, Gang Starr was no ordinary hip-hop group. Gang Starr represented all the above-mentioned and more; the one act in rap history whose name will forever be synonymous with "real hip-hop"—an oft-abused term entirely devoid of meaning in most contexts, yet still wholly applicable and inescapable when describing the legacy of the duo of Guru and DJ Premier.

There's no shortage of irony in this fact. Not because the combination of Guru's unmistakable monotone delivery and sophisticated street reportage and DJ Premier's groundbreaking, scratch-propelled production has ever represented anything less than the pair's complete commitment to authenticity. But because Guru and Premier began as such complete outsiders—products of Roxbury, Mass., and Prarie View, Texas, respectively, who studied from afar the goings-on in hip-hop's home base of New York City at the dawn of the "Golden Era" and were inspired to give a go at it themselves, reasoning, of course, that if they could make it there then ... well, you know.

Both moved separately to a then still grimy Gotham. Guru first, bringing the GS brand with him from his old crew from Boston; Premier after submitting a demo to NYC indie label Wild Pitch Records, which led to an offer to team with Guru. Together they paid dues, honed their craft, and won not only the respect of their Rotten Apple–bred rap brethren but of hip-hop fans worldwide. A remarkable string of classic and near-classic albums (Step in the Arena, Daily Operation, Hard to Earn) climaxed with 1998's cathartic Moment of Truth. By the time they'd unofficially called it a career (after 2003's The Ownerz), the partners had cemented their shared status as legends, dwarfing the careers of many of the artists who'd first inspired them.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011, marks one year since the tragic and untimely passing of Keith "Guru" Elam from cardiac arrest after a year-long bout with multiple myeloma that left him in a coma. He was 47. To honor the memory of the man also known as Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal, we celebrate the music of the group that was his and Premier's gift to us. Here is our list of the 50 Greatest Gang Starr Songs, a tribute to a catalog that continues to inspire others to follow the path of the chain and star. Gang Starr—now and always, one of the best yet.

Written by Chairman Mao (@chairmanmaonyc).

#50. Gang Starr "Doe in Advance (Original Version)" (1994)

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Album: Hard to Earn

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

Real Gang Starr fans always get their "Doe" straight. While a version of this street status report appeared as a bonus track on the Japanese release of Hard to Earn, the definitive version is the far superior original with the (maybe too costly to clear?) Ohio Players "Sweet Sticky Thing" sample. Eventually the OG saw an official indie vinyl release circa 2000. Well worth the wait.

#49. Gang Starr "Movin' On" b/w "Gusto" & "Knowledge" (1988)

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Album: "Movin' On" single

Label: Wild Pitch/EMI Records

It may come as shocking news to some that the pre-Premier Gang Starr (i.e. Guru with occasional help from rapper Damo-Ski) actually put out some quality recordings on Wild Pitch (a sluggish debut, "The Lesson," notwithstanding). Keithy E, as he was then known, comes off like a lost Flavor Unit soldier on this trio of 45 King–produced tracks from GS's sophomore single, the B-sides of which best suggest the classics to come. The fast rap of "Gusto" grooves with self-descriptive zeal. "Knowledge" memorably horn-stabs its way along the path to enlightenment (count Souls of Mischief among its fans).

#48. Gang Starr "Here's the Proof" (1989)

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Album: "Words I Manifest (Remix)" 12" single

Label: Wild Pitch/EMI Records

The chorus refrain may ring peculiar ("Gang Starr is funky, and here's the proof"). Still, this non-LP B-side treat from the "Words I Manifest (Remix)" 12" single charts Guru's continued growth as an MC. "Let us take a ride inside of transcendentalism/I'm on a mission/You're in a mental prison," the Gifted one opines over a familiar L.T.D. bass loop. It's funky enough.

#47. Gang Starr "The Ownerz" (2003)

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Album: The Ownerz

Label: Virgin/EMI Records

Lost amidst the underwhelming response to Gang Starr's final album, The Ownerz, was the fact that it featured some excellent individual songs. Sounding like the sequel to Moment of Truth's "Work" with its horn/piano punctuations, the album's exuberant title track finds our heroes righteously claiming sole owner occupation of hip-hop's purist lane.

#46. Gang Starr "Alongwaytogo" (1994)

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Album: Hard to Earn

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

Coming off the impeccably disciplined templates of Step in the Arena and Daily Operation (both near-perfect albums), Hard to Earn boldly announced its rawer steez out the gate with this, its sinister lead track. Guru's vocal is beyond blunted, distractingly drowsy. But Preem's beat—all Scooby Doo–ish haunted-house organ and scratched "Check the Rhime" vocal tics—packs the added low-end punch that would come to define his classic sound.

#45. Gang Starr "All 4 the Cash" (1999)

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Album: Full Clip: A Decade of Gang Starr

Label: Noo Trybe/Virgin/EMI Records

On this single-verse street narrative recorded for 1999's Full Clip anthology, Guru's crime rhyme with a moral is admirably pulpy. But it's Premier's ominous piano beat and gunfire snare hits that put this one over.

#44. Gang Starr "Execution of a Chump (No More Mr. Nice Guy Pt. 2)" (1991)

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Album: Step in the Arena

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

There isn't one bad song on Step in the Arena, just some that are more excellent than others. "Execution," Guru's indelibly atmospheric tale of betrayal, is among the best, if least heralded. Despite the slow tempo, Premier gives the track a live feel, running the intro drum roll every two bars. Genius "Execution."

#43. Gang Starr "Positivity (Remix)" (1989)

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Album: No More Mr. Nice Guy

Label: Wild Pitch/EMI Records

No More Mr. Nice Guy–era Gang Starr is easily Guru and Premier's least talked-about and most overlooked period together. Yet as the "Positivity (Remix)" proves, the combination was yielding musical dividends from the outset. Preem peppers the relaxed track with his trademark cutting. Guru counters the overriding optimism with glimpses of competitive fire ("Tape playing loudly inside my headphones/MCs that crowd me turn into headstones").

#42. Gang Starr "Here Today Gone Tomorrow" (1991)

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Album: Step in the Arena

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

This is another beautifully concise Step in the Arena album track. Classic Gang Starr theme: Longevity trumps trends. Premier laughs with his hands, clowning inferior competition by expertly cutting up a Biz vocal ("Haha, see ya later").

#41. Gang Starr "Credit Is Due" (1991)

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Album: "Love Sick" 12" Single

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

More B-side magic—originally from the "Love Sick" 12" single. A fine example of Preemo's ability to transform lighter jazz sample source material into heavyweight hip-hop building blocks.

#40. Gang Starr f/Jadakiss "Rite Where U Stand" (2003)

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Album: The Ownerz

Label: Virgin/EMI Records

The second single off The Ownerz evokes a Wild West flavor thanks to its duel motifs and Preem's twangy sampled guitar riff and rolling piano. Guru is in prime shit-talking Ill Kid form ("It's that OG flavor/Remind you of a corner bodega/And that Old E behavior"). No lyrical outlaws, however, are outgunning guest Jadakiss, who memorably kicks off his verse with the couplet, "They wanna know why I invest all my money in the haze and in the dope/'Cause right now I'm currently a slave for Interscope," and later wryly notes, "This industry is like bacteria and my flow is the germ." Right on.

#39. Gang Starr "Love Sick" (1991)

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Album: Step in the Arena

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

One part of Guru's legacy that doesn't get the props it merits was his ability to present himself as vulnerable without playing himself. The requisite love rap ballad that showed up on most hip-hop albums from the late '80s and early '90s was usually automatic fast-forward fodder—till "Love Sick," which detailed all too real-sounding scenarios of relationships gone awry. And yes, years before Ghostface would publicly endorse the snares of the Delfonics, Preem was on that Philly Groove shit.

#38. Gang Starr f/M.O.P. "B.I. vs. Friendship" (1998)

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Album: Moment of Truth

Label: Noo Trybe/Virgin/EMI Records

While some may prefer "½ and ½" off the Blade soundtrack, Gang Starr's inaugural collab with M.O.P. gets the nod here for its subject matter—which can't help but be heard in relation to the then-damaged relationships with certain former Gang Starr Foundation members.

#37. Gang Starr "The Illest Brother" (1992)

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A criminal-minded Daily Operation album track that was originally slated for the Juice soundtrack, it somehow didn't make the cut. Probably safe to say this was an error in judgment by the music supervisors for Juice.

#36. Gang Starr "Next Time" (1998)

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Album: Moment of Truth

Label: Noo Trybe/Virgin/EMI Records

Maybe the best thing about Moment of Truth, Gang Starr's fifth and most important album after a four-year layoff, is the palpable hunger that pervades it—even on tracks lodged deep in the LP's sequence, such as the penultimate "Next Time." Memphis-style horn swells establish what initially feels like a somber tone till an amped Guru starts brandishing his ghetto gold credentials: "The underground is where I dwell at/It's where I find my heaven/And you find your hell at."

#35. Gang Starr "Conspiracy" (1992)

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Album: Daily Operation

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

Gang Starr's discussion of institutional racism is vintage KRS-caliber. That Guru and Premier chose never again to be quite as explicit in their social commentary shows their savvy in two respects: One, they realized that they'd done it so well with "Conspiracy"—addressing religion, education and standardized testing, and the music industry—that they didn't need to repeat themselves; and two, they knew that being more surreptitious with messages in their music—as opposed to being labeled some sort of "conscious rap" act—was the far more effective way to go in the long run. They were right.

#34. Gang Starr "In Memory Of..." (1998)

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Album: Moment of Truth

Label: Noo Trybe/Virgin/EMI Records

Moment of Truth's poignant finale paying tribute to lost friends, colleagues, and loved ones is as well-constructed a song as any Guru and Premier have recorded. Preem announces the names of the dearly departed, with the last of each section tag-teaming into Guru's verses beautifully.

#33. Gang Starr "Take a Rest" (1991)

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Album: Step in the Arena

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

This lyrically lithe Step in the Arena track only saw a single release overseas. It's possibly the nimblest Guru's ever rhymed on record, and Premier's mesmerizing sample collage/barrage more than matches his partner's intensity.

#32. Gang Starr "Work" (1998)

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Album: Moment of Truth

Label: Noo Trybe/Virgin/EMI Records

So appropriate that a group as famously musically blue collar as Gang Starr would celebrate its work ethic on this contribution to the Caught Up film soundtrack. Infectious orchestral stabs and piano make this labor easy to love.

#31. Gang Starr "Tonz 'O' Gunz" (1994)

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Album: Hard to Earn

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

The most valuable musical development on Hard to Earn: Premier's infatuation with noise over notes (e.g. "Speak Ya Clout," "Brainstorm"). "Tonz 'O' Gunz" completes the LP's raucous triumvirate, an onslaught of screaming bomb-drop whistles over Truck Turner typewriter hi-hats that's ideally suited for Guru's verbal disarmament treatise.

#30. Gang Starr "The Rep Grows Bigga" (1998)

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Album: Moment of Truth

Label: Noo Trybe/Virgin/EMI Records

The superb unofficial sequel to "Just to Get a Rep" follows the classic Guru stanza scheme: two verses of street scenarios/story-rhymes, then a third that applies the song's theme to Gang Starr's music. Preem's extended scratch-cut sequence on the choruses is the definition of thorough.

#29. Gang Starr "Take Two and Pass" (1992)

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Album: Daily Operation

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

Never tipping their hands on Step in the Arena regarding their affection for lah, Guru and Premier let the cat out the dimebag on Daily Operation, resulting in this anthem of the Phillie Blunt era. Best moment—a blazed-up Guru giddily notices "a nice plump blunt" in Premier's hand and exclaims, "I just know you're gonna share it with me 'cause I'm your man." Sharing is caring—aight?

#28. Gang Starr "JFK to LAX" (1998)

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Album: Moment of Truth

Label: Noo Trybe/Virgin/EMI Records

During the recording of Moment of Truth, there was great uncertainty as to whether Guru would even be around to promote it after its completion, such were his pending legal troubles. On "JFK to LAX," one of the LP's dramatic high points, he addresses his arrest on a gun charge, his thoughts running the emotional gamut—anger, depression, defiance, remorse—before he concludes with acceptance of his own accountability: "And as I sit feelin' the pain in my wrist/I vow to myself that I'ma change this shit/Or at least I gotta try, or a part of me will die."

#27. Gang Starr "Flip the Script" (1992)

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More Daily Operation excellence. What more can we say? "Like this, y'all. (This, y'all!) This, y'all. (This, y'all!) Dee-de-dee-de-dee-de-de-de-dish, y'all!"

#26. Gang Starr f/Big Shug & Freddie Foxxx "The Militia" (1998)

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Album: Moment of Truth

Label: Noo Trybe/Virgin/EMI Records

The hip-hop A-Team's theme music. Song-stealer/hook-provider Freddie Foxxx lives up to his claim that "You niggas can't make up a law I don't overrule"—rhyming well over his allotted 16-bars, dropping declarations like, "I'm the illest nigga doin' this, dead or alive/Gloria Gaynor—all you motherfuckers, I will survive."

#25. Gang Starr "Now You're Mine" (1994)

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Album: Hard to Earn

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

Gang Starr's high-flying contribution to the surprisingly-rap-relevant-if-you-weren't-around-then White Men Can't Jump soundtrack (which also included Main Source's "Fakin' the Funk"), hence the hoops motif. (Why else would five-foot-eight Guru be improbably trash-talking, "360 dunk in your face"?) Premier's upright bass, Keystone Cop horns, and "Party Groove"-y drums are all first team all-star.

#24. Gang Starr "The Place Where We Dwell" (1992)

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Album: Daily Operation

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

Gang Starr's open love letter to the group's adopted home of BK is not just a musically minimalist gem (just a noisy drum loop, "Go, Brooklyn" chants, and Premier on the turntables), it's also a relic from a different era. Strange today hearing Guru on some "Don't be afraid to venture over the bridge"-shit when in the years since everybody and their brother decided to move to Brooklyn. The second half of its opening couplet was later co-opted for the hook of "Crooklyn" ("Never takin' shorts cause Brooklyn's the borough").

#23. Gang Starr "Gotta Get Over (Takin' Loot) (Large Professor Remix)" (1993)

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Album: Trespass OST

Label: Sire/Warner Bros. Records

This is a rare instance of Premier's beat being trumped by another producer's remix. Here, Extra P's extra-heavy filtered bass and crashing snares raise the net worth of the crew's contribution to the Trespass soundtrack.

#22. Gang Starr "Moment of Truth" (1998)

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Album: Moment of Truth

Label: Noo Trybe/Virgin/EMI Records

This was Guru's definitive man-in-the-mirror moment, the title track and emotional center of the group's most important album, and possibly the emotional center of Gang Starr's entire career. Honest in a way rap rarely is.

#21. Gang Starr "Step In the Arena" (1991)

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Album: Step in the Arena

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

The title track to Gang Starr's sophomore album is a gladiator rap classic. Guru sounds in great form throughout, but is most impressive showing off his circuitous flow in verse three: "In the arena or forum/Weak MCs I will floor 'em/Causin' mayhem, I'll slay 'em/And the blood'll be pourin'/Furthermore I'll implore/That as a soldier of war/I go in only to win/And be the holder of more/Trophies, titles, and triumphs/'Cause I dump all the sly chumps/Never choosin' to loose my spot, not once."

#20. Gang Starr "Soliloquy of Chaos" (1992)

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Album: Daily Operation

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

Verse one of "Soliloquy" is one of rhyme-writing's greatest narratives: a distillation of all that's exciting and all that's self-sabotaging about hip-hop, and how the first can morph into the second so disturbingly fast.

#19. Gang Starr "Check the Technique" (1991)

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Album: Step in the Arena

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

This is without question the best hip-hop record to ever include the terms "puny protozoa" and "Petri dish" in its lyrics. But seriously, for all the times Guru's voice has been described as a "monotone," you'd think he flowed like some emotionless robot devoid of finesse—something that couldn't be further from the truth given classics like "Check the Technique." In fact, between this, "Step in the Arena," and "Take a Rest," he's probably never sounded so agile on record. Production-wise, if you're wondering why no one else has tried flipping Marlena Shaw's "California Soul" since Premier got to it back in '91, it's because it'd be pointless to try; the OG is still basically synonymous with "Check the Technique" after all these years.

#18. Gang Starr "DJ Premier in Deep Concentration" (1989)

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Album: No More Mr. Nice Guy

Label: Wild Pitch/EMI Records

G.O.A.T. DJ track. 'Nuff said.

#17. Gang Starr "B.Y.S." (1992)

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Two totally unique characteristics of Guru's rhyme style (both featured herein): his habit of injecting random semi-antiquated words into his verses (e.g. "Brothers know the flow is unique/I got a hundred wild styles in my black valise"), and a more general knack for making lines that would sound awkward coming from any other rapper somehow work for him (e.g. "Because my word is bond/I get much fan mail and I always respond/So tell your hon' to write me too/Make sure she puts, ATTN: Mr. Guru"). "B.Y.S." FTW.

#16. Gang Starr "The Planet" (1994)

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Album: Hard to Earn

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

One of Guru's most personal compositions, "The Planet" recounts a post-collegiate Keith Elam's relocation from Boston to BK and his early days in the Big Apple working odd jobs, hoping for a chance to get on in the rap game. Taken at face value, it's just one individual's story. But with the accompaniment of Preem's slow, loping, could-be-West-Indian/could-be-Eastern-European/could-be-Middle-Eastern/could-be-anything-flavored track (prefaced by a synapse-staining blues intro), it manages something more: to evoke generations of people's migrations to cities seeking a better life, their fortunes dependent on the strength of both their backs and their character. Guru's simple refrain "I'm gonna make it, goddamnit" conveys more about self-determination than binders of writtens another rapper might dedicate to the topic.

#15. Gang Starr "Jazz Thing (Video Mix)" (1990)

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Album: Mo' Better Blues OST

Label: Sony Music

There's actually a really good reason Gang Starr got saddled with the whole jazz-rap label early in its career: The songs Guru and Premier made that referenced jazz and utilized jazz samples were uniformly strong—even the more obscure titles like "Jazz Music" from No More Mr. Nice Guy and "The Meaning of the Name" from Step in the Arena. In fact, "Jazz Music" was the obvious compositional model when the group was tapped to contribute a song to the soundtrack to Spike Lee's Mo Better Blues. But where the aforementioned roll call of jazz greats is cerebrally meditative, "Jazz Thing" is straight celebratory, fueled by an unbeatable Kool & the Gang–sampled groove, punchy brass blasts, and even intermittent sampled Charlie Parker sax riffs. Never one to miss an opportunity to selectively drop science, Guru makes sure no one gets the origins of this African-American invention twisted: "The real mystery/Is how music history/Created Paul Whiteman/Or any other white man/And pretended he originated/And contended that he innovated/A jazz thing."

#14. Gang Starr f/Lil' Dap & Jeru the Damaja "Speak Ya Clout" (1994)

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Album: Hard to Earn

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

Like the original, the sequel of "I'm the Man" has three MCs over three different beats. Guru's three-spot slot plays on the subdued side (probably apropos given his rhyme style). But Premier outdoes himself on Jeru and Dap's parts, piercing ears with beats that sound like apocalyptic air raids and back-alley beatdowns, respectively.

#13. Gang Starr f/Lil' Dap & Jeru the Damaja "I'm the Man" (1992)

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Album: Daily Operation

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

DJ Premier in deep innovation: "I'm the Man" transforms the traditional posse cut into a three-part suite, the beat changing for each MC. Guru sets things off lovely ("My street style and intelligence level/Makes me much more than just an angry rebel"). Lil' Dap of Group Home's section ingeniously introduces Preem's affection for flipping classic rap rhythm tracks (in this case the reverb-soaked drums of "P.S.K."). Jeru straight rips it over a beautifully sparse beat, foreshadowing the genius of "Come Clean" a year later.

#12. Gang Starr "Ex Girl to the Next Girl" (1992)

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Album: Daily Operation

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

Guru at his smoothest: a little older and wiser than the earnest dude from "Love Sick," a little more mack in his M.O., yet still sounding totally grounded. Preem's turntable manipulation of the "'Cause the girls look soooo good" line from BDP's "Criminal Minded" is game tight.

#11. Gang Starr "You Know My Steez" (1998)

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Album: Moment of Truth

Label: Noo Trybe/Virgin/EMI Records

When it dropped in late 1997, the triumphant lead single from Moment of Truth was the aesthetic antithesis of rap's then-dominant shiny-suit steez. When Premier announced, "The REEEAAAL ... HIP-HOP" over that classic Flash beat-box you could feel the relieved exhalation, and subsequent elation, of fellow purist-minded listeners worldwide. All was once again good with the world—Gang Starr was back.

#10. Gang Starr "Take It Personal" (1992)

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Album: Daily Operation

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

Gang Starr seemingly dedicated a song on every album to the subject of betrayal. While on a human level you wish Guru and Premier could have been spared the personal drama, at least they managed to turn the experiences into quality material. Daily Operation's undeniable lead single finds Premier dropping silent-film era-ish pianos over a dusty rework of the infamous Skull Snaps drums. Guru's deadpan delivery is perfectly pitched for the topic, and his verses feature more classic only-Guru-could-get-away-with-saying-this lines in, "There was a few times I needed your support/But you tried to play me like an indoor sport/Like racquetball, tennis, pool—whatever." The only thing that could have made this record even better was if he'd found a way to mention jai alai.

#9. Gang Starr "Code of the Streets" (1994)

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Album: Hard to Earn

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

At the time of its release, the second single off Hard to Earn couldn't help but pale in comparison to its immediate predecessor, "Mass Appeal." But what time has made more than abundantly evident is that "Code of the Streets" was an unequivocally great Gang Starr single all along. Not quite somber strings and "Substitution" drums finely chopped with a bounce set the table for a great Guru vocal performance in which he draws the parallels in perspectives between the joy-riding young gun and streets-centric rhyme slinger.

#8. Gang Starr "Full Clip" (1999)

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Album: Full Clip: A Decade of Gang Starr

Label: Noo Trybe/Virgin/EMI Records

The title track from Gang Starr's 1999 career retrospective immediately proved itself on par with the group's best singles. It was stellar theme music for the post–Moment of Truth victory lap.

#7. Gang Starr f/ Inspectah Deck "Above the Clouds" (1998)

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Album: Moment of Truth

Label: Noo Trybe/Virgin/EMI Records

One of the highlights of Moment of Truth, "Above the Clouds"—anchored by Guru's contemplations of righteous celestial paths and other metaphysical graffiti—can't help but be heard as an elegy in light of his tragically premature passing. Deck's slashing sword-style rhymes are perfectly complementary. Premier's Far Eastern production touches elevate the track to the ranks of "They Reminisce Over You" as one of hip-hop's most regal recordings.

#6. Gang Starr "The ? Remainz" (1994)

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Album: "Suckas Need Bodyguards" single

Label:  Empire/NooTrybe/Virgin

Yet another sublime B-side (this time of "Suckaz Need Bodyguards") as Premier delivers one of his most brilliantly unconventional beats: a static-stacked series of multi-pitched bass and electric piano tones prone to fading out at Craig G's (sampled) urging ... then back in again. Sounding spry and reinvigorated after some of Hard to Earn's more blunted vocals, Guru promises chumps "cranium lumps," wisely advises scholars that "With a textbook sense/You can still be dense," and interpolates Robert Kelly whilst assuring listeners that he "ain't down with the weirdos." Peep this concerto.

#5. Gang Starr "Who's Gonna Take the Weight" (1991)

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Album: Step in the Arena

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

Guru could always be relied upon to break down the essential components of Gang Starr's music as such: street knowledge, intellect, and spirituality. No individual song from the group's catalog interweaves all three elements as fluidly as "Who's Gonna Take the Weight." With Premier's Bomb Squad–style sax squeal sounding the alarm, Guru issues a declarative opening couplet ("I was raised like a Muslim—praying to the east/Nature of my life relates rhymes I release") that forcefully sets the song's thematic tone, with the winding, stream-of-consciousness verses that follow urging self-enlightenment and mental mobilization between gun-blast FX, compulsive flirtations with and dismissals of material goods, and visions of nuclear fallout. Epic.

#4. Gang Starr "Words I Manifest (Remix)" (1989)

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Album: No More Mr. Nice Guy

Label: Wild Pitch/EMI Records

The first song Guru and Premier ever recorded together (after agreeing to join forces over a handshake at old LES NYC nightclub The World) is also one of their greatest: a still-stunning recording that effortlessly bridges (via its break-ification of "Bring It Up" and "A Night in Tunisia") the musical innovations of James Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, and Kool Herc in one fell swoop. Not a bad way to start a partnership.

#3. Gang Starr f/Nice & Smooth "DWYCK" (1994)

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Album: Hard to Earn

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

An essential party record, "DWYCK" is probably Gang Starr's single most popular track—one of those songs everybody knows every word to. Some will therefore inevitably insist that it's also the group's best. Those folks are missing the point of what Gang Starr was about. As great a club record as "DWYCK" is and will forever be (shrewd DJs can also testify to the power of the OG 12" single's "Horny Instrumental Mix"), it's also an aberration, a happy accident. It's a ridiculously loose posse cut that was originally relegated to the B-side of "Take It Personal" and took off in such a surprising way that Chrysalis didn't even bother adding the song to later versions of Daily Operation to try to boost album sales. (It eventually wound up as an afterthought, two years too late, on Hard to Earn.) Which is why while "DWYCK" is the one Gang Starr record you are guaranteed to hear at a party, the energetic high point of the group's live show for years, you never heard Guru and Preem try to come with a "DWYCK Pt. 2" or even make another single like it. They understood who they were, and what kind of records best represented them. Most importantly, they understood that you can't replicate spontaneity—the crucial element that makes the record's sound of friends having fun in the studio the lightning-in-a-bottle moment it is.

#2. Gang Starr "Mass Appeal" (1994)

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Album: Hard to Earn

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

The Gang Starr musical manifesto, right here. In interviews Premier often describes his thought process behind making the "Mass Appeal" beat—that it was his attempt to use a bouncy elevator-music type melody to satirize commercial rap styles of the day. If that was Preem's goal then you could reasonably contend that he failed—though in the best of all possible ways. "Mass Appeal" is catchy (thanks to said insistent, descending electric piano hook). But it's the endlessly repeated exhale of white noise that surrounds that hook that gives the track an unmistakable air of spacey menace, droning on sans variation (save for Preem's wrist flex on a Youngstas vocal), reveling in its own musical tension, ultimately coming off like one big raised middle finger at pop-song accessibility. An underlying rhythmic rework of EPMD's emotionally icy "You're a Customer"—a reputed one-time stick-up kid anthem—only adds to the ill vibe. Acknowledging his "monotone style" for the first time on record, Guru purposefully keeps his verses simple and on message (e.g. "I don't need gimmicks/Give me a fly beat and I'm all in it"). "Mass Appeal" is a masterpiece.

#1. Gang Starr "Just to Get a Rep" (1991)

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Album: Step in the Arena

Label: Chrysalis/EMI Records

The greatest Gang Starr song of all-time is the 1991 single that definitively put the group on the hip-hop map, establishing Guru and Premier—two non-New Yorkers who'd made the pilgrimage to hip-hop's Mecca to ply their trade—as among the tightest and most distinctive musical partnerships the city would ever host. "Just to Get a Rep" isn't just an extremely well-crafted story rhyme; it's a street narrative with a conscience whose commentary lies in its detachment. It's also the creative blueprint for the best material the group would generate over its career. Guru exhibits his preferred three-verse compositional structure (first two verses largely on topic, the third with a narrative or thematic twist). Premier plucks a sample from obscurity (Jean-Jacques Perry's mod/moog funk instrumental "E.V.A.")—his magic touch making it iconic—and precisely slices a rap vocal for the song's hook (a Greg Nice line from Nice and Smooth's "Funky for You") till it's Gang Starr-owned, the original context irrelevant. The song ends abruptly, stopping dead amid suddenly winding-down synths, the tables turned on its stick-up kid protagonist. Street cinema has never sounded so perfect, and may never yet again.

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