Full Clip: A Decade Of Gang Starr
Gang Starr
Virgin/Empire Records, 1999
REVIEW BY: Jason Thornberry
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 05/30/2003
If you ever simplified the genius of hip-hop music, orconsidered rap to be a violent, angry form of urban noise withnihilistic poetry over drum machines that anyone could do passably,then you never really listened to any of it, particularly New York's Gang Starr, aduo who lurk in the upper reaches of my skyscraper of all-timefavorite artists. Full Clip is an excellent point of entry for the curiousonlooker who's heard the names 'Guru' and 'DJ Premier' bandiedabout enough times in the past few years, but figures (correctly)that neither of them ever get "jiggy with it" much, or have time tojump up in silly suits and say "Propah!" clutching soggy chicken wings like The FunkyHeadhunter (MC Hammer).
This double-disc, twenty-one song set proves that Guru (the MicController), and Primo (on the wheels of steel), together areeasily one of the best reasons to drop whatever the hell you're doing andlisten closely. "Now more than ever I've got my whole shit together. More than adecade of hits that'll live forever."
Gang Starr have five other indispensable albums that would makeyour music collection sound a lot better if you owned any of them(and don't download and burn copies of 'em either, you cheapsumbitch). Better yet, if you do own even one, like 1994's seminal Hard to Earn, but file it behind your Joy Division CD andlay 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 likeit 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 thepreviously unreleased title track with the opening shout to thelate Big L.
Click here to read complete Review