Gang Starr – Above The Clouds

I uploaded this track and had a post half written the day before I heard the news that Guru had gone into a coma after suffering a heart attack. At the time I was writing more about where my head was at, but once I heard that news I felt it wasn’t the time to be posting this track. Sadly, Guru lost his battle and passed away Monday February 19.

I’ve been a huge Gang Starr fan since the early 90s, bumping joints like Just To Get A Rep and Ex Girl To The Next Girl, but to me it was Moment of Truth that was Gang Starr at their finest, and to this day it is one of my all time favorite hip hop records. The Militia featuring Big Shug and Freddie Foxxx was pure hardcore street rap, straight fire. Above The Clouds with Inspectah Deck of Wu Tang Clan is a more melancholic joint showing off Guru’s deeper lyrical flows and You Know My Steez, The Rep Gets Bigger, She Knowz What She Wantz and the title track Moment Of Truth, to me, represent what real hip hop is all about. And as for the production by the man Dj Premier — shit is untouchable: every beat on that album is completely off the hook. Gang Starr were one of the most influential hip hop acts to come out of New York, and it’s not hard to see why.

I’ve written a more in depth tribute to Guru of Gangstarr / Jazzmatazz for old school rap and electro funk blog Cold Crush, check it out.

In something much closer to home, my own old man suffered a heart attack over the weekend. The shock of hearing about somebody you have admired and being a fan of for years having a heart attack is one thing, but when it’s your own family shit is on a whole new level. Thankfully though I can say that he is ok, he needed three stents put into his heart but the doctors are pretty happy with how he is doing. Keep my Dad in your thoughts. One love

Gang Starr – Above The Clouds

Big L – Ebonics (Primo Remix)

With all the talk online lately about remembering the genius of J Dilla who died four years ago from February 10 last week, it’s made me wonder why there has been barely a murmur about the anniversary of the death of another of hip hop’s finest only 5 days later on the calendar: Big L.

Sure, Dilla’s beats were dope, and a lot of people consider him to be one of the best beatmakers (for me, that title goes to Dj Premier no doubt!) and I don’t mean this as any diss to Dilla, but the truth is that before he died, the majority people jocking his name now had probably never even heard of him. I guess a lot of it comes down to the difference in time – L was gunned to death on his own block in 1999. While the internet was still taking off and before it turned into the global hype machine it is today, and also before hip hop was bastardised into the trillion dollar, and as much as I hate to say it, mainstream industry that it has become.

As a huge Big L fan, I figured it was my duty to pay a little tribute of my own — to Harlem’s finest, to indisputably one of the finest freestylers hip hop has ever seen, and no doubt one of the slickest cats to ever rock a mic.

Big L was discovered by Lord Finesse – maybe discovered is the wrong word. Lord Finesse was selling mixtapes at a joint called Rockin’ Wills on 125th Street in Harlem. When L heard he was going to be there, he showed up bragging about his rhyme skills and wanting a deal. Fin was about to brush L off when he started busting out some rhymes – and Fin was so impressed that he took him in on the spot and offered to try and get him a record deal.

After that, he put L on the phone and let him rhyme to AG, and things took off from there. His first appearance on a record was as a guest on a Finesse track, the Yes, You May remix.

Around this time, he formed Harlem hip hop crew Children of the Corn, with Murder Mase, Killa Cam (better known as Cam’ron) and Bloodshed, with Darrell “Digga” Branch on production. Their sound was violent and hardcore street rap, but the crew split up before they signed a record deal due to the death of Bloodshed in a car crash. Years later some of their tracks were released an Children of the Corn: The Collector’s Edition.

In ’93, Big L signed with Columbia Records and released the single Devil’s Son – again with a brutally violent edge to the lyrics that L liked to call horror rap. “That demo was bananas” said Lord Finesse, “everyone was like, ‘Who is this kid?’ Of course, we already knew he was dope“.

His solo album Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous was released in 1995 and heavily featured production by Lord Finesse, as well as guest appearances from Kid Capri, Lord Finesse, as well as the, then unknown Cam’ron and Jay-Z. Despite both of the singles which were released from the album – Put It On and M.V.P reaching the top 25 of Billboard’s Hot Rap Tracks, and the album itself reaching the Billboard 200, the album was not considered a commercial success and Columbia dropped L from the label.

He started his own label – Flamboyant Entertainment, and started work on his second album in 1997, in ’98 Flamboyant released the first single, probably his biggest and most well-known hit: Ebonics. Ebonics is straight dope – an insight into slang on the streets of Harlem world. The same year he joined, in my opinion, New York’s dopest hip hop crew, Bronx based Diggin’ In The Crates (D.I.T.C) and appeared on their first single Dignified Soldiers as well as several other tracks on their self titled album. But sadly, Big L never survived to see the release of his second album.

February 15 1999, Big L was shot 9 times in the face and chest on his own block, 139 and Lennox. L himself became a victim of the mean streets so often the subject of his rhymes — “139 nigger, the Dangerzone…we quick to put a bullet in a stranger’s dome“.
It was suspected that L was shot over a beef with his brother Big Lee who was in prison at the time, but despite an arrest being made a few months later, the suspect — a childhood friend of L’s, was released a while later and the case was never solved.

The Big Picture 1974-1999 was released after L’s death, in a collaboration between L’s mother Gilda Terry, Dj Premier and L’s partner in Flamboyant, Rich King. Made up from a mix of finished tracks and unused acapellas, and featuring guest appearances by some of the finest names in underground rap including Gang Starr’s Guru, OC, AG and Fat Joe repping D.I.T.C, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, Sadat X and Stan Spit amongst others and production by some of the best beatsmiths in hip hop including Lord Finesse, Pete Rock, Dj Premier, OC and Buckwild.

The Big Picture went gold within a month of it’s release, and is indisputably one of the greatest hip hop albums ever released. Big L had a dope flow and an unrivaled storytelling style, whether rapping about pulling heists — and women, rolling suckers for their ice or rolling dice in the streets of Harlem, and to this day many consider L to still be untouchable on the mic.

Gang Starr paid tribute in their track Full Clip, and L’s crew D.I.T.C‘s own Tribute is probably one of the most melancholy and emotionally charged hip hop tracks I’ve ever heard. The track i’ve picked is from D.I.T.C‘s self titled album, the Primo remix of L’s biggest hit Ebonics. The original track and beat were perfect, yet somehow Primo managed to come up with a dope remix that complimented the original track perfectly, totally changing the flow of the track but without detracting from L’s slick rhyming.

To quote the man himself — What’s this motherfucking rap game without L? Yo that’s like jewels without ice, that’s like China without rice, or the holy bible without Christ

RIP Big L.

Big L – Ebonics (Primo Remix)