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GURU
By Aaron KaufmanPhotos By Abby Drucker
As one half of Gang Starr, Guru repeatedly changed the direction of hip-hop, creating an island in the midst of the mainstream that celebrated the form by continually destroying it. For over 10 years, Guru and DJ Premier changed the recipe of hip-hop by insisting that it could do more and be more. The duo paid homage to the improvisational personality that hip-hop had inherited from jazz by adding riffs and musicality that had been previously lacking. Guru went on to expand the vernacular of the fledgling form with the three Jazzmatazz recordings, which added ingredients from jazz, world, and pop music. The landmark series introduced many hip-hop fans to jazz legends like Donald Byrd, Roy Ayers, Freddie Hubbard, and the reclusive Lonnie Liston Smith, and exposed listeners to a new side of pop stars like Erykah Badu, Isaac Hayes, and Jamiroquai.
Gang Starr showed the world that this fad called hip-hop was a new expression, powerful enough to be twisted and improvised, creating something unaffected by the passage of time. Guru, however, is not interested in reminiscing. After an acrimonious split with DJ Premier, a break with his record company, his handlers and his personal demons, Guru has emerged with a new record (Version 7.0: The Street Scriptures), a new partnership (with MC/ producer Solar), and a new perspective.
[SWINDLE/S]: You’ve always been referred to as an intellectual rapper. Have you ever been tempted to ditch all that and make a commercial record?
[GURU/G]: No. What I like to do is what comes natural. A lot of artists sit down and think about what type of record would be the most successful, and then decide that it’s going to be that kind of record. I don’t even know how I’d do that, and frankly, I wouldn’t want to. If something we did became popular and mainstream, naturally, that would be fine with me, but I couldn’t try to predict what will be popular; it’s not in my process.
[S]: Even though you’re originally from Boston, you were part of the New York hip-hop phenomenon. Why is New York no longer the center of the hiphop world?
[G]: The market for intelligent rap has gotten smaller. New York has been in a lull. Before the bling era, New York had hip-hop locked. Once materialism took hold of hip-hop and washed out the intelligence, hip-hop moved away from New York.
[S]: I noticed you ordered fruit and vegetables for lunch. Have you become a vegetarian?
[G]: I’m trying to be more balanced, healthier. People are shocked when they see me now, especially if they haven’t seen me since Gang Starr. They tell me that I look like the guy from Gang Starr, but much older. They don’t believe when I tell them it’s me.
[S]: It seems as though you have been making a lot of changes. How did these changes come about?
[G]: When I was doing Gang Starr, everyone around me at the time was taking from me. I was close to becoming a VH1 Where Are They Now? Solar came on some of the tours and saw from the inside what was going on. He saw my frustration with the label, with A&R people who were telling me what to put out, and ultimately my unhealthy relationship with my producer and my handlers. My handlers at the time had DJ Premier’s interest ahead of mine. Our contract said I couldn’t do guest vocals on anyone’s record, while Premier could work on whatever he wanted. We had the same lawyers why didn’t they fight for me? I’m not bitter. I’m on a mission of reinventing and recreating myself while I get the truth out. I always wanted to do my own label, so when Solar mentioned it I got really excited. Solar said, “You’re an icon. If others can do it, you should too. “ So I figured, Hey, he’s focused and disciplined-he should be my partner. When Solar decided to consider the partnership, that’s when he put it to me like, “If you’re really going to do this then the drinking and partying has to stop.” I thought about it for two nights, sitting up in bed, and then I stopped cold turkey; no AA, no counseling, I just stopped. I’m not knocking AA, I just thought about what I wanted to accomplish. So in that way Solar was inspirational to me.
[S]: Were you nervous about making a record without Premier? What was your confidence level going into Street Scriptures?
[G]: It was high. It was exciting to make this record. The entire process was exciting to me; working with limited resources was exciting. We took everything we had and put it into this record. My work ethic improved – the gym every day, the studio every night. I didn’t drink or smoke or party. The discipline of this partnership was exciting to me and helped me to produce and to enjoy producing.
[S]: Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1 was your first solo effort and a landmark album. How did the concept for Jazzmatazz come to you?
[G]: I wanted to do a solo record. At the time people were calling us jazz rap or acid jazz, and while I never felt comfortable with that for Gang Starr, I did want to explore what that meant. So I thought, What if we got jazz greats in the studio to make a hip-hop record? Jazzmatazz was born from that. I wanted to bring the generations together. I didn’t like that old people thought hip-hop was violent noise, and I wanted young people to know that they had a history that was worth checking out. Jazz was hip-hop before there was hip-hop. It made sense to blend the two together. I wanted to create something that was timeless – Jazzmatazz is my attempt at a timeless work of art. Gang Starr’s influence has been big, but I think that the effects of Jazzmatazz have been farther-reaching and more significant. Solar and I are working on a new Jazzmatazz record, which will push things farther than we had ever thought possible.
[S]: You’ve been making records since 1989. How do you remain so prolific?
[G]: Living. When someone says they have writer’s block, that’s foreign to me. I have such a love for the music, the art form, the history – it gives me an endless flow. I don’t think of it as writing; I think of it as living. The positives and the negatives inspire me-plus my partnership with the hottest new producer.
[S]: Would you ever consider working with a major label again?
[G]: As long as they respect what we’re doing, we’re cool with that. If they want to change us, well we wouldn’t even consider it. We had deals on the table for Street Scriptures that we turned down because it just wouldn’t work for us. Creatively, we have to protect our records. We won’t put ourselves in a situation where the record company makes a decision that we have to go along with. I think that the situation we’ve created is that people will come along that are interested in what we’re doing and will be willing to sit back and let us lead the way. I haven’t seen it happen yet, but I’ll let you know if I do.