Guru rapped in his distinctive baritone monotone over dusty Premier tracks built around obscure jazz and soul records. Gang Starr had always brought a meat-and-potatoes, blue-collar aesthetic to making hip-hop music. Corporations, who had initially perceived hip-hop music as a fad, were now spending millions on ad campaigns for soda and fast food that featured rap artists. Some of the biggest stars in the music industry were rappers or at least rap adjacent. Guru had released the second installment of his Jazzmatazz solo projects in 1995, but otherwise had been laying low.īetween 19, the landscape of hip-hop had drastically changed. During the four years in between, Premier had become recognized as one of the best hip-hop producers in the game.
Moment of Truth was Gang Starr’s first album since Hard to Earn (1994). It’s an album that’s as good as any in their catalogue, and one of the best albums to hit the shelves that year. Twenty-five years ago, in the midst of this increasingly precarious environment, Gang Starr released Moment of Truth, their fifth album. Keith “Guru” Elam and Chris “DJ Premier” Martin were the guiding light, navigating an increasingly unfamiliar realm where hip-hop was becoming big business and the standards that helped build the music were becoming increasingly forgotten. This was the world of hip-hop in 1998, and Gang Starr were still the torch bearers for the genre.
We just like roaches: never dying, always living.” So while you keep on faking the funk, we gonna keep on walking through the darkness, carrying our torches. He concludes by declaring, “Y’all muthafuckas really don’t know what this hip-hop is all about.
Second are the distributors of break-beat records that “snitch,” listing “Sampled by _” on the packaging. The first to get it are the artists, especially rappers, who sue other rappers for not clearing samples, especially for scratching vocals on a hook. “This goes out to anybody who’s doing the bullshit, straight up” he pronounces, then lays into those who are violating hip-hop’s rules of engagement. About 15 minutes into Moment of Truth, DJ Premier lays down the law.
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