One of the best of all time, this totally sucks.....

First Pete Steele..Now this..

Gang Starr playlist for the rest of the night!

Agreed....

it kills me to know that he never went platinum until the greatest hits album came out, so sad..

Tragic...
43, damn.

For those interested, I spent a lot of time with this one:


RIP GURU

This is a huge loss.. Guru was a true legend and a huge influence on me growing up. I feel lucky i had a chance to see Gang Starr live and have Guru sign a cap for me, it was a show i will never forget. One of the best ever to bless the microphone.

R.I.P. Guru

premier beats with guru rhymes just worked perfectly with skate videos
(early eric koston 411 profile part comes to mind)

listening to gangstarr still always brings me back to my skater youth , good times

he had been battling the cancer thing for a while now.. sucks he had to go out like this

So very very sad. Who would have thought.
R.I.P Guru (Keith Elam). You'll be sorely missed.
'The King of Monotone'

Gangstarr, one of the best hip-hop groups of all time.
Guru, the voice of my youth.

Gang Starr - Moment Of Truth (Rest In Peace Guru 1966-2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO8wNnA4tSw

Gang Starr - Positivity (Music Video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5fS6OHsL-U

Gang Starr - Full Clip (Music Video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U76Nde6r ... xt_from=ML

Gang Starr - Mass Appeal (Music Video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9lNbNGbo24

Gang Starr - You Know My Steez (Music Video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O8oV1ATfH0&feature=related

Gang Starr - Step in the Arena (Music Video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNj-m_s0ngA&feature=related

One of the greats.RIP.

Here's a nice article my mate Robbie over at unkut.com wrote
in march when Guru became seriously ill after a heart attack.

Great article Hams, here's another video from one of my favourite tracks off hard to earn.

Gang Starr - Suckas Need Bodyguards
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lftWUqg1wVg

This totally fucked up my day yesterday. Being from the Bean and being a local hip hop head, it's been tough. Absolutely one of the greatest of all time taken from us by a fucked up disease...

Well, there's one thing that's been bothering me a little. Did y'all catch this "letter" he wrote before dying? It's quoted in the piece MTV did about him:
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/163738 ... tarr.jhtml

Now, I know things were strained between him and Premier, but that letter seriously sounds like it was written by Solar or some shit. It also looks like Solar got in the way of Guru's family when they tried to see him before he died? I dunno...of course, this could all be a bunch of MTV bullshit, but I wasn't aware of any of this drama...

Yeah, Some seriously messed up stuff....
So, basically Premier can't have anything to do with Guru's name, including being evolved with or putting on a tribute to his ex music partner.

"I do not wish my ex-DJ to have anything to do with my name likeness, events, tributes etc. connected in anyway to my situation including any use of my name or circumstance for any reason and I have instructed my lawyers to enforce this," wrote Guru. "I had nothing to do with him in life for over 7 years and want nothing to do with him in death. Solar has my life story and is well informed on my family situation, as well as the real reason for separating from my ex-DJ."

Premier's statement:

"It was a sad day for me to get confirmation on the death of a man who I will continue to call my brother, Keith Elam, better known as Guru of the legendary Gang Starr," the statement reads. "From 1988-2004, we experienced so much success together that we were able to expand our businesses independently and give each other what Guru called 'creative space,' before planning to reunite for our seventh LP when the time was right. Tragically, we will never reach that day.

"I've been asked to comment on a letter speaking ill of me which was supposedly written by Guru in his dying days. All I will say about it is that our time together was beautiful, we built a hip-hop legacy together, and no one can re-write history or take away my love for him. One thing I would never do is play around with the truth about his life.

"I will celebrate Guru's life ... I will honor his memory ... I will grieve with the Elam family over his untimely death ... I will remember the Gang Starr foundation and all of the original members of Gang Starr who came before me — we all know each other ... mostly, I will cherish everything we created together as Gang Starr, forever. I'm gonna miss hearing his signature monotone voice when he walks in the room, but the songs will always bring it back to me ... His rhyme flows were insane, and I will never remove him from my heart and soul. Rest in peace to the man who felt 'satisfaction from the street crowd reaction.' I love you Goo ... DJ Premier."

i thought you guys might be interested in this, it was written by his brother and posted on our local boston news website

http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles ... arrs_guru/

Great read Ed, thanks.

You know, with everything being posted from different sources its hard not to think that Solar is doing his best to set him self up for rights to Gurus music. I just find it so hard to believe that a person such as Guru would, in his death bed, spend his last words down talking DJ Premier. Same goes for keeping Gurus family from seeing him in the hospital in his last days. The guy was a positive person and it just feels out of place.

To bad his death has to be covered in this controversy, in life he seemed to be bigger than this nonsense.

I just got a chance to read the Boston.com article. Thanks for posting that, Ed.

I'm with Rich--I just can't imagine that letter being legit. But then, if you read that piece his brother wrote, notice how there's not a single mention of "GangStarr" (and, obviously, Premier). It mentions Jazzmatazz quite a few times, actually... That's kinda ridiculous. Something's shady.

I mean, those Jazzmatazz joints were aiight, I guess. But come the fuck on... "Hard to Earn" is one of the greatest hip hop albums in history, and straight smokes the SHIT outta any of the Jazzmatazz albums.

I was thinking the exact same thing, if you also listen to some of the most recent Guru/Solar Interviews things always get very tense when any of the GangStarr foundation is mentioned.
Its such a shame that Solar twisted Guru up like this, I guess we will never know what really went down.

had though about
reping the bean some of boston best on this including guru
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt3wPEmA ... re=related

The real story between Guru & Solar

http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/interview ... -get-a-rep

This is just crazy!

Wow. Bizarre, shameful and very, very sad. R.I.P. Keith Elam.

You said it BB. I'm kinda lost for words.

Jesus fucking christ, that was nuts...

I'm pretty speechless...

Tragic loss for hip-hop! This whole situation with Solar stinks too. I hope he isnt making money off Gurus name after his death .. Any unreleased vocals need to be sent to Preem so he can give them a propper home!