A Guru of Hip-Hop

Last Tuesday may have been a day for people to celebrate the smoking of marijuana, many rappers included, but it was a sad one. Rapping legend Kieth "Guru" Elam died from a long battle with cancer on Tuesday. Guru had suffered a heart attack six weeks before April 20th, and went into a coma. Although there were reports swirling that Guru was making a recovery, he was succumbed by a type of cancer called Anoxia.

This is a loss of monumental proportions for the hip-hop and music community. Guru was part of the platinum group "Gang Starr" with DJ Premier in the late 1980's till the mid 90's. He and Premier were behind the hits "Discipline", "Rite where you stand", "Mass Appeal", and "Moment of Truth" and helped Gang Starr become one of the top hip-hop groups of all time.

Unfortunately, Gang Starr was not the typical mainstream group. They never had a single reach higher than #67 on the Billboard top 100 and they never had an album make #1. Gang Starr was mostly referred to as underground hip-hop, and it's a shame it stayed that way. Guru and Premier had two things that many other groups didn't have, intelligence and incredible production.

Guru was the lead lyricist in Gang Starr and dropped some of the most jaw-dropping lines that still haven't been matched. His flow wasn't fast, but it wasn't slow either. Guru had a medium that many rappers have a hard time achieving. If you need any proof on how good Guru was as an MC, just listen to "Check the Technique" that Gang Starr dropped on Step Into the Arena. Here's the second verse from that track:

I'm rushin you like a defensive end as I recommend
that you comprehend, I could stomp you in
a battle, contest, or war, what will occur
will be the forfeiture, of your immature
insecure for sure, meek, weak visions of grandeur
To rudely awaken you, and then'll be breakin you
Taxin without askin and trackin and snakin you
Makin you succumb to the drums of GangStarr
By far we are, truly gifted ones son
But if you were to speculate or estimate us losin
you'll be dyin, tryin to face the fate of your delusions
Cause miscalculation, is all you're statin
So I'm chumpin, puntin punks just like footballs
Cause I wanna put y'all, back in the messhall
to clean up the slop, and stop all the bullcrap
Your rap's crazy wack, so don't try to pull that
You're lackin the vernacular, I'm slappin ya and cappin ya
and closin your jaw, cause you can't mess with GangStarr
The Guru and Premier always dope with the blessed beats
Dance your ass off Hobbes, check the technique

What's amazing about this verse and this song is that it's a play off of a very popular song that Eric B. & Rakim made, "Don't Sweat the Technique". "Check the Technique" however, has a different beat, using "California Soul" as the main sample. You probably would recognize the beat if you ever had watched a Docker's San Francisco commercial.

During his years in Gang Starr, Guru also started a series called Jazzmatazz. He was one of the first artists to ever combine live jazz music with hip-hop production and rapping when he released Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1 in 1993. He expanded his Jazzmatazz series to later include top notch MC's, such as Common and Blackalicious. He also paired with Damian Marley and Slum Village on his last Jazzmatazz album, Jazzmatazz Vol. 4, which was released in 2007.

Guru was one of the few, and last, remaining artists that was committed to bringing jazz into hip-hop. Jazz and hip-hop is a formula that slowly has died since the late 90's, when one of the pioneers of the Jazz/Hip-Hop combination, A Tribe Called Quest, split up. Guru tried to make sure that this genre of hip-hop stayed, even if the Jazzmatazz series wasn't topping the charts in sales.

Elam was a visionary, genius, and ridiculously talented MC. His loss may not be as prevalent as an artist such as Jay-Z, but a loss that is of huge magnitude all the same. Guru was an artist that certainly earned of a G.O.A.T. of hip-hop. However, the beautiful thing about musicians is that even in death, their music lives on. I hope that hip-hop listeners of future generations will get to hear Guru and get to experience his music and messages.

Rest in peace Mr. Elam, you really were a "guru" of hip-hop.