Here, there are mostly gripes about how fucked up the game has gotten, swipes at lesser rappers, and curmudgeonly grousing about how nobody really raps anymore. But that wasn’t the only thing on their minds then, and their claims were bolstered best by the quality of songs they were making. Gang Starr has always been about rap purism and outing sellouts a song like “Mass Appeal,” its joke aimed squarely at radio, commercial interests, and posers, set a standard for such meta-mainstream rap crit. If there is a theme to be gleaned from these leftovers, it’s that Guru had clearly grown disillusioned with the industry and was sounding its death knell. On “What’s Real,” an in-form Royce da 5’9’, who has become DJ Premier’s new partner in recent years, displays just how hollowed-out many of these Guru verses sound. Premier does his best to make sure they don’t sound like a hastily cut-together craft project of scraps, but they are missing a soul. There isn’t the same effortless proficiency in these songs. Bigger names rapped over Premier beats, but no one was better at finding their place in them, navigating their moving parts precisely. He was so calm and clear and collected that his raps were a balm, and his rhymes themselves felt like proverbs. In his prime, Guru was a rapper of singular monotonic charisma. With Premier trying to reverse-engineer that process, much of the intuition and congruence is lost. Gang Starr was all about balance Guru’s feel for how best to wade through Premier’s vandalizing, resourceful, and visionary sample work was stunningly natural. Once the initial thrill of the reunion wears off, though the album starts coming apart.
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Cole appearance on “Family and Loyalty,” a series of carefully devised beats designed to salvage Guru’s afterimage. There are other things to be grateful for, too: the second Guru verse of closer “Bless the Mic,” the J. There are Foundation members at nearly every turn, and they sound very grateful for the opportunity to be a part of another Gang Starr project. The diehards who have dreamt of this throwback will salivate over “Hit-Man,” a Q-Tip-assisted cut that approximates vintage Gang Starr, wherein Guru plays rap assassin and Premier adds a touch of menace, and “From a Distance,” with Guru and Jeru the Damaja barring out over a swelling Premier sample. On the intro to One of the Best Yet, the first Gang Starr album since 2003’s The Ownerz, Premier turns an interpolation of “DYWCK” into a sample tour of the group’s storied catalog-“Mass Appeal,” “Work,” “Code of the Streets,” and “Full Clip,” among others-as a little reminder of all they accomplished. While the circumstances of the album’s creation remain a point of contention, it’s undeniably awesome to hear the two artists together again. The producer molded them into One of the Best Yet. Solar later sold 30 unreleased Guru recordings to Premier-“Some of them had two verses, some of them had a verse, some of them just had a hook and then faded,” Premier told the New York Times. An oncologist testified that Guru never woke up from his coma and couldn’t have written a letter, so Solar was forced to forfeit everything pertaining to Guru’s estate. Controversy surrounded a note allegedly written by Guru on his deathbed disassociating himself with Premier specifically and praising Solar. He had started a new label with a new DJ named Solar, with whom he seemed conjoined at the hip, and his death only further complicated the matter. He was growing edgy about being asked questions about Premier all the time, and even refused to answer them. From 2006 until his death, Guru was adamant that the group was over and that there wouldn’t be a comeback, even calling DJ Premier his “ Ex-DJ.” He seemed to be longing to recreate himself, to put distance between himself and his legendary partner. There wasn’t supposed to be another Gang Starr album.
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