RepDaBeaNdex: Did GURU Ever Really Rep Boston?
Boston-based record collector/hip-hop writer Pacey Foster is the type of scholar who makes the rest of us look like posers. Dude knows his regional rap history cold, and even got original Boston rap radio DJ Magnus Johnstone to open up his vaults. In November, a must-read $195 tome called Hip-Hop America: A Regional Guide is dropping, and Foster wrote the Beantown chapter. No doubt we’ll be hooking up JTTS readers with exclusive leaks from that project in the next few weeks.
For now – just for cats to get an idea as to how seriously Foster takes this shit – I offer his new blog post regarding the extent to which GURU is (or is not) technically a Boston MC. Instead of repeating the same arguments that always bubble when this question comes up, Pacey went straight to the raw data. He writes:
As I read through Guru’s early lyrics, the pattern seemed pretty clear. I had remembered his frequent Brooklyn references on the early records, but had forgotten about the New York homage “Place Where We Dwell.” In addition to including shout outs to all the boroughs, the track is built on a bed that includes the oft repeated chant “Go Brooklyn” — over, and over and over. Reading the frequent New York references, my Beantown blood bubbled a bit and I became curious what the actual ratio of Boston to New York references was in these early Gang Starr songs. Did Guru simply fail to mention Boston much or did he actually use New York as his lyrical home base?
October 16th, 2009 at 3:39 am
That’s pretty heavy stuff. I need a few good reads to properly absorb it, but it’s quite interesting.
October 16th, 2009 at 6:34 am
some people have too much time on their hands
plus, more fuel to clowns like Big Shug and other Premier-dick-riders to diss that legend. people are just dumb.
October 16th, 2009 at 9:51 am
gangstarr was originally DJ 1-2 B down (Mike D) his brother trey and smitty… kieth joined right before they got the deal with wildpitch.. once they got the deal and went back to boston mike & kieth had a brawl and went to nyc without mike D and the rest of the guys. so in fact kieth stole gangstarr from
October 16th, 2009 at 10:44 am
GURU did rep Boston for that HOME compilation album back in 2001 w/ all the respected Boston MCs. But that was back when the Boston scene was gaining a lot of national attention. If you listen to the beginning of “New York Straight Talk” on the Moment of Truth album, Big Shug explains how Gangstarr started, and basically why GURU doesn’t really rep Boston: his hometown never gave him any love. GURU mentioned in a interview I read a few months ago that he doesn’t really come to Boston much to perform because he finds it insulting that he doesn’t get many offers from promoters here, other than ones that put him in bars and small clubs like the Middle East. But then again, it’s Boston. What should he expect, performing nothing short of the Garden? Yet I digress. Brooklyn/NYC is where he made his crew, where he sold the most records. Similar Michael Jackson thing by repping LA instead of Gary, Indiana.
October 16th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Small world.
I met Pacey a few months back when I was looking for an apartment; he’s a real good dude, and imagine my surprise when I saw a Stetsasonic poster on his wall.
As for GURU’s Boston roots; he definitely didn’t rep the Bean that hard in his Gangstarr days (although I do remember him rocking bruins gear in the video for “Ex Girl to Next Girl”, a style which P-Diddy jacked years later), but that Baldhead Slick and the Click album was laced with some Bean references.
Rollin’ Dolo is the ill Beantown posse cut.
October 16th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Thanks for the linkage and thinkage all. Just to be clear I was just checkin the stats not passing judgment. I’m a huge Primo/Guru/Gang Starr fan. Here’s the man himself speaking about his career strategy with Magnus ca. 1986. http://www.libraryofvinyl.org/blog/audio/mckeihty_e_for_magnus_intro.mp3
October 17th, 2009 at 10:57 am
i saw preemo in providence last week. i told him that him & guru gotta do 1 more album. he shrugged his shoulders & kinda gave me the look like he knows that gotta do one more but we’ll see. i hope they can compromise their differences & get it done cuz it’s bigger than guru & premier they cant just stop with the owners. they gotta do 1 more like moment of truth. which might be the greatest album ever. prove me wrong.
October 18th, 2009 at 9:20 am
I would be so mad if i was boston. To have the best rapper of all time come from my city and never rep it. I used top think Guru was from New york.
October 19th, 2009 at 5:54 am
I have been listening to Guru over the years regardless. I think back in the day it was tough to blog up in hip hop if you weren’t from one of the meccas but times are different now and Boston is next in line.
October 24th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
[...] buddy Pacey Foster – who last week sparked debate on our site with his Gang Starr analysis – stepped into a sort of throwback dreamscape the other day, when, while digging through old [...]
November 7th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
thanks Dana Scott, the Lion and Pace- all of you seem to be the most knowledgable ones on here…I am doing a project on Guru..big ups to Pace for that link attachment…
April 21st, 2010 at 4:27 pm
[...] either never did care or haven’t cared about GURU in years are writing irresponsible pieces (for the record – I am not in that [...]