GURU & SOLAR INTERVIEW CIRCA 2005
Interview by DJ Flagrant
The name Guru brings so many thoughts to mind when his name gets mentioned in a circle of Hip-Hop fans. This man represents something that only a handful of rappers can – Longevity. Guru has been swingin his thing for almost 20 years and every time he drops a gem on wax he delivers street poetry that’s consistently intelligent and positive.
Guru’s career started long ago when he heard a demo tape of a young DJ called Premier who would later team up with Guru to form arguably the most influential rap group of all time. Gangstarr (Guru & DJ Premier) dropped a series of classic albums that will go down in the history books for being the most consistent string of Hip-Hop albums ever. During that time, Gangstarr were signed to a major label and the last time I interviewed Guru he said the group were in a constant battle with the label to get creative control and with their last album The Ownerz behind them, Gangstarr have finally fulfilled their contract and are now ready to move on.
Enter Guru & Solar. New York producer Solar and Guru have teamed up to form a brand new alliance on their 7 Grand imprint.
Guru:
The new project is coming out in June 21st and it’s 19 tracks with something for everyone. A musical journey featuring B-Real, Talib Kweli, Jean Grae, Styles P, Doo Wop who features on “Step In The Arena 2” and Jaguar Wright. This project represents a pure creative vision.
Solar:
It’s not just Guru as an artist – this marks a change for Guru being a CEO now.
Guru:
The concept of the label came around the same time as the release of The Ownerz. Just before we was about to tour, we was at the point of being over the grind of the major label. We wasn’t in agreement with the opinions of the major label cats and they weren’t making the right choices and weren’t in touch with the streets.
So how did you guys hook up?
Solar:
We were friends during that time and I said yo lets start our own label. A couple days later Guru called me and said word lets do it. Around that time he saw what I was doing musically so by the time we linked up I’d already made my money. I want to go back to where hip-hop came from in New York but add a fresh direction. I’m not going to try and be anybody else, ima try and be Me and do my thing.
Guru:
We put out a few feeler singles and went straight to the top and I was rapping at 116 BPM which was the fastest I have ever rapped and its even faster than DWYCK.
I was lucky enough to discover the brilliance of Premier and now I have found Solar.
Solar:
Gurus got the eye of the tiger right now. He looks good and is spittin fire. As for me, your gonna get it. I love it, I’m born and bred in it. Pull my card and you’ll see something beautiful. You’re all going to get the best of both worlds.
So what’s the plan with 7 Grand Records?
Guru:
With 7 Grand, were gonna take the NY sound to the next level. It’s a different vision to bad boy and shit.
Solar:
He brings so much more maturity and is going to stay true to his legacy of hip-hop. We aint gonna run away from his history. I can promise you that Guru is going to stay true to his roots.
Guru:
The album for me is my first time doing an album as just Guru. We got our own employees for the label and I’m so happy.
Solar:
This is Gurus comeback and we need you THE PRESS to respect that and be supportive. Don’t look at who is on the album. Look at who is NOT on the album.
There are no filler tracks on this shit. We aint sellin’ cars. We aint selling jewellery.
So there are rumours that Gangstarr have broken up, what’s the go with that?
Guru:
Were finished haha… You can look at it as the legacy of Snoop and Dre and now Snoops legacy with Pharrell. There’s no beef, it just is what it is.
Solar:
It also represents the future… look at Carlos Santana, he didn’t diss where he came from, he was just inventing himself again.