Gang Starr: Американдық хип-хоп дуэтінің тарихы

American East Coast hip hop duo

Gang Starr was an American hip hop duo, consisting of Houston born record producer DJ Premier and Boston, Massachusetts rapper Guru. For the entirety of their association, they were based in Brooklyn, New York. Gang Starr was at its height from 1989 to 2003, and are considered one of the best MC and producer duos in hip hop history. They are recognized for being one of the pioneers of jazz rap.

The original Gang Starr group was founded in Morehouse College by three friends from Boston, Massachusetts: Guru (then known as MC Keithy E.) who had planned to be a rapper/singer, Big Shug as the main MC and DJ Suave D (Shug's younger brother Dana) as their DJ. After Shug was imprisoned, Suave D quit the group, leaving Guru to enlist the services of MC Damo D Ski and DJ 1, 2 B Down (also known as Mike Dee) with various producers, such as Donald D, J. V. Johnson or The 45 King helping out. Their earliest recordings were in 1986 where they made various demos. In 1987 and 1988, Gang Starr released three 12" vinyl singles on Wild Pitch Records.

In 1989, the group split for the second time and the only member willing to continue under the name was Guru. He got in touch with Houston, Texas native DJ Premier (then known as Waxmaster C) who sent him a beat tape, which Guru liked. He invited DJ Premier to join Gang Starr, relocate with him to Brooklyn and in that same year they released their first single "Words I Manifest" along with the album No More Mr. Nice Guy (1989).

In February 2010, Guru suffered a heart attack, went into a coma, and died on April 19, 2010. DJ Solar, a long time collaborator of Guru, said Guru chose not to go public with the diagnosis of myeloma that was made in 2000. Guru appeared to have fallen out with DJ Premier seven years prior to his death and did "not wish my ex DJ to have anything to do with my name, likeness, events, tributes, etc." There is speculation that the letter was not written by Guru, but was composed by Solar. The validity of the statement was questioned by Guru's family and his contemporaries.

Soon after DJ Premier stated that there was a "posthumous Gang Starr CD/DVD project in the works," and most likely to have been released in 2014, but nothing was released. DJ Premier confirmed in late 2015 that he was working on a Gang Starr biopic with the cooperation of Guru's sister, Patricia Elam. In 2019, DJ Premier released a new single under the Gang Starr name entitled "Family and Loyalty" featuring J. Cole, to be followed with a new album titled One of the Best Yet, which was released on November 1 that year.

The Gang Starr Foundation was a loose collective of various people who have worked closely with the group, through either Guru's now defunct Ill Kid label, DJ Premier's production work or the management company that Gang Starr was represented by, Empire Management. Members of the foundation included Big Shug, Afu Ra, Jeru the Damaja, Krumbsnatcha, Bumpy Knuckles, and Group Home. Each episode title of the first season of the Netflix series Luke Cage, based on the Marvel Comics character, was named after a Gang Starr song.