Legendary rapper, Guru, lost his battle with cancer yesterday (April 19th). Tomas Olesen considers the odd events surrounding his death and pays tribute to one of the greats.
The former front man of Gang Starr, one of the most important and influential pairings in hip hop of all time, has reportedly died after a very private struggle with cancer.
For those that have been following the weird war of words between Guru's producer/manager, Solar, and his family and former partner in music, DJ Premier, the news that Guru has passed away comes as the final act of the bizarre drama that the end of his life became.
Guru will be remembered primarily for his work with DJ Premier in rap's golden age, the early '90s. As Gang Starr they released six albums between 1989 and 2003 but are probably best known for the seminal 'Step in the Arena' (1991), 'Daily Operation' (1992), and 'Hard to Earn' (1994). The far-reaching influence of this fusion of jazz and hip hop can not be underestimated; in fact there can be few people making hip hop today who don't count Gang Starr as an inspiration. Guru went on to split from Premier (apparently acrimonously), released the Jazzmatazz albums (the first two of these being excellent) and toured with Solar and a band. His career took something of a dip once he'd hooked up with Solar though, and their albums were largely ignored by critics and fans alike.
When news broke that Guru was in a coma in hospital, having suffered a cardiac arrest on March 2nd, the world wondered where he'd been. Yeah he'd been touring and apparently dropping albums with producer Solar, but do you own one of those albums? Jazzmatazz Four anyone? Thought not. While the world wished Guru well via every form of social media, videos surfaced on YouTube of Guru's nephew describing a situation where Solar had been made health care proxy for Guru and wasn't allowing any of his family or friends near him.
Reports of Solar being manipulative and accusing Solar of effectively brainwashing Guru started to appear on various blogs. Longtime friend of Guru, underground rapper Bumpy Knuckles, started a 'fuck Solar' campaign on Twitter and Statik Selektah described him as the "superproducer who's never made a good beat". There are always two sides to every story, however, and Solar is said to have helped Guru through alcohol dependency, so one can see how they'd be very close.
Eventually Guru apparently woke from his coma long enough to make a statement which was widely regarded by the hip hop gossip machine as likely to have been written by Solar. It said that “Solar is the only person who has the accurate info on my situation. Any info from anybody else is false!”
The fact that he is now dead and his struggle with cancer has been revealed is unlikely to stop the rumour mill speculating about his relationship with Solar and the circumstances surrounding his split with Premier. But regardless of your opinion on matters that are private and personal, there's no debate on one thing and that is the importance of his musical legacy. He worked with the greats – artists like Herbie Hancock, Isaac Hayes, Donald Byrd, Roy Ayers, Chaka Kahn, and Branford Marsalis, to name literally a few. His back catalogue is testimony to one of the all-time great rap careers. His monotone voice dropped a lyrical payload on hip hop that will reverberate forever.
The following letter was apparently written by Guru in hospital. It makes explicit the wish for DJ Premier to have nothing to do with anything involving Guru's likeness or in any tributes, etc. It seems a shame to go out on such a bitter sounding note, but who truly knows what went on between them other than them. The sceptical will say that Solar wrote this to make his role in Guru's music seem more important. Either way this looks like being Guru's final words to the world, make of it what you will here.
Check out London hip hop
Check out London Live Music
Check out Things To Do in London
Add an event
Frieze Art Fair to launch new section for young galleries in 2012
Frieze have today announced details for the 2012 edition, their tenth art fair in London. Taking place...