CD Odyssey Disc 508: Gang Starr

Happy Saturday afternoon!  I’ve had a relaxed Saturday, starting with a friendly game of ultimate, then lunch out and now while Sheila naps I’m getting in another music review.  So here it is...

Disc 508 is…. Daily Operation

Artist: Gang Starr

Year of Release: 1992

What’s up with the Cover?  It would appear to be Guru and DJ Premier hanging out at their home office.  This picture is filled with all kinds of fun little details.  Along with the requisite cash, there’s a copy of what I think is “Message to the Black Man in America” by Elijah Muhammad, leader of a religious group in the U.S. called “Nation of Islam.” The other book looks like “the Bible of Gang Starr” based on its cover.  I think the portrait in the background is Malcolm X but I know very little about American history, so that’s just a guess.  A globe, a skull and a couple of typewriters round out the combination of business and activism that define the Gang Starr office space.

How I Came To Know It:  As I noted when I reviewed “Hard to Earn” back at Disc 382, my friend Casey introduced me to Guru’s solo work, and I discovered his stuff with Gang Starr from there.  “Daily Operation” is my most recent acquisition of Gang Starr’s music, and I’ve only had it for a year or so.

How It Stacks Up:  I now have four Gang Starr albums.  “Daily Operation” is good, but not great.  I’ll put it third out of four.

Rating:  3 stars

In their day, compact discs made listening to music so much more convenient, but they also provided artists the opportunity record twice as much music as had fit on vinyl.  More does not always mean better, and rap was particularly guilty of letting their albums get bloated.  This is what happened to “Daily Operation.”

“Daily Operation” clocks in at 53 minutes which is a bit long, but n terms of playing time, there are worse offenders.  The real problem is that there are eighteen tracks.  Too many tracks just makes it hard to get a proper feel for an album and sure enough, I had a hard time to get a feel for this one.

That said, Gang Starr have loads of talent.  DJ Premier chooses his samples well, and around this time the band was getting into sampling a lot of jazz licks along with the usual James Brown and other rap artists.  The biggest problem with jazz in its natural environment is that a lick  may start out pleasant but it usually ends up noodling off into self-referential smugness.  Caged in a sample, these licks are much more enjoyable.  I’d rather listen to a sax solo looped in a four minute Gang Starr song than that same jazz musician taking eight to ten minutes of  my life so he can demonstrate that he’s very proficient on his instrument.

Guru’s raps are creative and his phrasing his clever and pulls you naturally with and through the beat.  The guest rappers ’Lil Dap and Jeru the Damaja who appear on “I’m the Man” are great too, and add good variety to the ear.

As with “Hard to Earn” a lot of the raps on “Daily Operation” are about the most time-honoured rap topic of “I can rap better than you.”  “Flip the Script,” and “No Shame in My Game” are both excellent examples of this topic delivered with innovative rhymes, creative New York rhythms and catchy beats.

Some of my favourite put-downs on the album include this from “Flip the Script”:

“Your capabilities fall short

So imma gonna treat you like a dwarf

On a basketball court.”

And this from “No Shame In My Game”:

“I like to catch a buzz cuz I get into the beats more

MCs are washed up like dead fish on the seashore.”

In addition, the boys gets a bit more political, giving props to the Nation of Islam (remember the book from “What’s Up With the Cover”) and call out what they perceive as systemic faults in America in “Conspiracy.”

In terms of samples, there are some inspired choices, including horns from Caesar Frazier’s “Funk it Up” in “Ex Girl to the Next Girl” a song about a crazy ex-girlfriend that Guru is telling to please leave him along (in the song she is unhappy he’s got a new girlfriend and is trying to…er… ‘funk it up’?  I also dig the piano sample in “B.Y.S.” from Sugar Billy Garner’s “I Got Some.”  I’d never heard of either Caesar Frazier or Sugar Billy Garner but after hearing the samples, I want to know more.  If you wonder about how you feel about the practice of sampling, there are two reasons why it is a good thing.

This album feels like a transition in style from the more traditional early rap of 1991’s “Step in the Arena” and 1994’s “Hard to Earn.”  Like a lot of transitional albums, it doesn’t hit on all cylinders, but it hits on most.  If this record had been 12 to 14 tracks it could easily be a four star effort, but the extra content diminishes the overall experience, so I went with three.

Shame-filled admission:  In my last Gang Starr review, I referred to LL Cool J as a west coast rapper, which I think sums up just how much I know about rap (not much).  That error was so heinous that I’ve gone and corrected it, but since I’m an honest fellow, I’m coming clean on it now.  Consider this both 'oops' and 'sorry' rolled into one.

Best tracks:  Flip the Script, Ex Girl to the Next Girl, I’m The Man, No Shame In My Game, The Illest Brother, B.Y.S., Take Two and Pass