Lost and Found Interview

When you consider the term ‘hunger’ in hip-hop nowadays your thoughts can’t help but lurch clumsily towards memories of a sturdy Big Pun on stage, spluttering out rhymes punctuated by short rasping breaths, the ever-cuddly Fat Joe with his belt-bendingly massive jeans that could be converted into a denim pigeon-loft or the Notorious B.I.G making an ungodly racket on his debut album, thanks to the combination of a headboard, a wall and a shrieking grateful recipient of his apparent morning-glory. Whilst these men stand (or stood) tall, celebrated in graffiti throw-ups in and around the Bronx and Brooklyn, it’s fair to say that in many respects none have come close to matching the status of a man whose nickname ‘Baldhead Slick’ suggests that he could have been quite a swimmer had the hip hop thing not quite worked out as well as it did. With a recording history that traces back to 1988 as the founder member of the legendary Gangstarr, Keith Elam a.k.a Guru would have been entitled to sit on his behind with a cup of tea in his hand and look back over a glorious career once the Gangstarr project hit the wall in 2004. However, the desire and durability that got him this far means that he finds himself not only dropping rhymes on studio album number 12, but also heading-up his own 7Grand label alongside his partner in beats and rhymes of the past 4 years, Solar. Beatmag caught up with the pair as they hit England on the European-leg of a tour that started in January at the Sundance Film Festival and hit London after passing through some heavy U.S ski-country, culminating in a show at the X Games Finale, an occasion that must have seemed an unlikely arena for performance when Guru started out in the business?

“Well back then my vision was just to get it poppin’. I had that hunger and that’s something I held onto. The hunger is still here but in a different format. I never sold-out, I never wanted to. I never strayed from my connection with the streets or with the hip hop culture, and actually that whole extreme sports crowd has graced hip hop – they are really very close; the fashion within hip hop is very much inspired from this – even the skate-sneakers, the hats, the jackets – it’s pretty similar. And these guys are rocking out and doing their tricks listening to hip hop”.

Embracing new cultures and new ideas is certainly the name of the game for musicians nowadays. Whilst many amongst us may wish for another golden Gangstarr project (or another hip hop golden-era for that matter) the reality is that time marches relentlessly on, and as the planet keeps spinning today’s artists can’t afford to look backwards and have to stay on top of new developments, new trends and new technologies. This enables them to maintain varying forms of contact with audiences who’s attention span can be measured in minutes, and who’s interest is frequently won or lost in the short time it takes to post a nonsensical rant on You-tube.

“Anything, that’s going on that’s futuristic and digital we’re embracing it. This is a Back To The Future experience. We can’t go back but yes, we can take things to the future. Embrace the technology but don’t forget where everything came from – all these principals, so you form a firm connection between the past, the future and the present. Then it all connects as opposed to being disjointed and fractured.”
Long tours, hotel room existences and extended press-junkets that mean breakfast, lunch and dinner have zipped past on room-service trolleys are all happily dismissed as “all part of the grind” as the pair embrace the need to throw themselves headlong into their work. As masters of their own destiny running the 7Grand label, it’s clear that they vibe from one another and if words of encouragement or a foot up the backside are sometimes required then so be it. Guru explains how he and Solar first met and hung out as friends before they’d even begun to make music.

“One time I was with Solar complaining about all the A+R stuff, all the execs and whatever and he was like ‘listen man, you’re an icon – what are you doing? Start your own label if its that bad!’ So now we are true owners. At the end of the day this is our thing. We have the control and our vision and we’re taking it where it needs to go. It’s surviving by the will of the people. We don’t have a large corporate entity or some secret benefactor hooking us up so we’re not flossing any super-fly rides and all kind of bling or whatever – it ain’t that type of party. This is the realest, and the most integrity, you’re gonna see.”

Guru acknowledges that this is a whole new chapter for him. His work alongside DJ Premier in Gang Starr contributed heavily in pioneering the early 90s hip-hop sound of New York, and he incorporated a jazzier aesthetic into hip-hop with his well-received Jazzmatazz project. Having grown-up listening to jazz (thanks to the guidance of his uncles and father), he developed his own specific tastes (“Parker, Coltrane, Nat Colman etcetera, but then that’s just me”) and alongside new partner Solar, the project has swelled into the number one best-selling hip hop jazz act on the planet, something Guru is obviously proud of yet not content to be measured by. “We could’ve just plugged Jazzmatazz records and rolled on that but no, we felt compelled to put out some pure hip hop because that’s what we come from, that’s what we’re made of. Hip Hop runs through our veins and we felt a void and so we need to stimulate the thought that ‘hip hop needs to grow’ so instead of talking about going back, this new album is real hip hop right now.”

Discussing the album, each has his particular favourite track. Solar nominates Devine Rulez, a song he also directed the video for as his personal highlight. “I consider myself every time I enter a project to be free and I just want to make the best that I can by keeping my mind open and delivering music that’s gonna get people excited. Not necessarily the most commercial music or the music that critics are gonna love but just music that I think stimulates the culture and brings hip hop to a higher level”. Sampling the disco-classic ‘Super Nature’ by Cerrone, Devine Rulez certainly raises the bar to a whole new level although it’s potentially a track that one can see heads struggling to warm to immediately, with it’s obvious crossover appeal a potential red rag to anyone who fears a hint of creativity seeping in hip hop. As if anticipating such a response from the die-hards still stuck on hearing Guru rhyming over Premo’s chopped-up drums, he explains how Devine Rulez takes us back to a time when hip hop was about more than polishing your necklace and name-checking your particular favourite aperitife. “I’m rhyming about a glorious time and about fun. What a lot of people don’t know is that in the early days, when cats were rhyming, when emcees were rhyming, they were doing it over rock breaks, jazz breaks and disco breaks. Alongside funk-breaks, DJs had collections of disco breaks too so Divine Rulez is really revisiting the history of hip-hop with a futuristic approach. Hip-hop has been taken in all kind of other directions because people felt just like they could do it, and we really need to recognise that in order for this culture to grow and move forward – heads gotta be real heads and real heads need to come together and kick the truth.”

Citing his own favourite tracks as ‘Lost and Found’ (“it’s the theme music”) and ‘After Time’ (“When I first heard that track as an instrumental it was like crack, I went fucking nuts! Boom!”), the passion and enthusiasm Guru has for hip hop has appears to have never faltered. Having contributed so much to the culture over the years, it’s heartening to hear that the positivity he’s injected time and time again has taken the 360-degree route and returned to the source, helping him through occasionally difficult times and inspiring him to continue to do what he loves.

“Where I’m at, I’m in the light right now. If there’s any darkness it comes with the fight because we’re in a fight for sure. For a lot of things to create positive change there’s always gonna be a fight because for some people it’s easier for them to hate – it’s easier for them to purvey negativity than it is to overcome it with positive thoughts. But for me, darkness is not really there. There’s more light involved right now and it’s representing a new chapter that’s never been done before; exploring new things and being actual president of my own label, cultivating new talent. And Jazzmatazz is of course positive in itself. So here we are putting the message in the music, but at the same time keeping it funky, keeping it street, so again, taking those principals to new heights. So that’s what it’s about, evolution and so forth – it’s a good look.”

by Tim Aldous

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