Legendary MC, hip hop icon and master on the microphone, Guru’s career started before most of your favourite rappers started writing their first lyrics. Hailing from the legendary crew Gang Starr, with former partner in beats ‘n’ rhyme DJ Premier, he’s still going strong. Now working in the lab with New York producer Solar, and refusing to mention Primo or any of his former Gang Starr members, he’s still proving that he’s got what it takes by establishing his record label 7 Grand and dropping a new album Lost And Found 8.0. Taking time out from their tour through Europe, Guru and Solar chill out with Jerry Gadiano as they proceed to drop some knowledge.

You’ve been coming to London for a while now, how do you like it?

Guru: I love London, London is one of my favourite places in the world. I like the scene here, I like the music scene, I like the people, I like the fact that they appreciate real music. I big up the scene here, it’s always evolving, I like the fact that the local MCs are starting to their props and people are starting to support and buy their music. Big up the grime scene, I’ve peeped it.

How were you introduced to Solar?

Guru: We were introduced to by a mutual friend like about seven years ago, we started kicking it. Beyond the music we just clicked, I knew he had the heat so I was like ‘I wanna hear some of them joints’ and once I heard ‘em I was like ‘Oh boy’ and I wanted to hear more. Also at that time I wanted to explore things as far creative control of music is concerned and I was complaining  about some stuff one night and Solar was like ‘Listen man you’re an icon, why don’t you just start your own label?’. So I thought about that and we discussed it and he felt it was important to put a better face on New York and east coast hip hop which the whole bling era obliterated.

What drew you to Solar’s style of production?

Guru: The fact that he’s vast musically, so it’s like me MCing I can go from a sophisticated style like on a Jazzamatzz record to something more grimy and gully, but still with that intelligence and street feeling all connected with the new album. So his style is like that, it’s vast, you can’t just all into one zone, he has a lot of different zones. Also it’s futuristic, it’s founded on the roots of hip-hop but it pushes the music on different levels conceptually.

Solar, when did you first start producing?

Solar: Really I was producing as a child I just didn’t know it was ‘producing’. I had my first band when I was like 12 or 13 years old, it was an actual band where I played drums and we had bass a guitar and a singer. And then I was producing without actually knowing what it was and at same time hip hop was in my blood, at that time I was dealing with scratching and cutting records back and forth and the early samplers that were out, so we were taking little parts to sample and looping it. The basic stuff, the boom-bap, scratching over the drum beats and so-on, I always did this, I always did it for enjoyment, it was a way for me to socialise with my peers. I didn’t do it for a living or a livelihood, it was just something I enjoyed doing as a born and raised thorough bred New Yorker, hip hop is in my blood and I love music it’s a great way to create and put out what I’m feeling to the world.

What inspires you as a producer?

Solar: To be honest where I’m at right now the projects inspire me. When I started my first Guru album The Street Scriptures I drew inspiration from many sources, it’s one of my favourite 7 Grand work. At that time I was coming into the music industry and I didn’t know the ins and outs of what went into it, so I just made records that I felt good about and that Guru felt good about, that right there inspired me and allowed me to show the world what I can do, it let me show the world that I was in a very optimistic and spiritual place. At same time I deal with the science of life and I see the struggles that when we made that album, there was one incident where a young woman threw her baby out of a 16^th floor window in the projects. Of course the child died, and she was driven by poverty to that and poverty in New York was bad, this was in 2004 when we still had the bling era going on and that was another part of my inspiration, and 7 Grand itself. We felt that they’re where so many people suffering that was before where we got to now and New York with the over the top ‘bling’ antics really didn’t represent it, so we wanted to make an album that was coming from the heart, that was about real music and about what Guru and I were about and we’re experiencing. We felt that was real hip hop, maybe not commercial hip hop but it was real hip hop nonetheless. The latest album my inspiration is just to show the level of production that I’m on and also show the world who’s questioning or thinking what I say or like when I’m putting down my 16s.

What other artists are producing for other than Guru? Any other projects you’re involved in?

Solar: Right now this album has encompassed everything, but I’m working with a singer signed to Sony, she’s going to be appearing on one version of the album. I’m working on K-Born and High Power’s album and also putting together tracks for my album.

How important is sampling?

Solar: I think sampling is always gonna be a part of hip hop and I don’t think it should ever be removed. I think some of the music I’m hearing now is just drifting so far away because they’re staying away from sampling for whatever reason, I still see sampling as an integral part of hip hop and I hope it stays that way.

When does it stop being sampling though and then becomes stealing someone’s beats?

Solar: See that’s not for me to call, me personally I’m at a point in my career where I can listen to something and be inspired by it and make my own version of it so I don’t have to literally to take it. But sometimes I will take a sample and throw it through the Pro Tools, speed it up and add different effects so it’s kinda like a sample, but then I’ll take it somewhere else. I think for me I just try to be creative when comes to sampling or making beats in general, just take something and make fresh so that people like it and enjoy it

How does your new album Lost And Found 8.0 separate itself from your Jazzmatazz series?

Guru: It’s about versatility, I’ve always been able to go from something that’s hardcore and pure but intelligent and street to a more sophisticatedJazzmatazz type of music and I wanted to continue that, so we put out Jazzmatazz Vol. 4 then we put out the Jazzmatazz mixtape. I felt it was time for some raw hip hop but with that creative intelligence level mixed in with the streets because that’s what I’ve always been about. 8.0 is that and Solar is very similar in his vast production styles, so this for us was like digging down deep in the heart we didn’t have to get a lot of collaborations and all that this is just us.

What was the idea for using auto-tunes in your album?

Guru: I think that it’s a cool medium and my voice has been an important thing to me, so guess I wanted to hear what I sounded like with that a little. But at the same time we didn’t want to do it like everybody else, we wanted to do our own version like on the song It’s A Shock that’s about something futuristic so it relates exactly to the use of auto-tune.

Solar: I mean I love all technology, I it when Pro Tools first came into play and there were a lot of producers that I was working with that where saying ‘Oh man forget digital, stay with tape’ but ya’know I like Pro Tools it’s the dominant medium. I see certain parts of production being the same way it’s just a matter of how you use it, I see it the way with any production tool, you use how you use it. You wouldn’t know but before hip hop was using drum machines and house music was using drum machines. So what do you say, drum machines shouldn’t be used in hip hop because it was used in other music? I say the same thing for auto-tune, it’s just another production technique it’s all on how we use it.

How will Lost And Found 8.0 appeal to both long term fans of Guru whilst reaching new listeners at the same time?

Guru: I think with all our 7 Grand music we’ve done that and when you come to see our live shows it encompasses that even more. It’s something for everyone whether you’ve been following us with Jazzmatazz or as Gang Starr and something for the new heads who like what they’re hearing and wanna learn more and they go back and check out other things, so there’s something for everybody. This particular album I would say is just banging, so if you like banging music you gon’ like it and once you listen to it from the bang you gon’ love it.

How has hip hop changed since you came onto the scene back in ‘89?

Guru: I mean it’s changed in a lot of ways, but right now it’s been dumb down, so you know the ‘bling’ era kinda clouded a lot of things especially for New York and the East Coast in terms of intelligent lyricism and so forth. With 7 Grand we’re bringing that intelligence back up because it’s important, so coming from that angle their needs to be more of that to balance things out. I would say 7 Grand is at the forefront of ushering in a new creative intelligent era in hip hop.

How do you feel about New York’s status in hip hop today?

Guru: That’s a good point, it is a sleeping giant and that sleeping giant is going to wake up at some point and start stomping shit out again so we at the forefront of that. At the same time it’s important that people know root of hip hop is in New York and that’s why I definitely big up the UK because you guys always appear advanced in your knowledge of hip hop. That what it is, things develop, and so know where going into the future you got 7 Grand leading the way into some intelligent street music.

Who would you say is to blame for this reported decline in hip hop music? Is it the record labels, music channels, radio DJs or is the artists themselves?

Guru: I would say it encompasses a group of those, but it’s been ushered by the bling era but I wouldn’t say blame.

Solar: Blame is a very strong term, we wouldn’t use the term blame what we’ll say is ‘cause and effect’. All things in life have a cause and effect, what happened is greed overcame what New York and hip hop represented. They went and murdered that component of hip hop they tore it out once they turned it into greed once it became about selling a million copies and so forth. It just tore back out of what hip hop is.

What needs to happen for both New York and hip hop itself to comeback to it’s strong stance?

Guru: I would say that from vast travels all around the world a lot of people talk about hip hop is missing this, that it needs that, they’re tired of this, the music’s too dumb, it’s not intelligent, so then what do you do when we’re standing here and we got a label and we’re coming with that intelligent and creative stance? Support it, that’s what I would say. It starts with that, supporting one another who have that similar train of thought so then it becomes a thing where we start connecting and we start supporting movements to create change.

Solar: For me, it’s important that we are able to communicate and speak to each other as men. Cause when you leave here you’ll be able to speak to your peer group what we’re all about. We’re not trying to be teenagers and trying to do what you do, but equally you need someone like us to point the way cos you can’t point it for yourself. Just like we couldn’t do it ourselves we had to have somebody that came before us to that pointed the way for us so that we could become the successful men that we are so we could set an example to help you cats to get it right. But if I came to you showing you how big my Rolls Royce is or how many big butt chicks I got it ain’t really gonna help you bruh.

8.0 Lost & Found is out Monday 27 April

www.myspace.com/guru7grand | www.myspace.com/solar7grand

www.gurusjazzmatazz.net | www.7grandweshare.com

Tags: Gang Starr, Guru, Hip Hop, Interviews, Solar