Honoring GURU

The 2010 BET Hip Hop Awards aired last night and, unlike the May 2010 MTV Awards, this show smartly featured a tribute to GURU, the legendary frontman of hip hop superduo Gang Starr and iconic bridge between Hip Hop and Jazz music. (Note: BET and MTV are owned by the same company, Viacom.)



To watch the full 2010 BET Hip Hop Awards GURU Tribute Trailer, click here.

I've been honoring GURU since I started listening to his music more than a decade ago. I copped all his albums — and I was once even told my own rap style resembled his. In 2006, I was honored to feature GURU (along with Canadian emcee Bless) on my first release, the compilation "the Sub-Way mixtape".

I, like Hip Hop itself, was devastated by the loss of GURU, as well as the shadiness surrounding his final days and death. (Fuck Solar.) And I was not alone.



His Gang Star Foundation brethren, Lil Dap and Melachi of Group Home, are honoring GURU with the release of their third studio album, aptly titled "G.U.R.U. (Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal)". It features the Brooklyn duo's fallen mentor on three songs, including:

• "Legacy", reportedly the last song Group Home ever recorded with Gang Starr.
• "G.U.R.U.", featuring longtime Gang Starr affiliate Jeru the Damaja.

Click here to download Group Home's "Legacy", ft. GURU/prod. DJ Premier.



A portion of the proceeds from Group Home's "G.U.R.U." (the album) will go to a trust fund created to support GURU's son.

#FuckSolar:

Meanwhile, since GURU's untimely death in late April 2010, the website FuckSolar.com has honored GURU in another way — by tirelessly working to expose the truth about GURU's "business partner," the self-proclaimed "superproducer" Solar.

On September 29, 2010, FuckSolar.com published "the interview everybody has been waiting for," with Brownman, the acclaimed trumpet soloist hand-picked by GURU for his touring Jazzmatazz band. From 2006 through 2010, Brownman witnessed firsthand what GURU and Solar's relationship was really like. After declining countless requests for interviews, he spoke to The Boston Phoenix (note: Boston is GURU's hometown), revealing the startling details, with anecdotes.

FuckSolar.com copied and pasted the entire, harrowing 8,000-word feature, which, according to the site, "has led to continued investigation into Solar's more illegal dealings with GURU's estate and property." Good. #FuckSolar #RIPGURU

Click here to read the full interview.

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Don't forget to check back here regularly for GURU updates.

Post written by AWKWORD.

Remembering GURU & Trane on July 17

Wow... All alone here in the crib, living the hip hop lifestyle, up at 4 PM for breakfast after a long night of writing hits to future-bangers produced by the homie Alexander the Great (ATG)...

And with the Yankees losing in the background (RIP George Steinbrenner & Bob Sheppard), all I want to do is pay tribute to two music legends, because I think that's what today is all about. Not the heat in the city. Not Lindsay Lohan. Right now, not even the oil in the Gulf. Because some days are meant for celebration, for remembrance. Put aside the complaints about sweaty pits and stinky hippies, the fascination with celebrity trash and (just for a moment) the fear of a dying planet...

And pour a little out for these great artists (I got my Corona Light x Patron Silver x lemon & lime). We could all learn something.

Keith "GURU" Elam



Now that we're gettin somewhere, you know we got to give back /
For the youth is the future, no doubt that's right and exact /
Squeeze the juice out, of all the suckers with power /
And pour some back out, so as to water the flowers /
This world is ours, that's why the demons are leary /
It's our inheritance; this is my Robbin Hood Theory...

** Play "Robbin Hood Theory" (Gang Starr) **

GURU was my favorite emcee growing up. He is most famous for his work with DJ Premier in the rap group Gang Starr. He also made a number of Jazzmatazz albums, collaborating with jazz legends to produce some of the greatest jazz-hip hop blends we've ever heard. (I think Coltrane would have been proud.) GURU would have been 49 today.

Click here to read the GYMR GURU Obituary/Remembrance following his untimely death.

John William "Trane" Coltrane



John Coltrane died 43 years ago to this day. He wasn't even 41. But his music and his legacy live on. Since I make "angry rap music", when I want to kick back or get inspired, that's usually not what I listen to. I dig the stuff hip hop got its roots in, like the instrumentals of the iconic saxophonist and composer they called Trane. (I think GURU would have been proud to be mentioned 'alongside' Coltrane on this date.)

Cop A Love Supreme, Giant Steps and Coltrane's other albums here.










This post written by AWKWORD.

GURU Memorial Date Set by Elan Family

R.I.P.
[July 17, 1961 - April 20, 2010]

On July 18, 2010, Family and friends will celebrate the life of GURU of Gang Starr, hip hop icon. The memorial will be held at the University of Massachusetts Boston campus.

The Elan family launched GuruTribute.com for fans to view video from the ceremony, as well as share their own memories of GURU and how his music impacted their lives.

For more on GURU, his life and death, his music, and all the tributes to him from other artists, click here.

Follow us here or here to get the latest news.

RIP: Keith GURU Elam: July 17, 1961 - April 20, 2010

[Please Note: It was originally reported that GURU was born on July 17, 1966, and I posted my first blog on the emcee's death April 21, 2010; however, DJ Premier, the other half of the legendary Gang Starr, since confirmed GURU's birth date of July 17, 1961... Sadly, this is one of the many circumstances surrounding GURU's death that have raised controversy.]

Now that we're gettin somewhere, you know we got to give back /
For the youth is the future, no doubt that's right and exact /
Squeeze the juice out, of all the suckers with power /
And pour some back out, so as to water the flowers /
This world is ours, that's why the demons are leary /
It's our inheritance; this is my Robbin Hood Theory...



Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal

I haven't felt the loss of a hip hop artist this deeply since the death of 2Pac and BIG. People used to make fun of me for exclusively blasting Gang Starr out the whip -- specifically, Moment of Truth. Probably because I'm a little younger, that's the album that did it for me. When I started rapping, my brother Whatzisface (who mentored me, as well as Chuck Inglish from The Cool Kids) told me I sounded like GURU. Usually, young emcees cringe at any likeness -- biting is a crime in hip hop, and rightfully so. But I was honored. "Robbin Hood Theory" was always my joint, but I still dig the collaboration with Jadakiss and all his Jazzmatazz albums, plus everything else. The big homie GURU was a fucking ambassador, as real as any. Roy Ayers, Chaka Khan, Donald Byrd, Herbie Hancock, Branford Marsalis and Me'Shell Ndegeocello are hip hop because GURU told us so. And Bahamadia, Group Home, M.O.P., Jeru The Damaja, Big Shug and many others might be unknown to us had GURU not introduced us to their talents...



Unfortunately, the closest I ever got to GURU was through affiliation with Canadian emcee Bless. They appeared together on my official intoduction to hip hop, the Sub-Way mixtape, which featured Sub-Way Stiles (AWKWORD, Whatzisface, Blended Babies, DJ Syzygy and Voice1) and hip hop mainstays like GURU, Raekwon and ILL BILL, among many others. But I never got to meet him. Based on what I've read from the few people I follow on twitter, those who did meet GURU were not disappointed. Punchline said: "at least i can say i met the man and rhymed wit him in my hotel room in miami. rest in peace guru from gangstar." Poison Pen said: "Guru was the first "rap celeb" I met as a teen. I was in Tramps in nyc & the homie was buzzed. Walked over to me & spit a freestyle!" I read the letter supposedly written by GURU and all I'll say is that it made me question. Others, like the homies PUSH! Montana, Immortal Technique and C-Rayz Walz, also had questions. As did GURU's family (Click here or here). But I will not let shady characters or unanswered questions impact my memory of GURU, which will live on as we celebrate him every 4/20, and every other day as well, as we commit ourselves to maintaining. GURU: Rest In Power.

We all must meet our moment of truth.

Click here for the official statement from DJ Premier.

Click here for the VIBE interview (04/28/10) with DJ Premier.

Click here to hear DJ Premier's GURU Tribute Mix, recorded April 23, 2010.



Click here for Mister Cee's GURU Tribute Mix, provided by Hot 97 and 2DopeBoyz.

Click here for Tony Touch's GURU Tribute on Toca Tuesdays, provided by NahRight.

Click here to download Statik Selektah's Tribue to GURU, recorded live on Shade 45 Radio.

Click here for HipHopDX article "DJ Doo Wop Remembers Guru The Father, Last Tour."

Click here for a video interview with fellow rap heavyweight Fat Joe, who says GURU and Gang Starr "represent the true essence of hip hop."

Click here to leave a message for GURU's family on the Online Register.



OF COURSE, KNOWING GURU DIED OF CANCER MAKES HIS PASSING THAT MUCH MORE DIFFICULT FOR ME (AWKWORD), AS MY MOTHER IS STRICKEN WITH TERMINAL CANCER AS WELL. TO HELP US FIGHT THIS HORRIBLE DISEASE, PLEASE CLICK HERE.