The BBC 1Xtra Radio series “Gone Too Soon” examines the life and musical endeavors of the man with the unmistakable voice, Guru, who indeed left us much too early. The hour-long program presents an overview of the Gang Starr MC’s career and takes a closer look at the unpleasant circumstances revolving around his death on April 19, 2010. We get to hear from DJ Premier, Big Shug, Common and other artists who worked with him as well family members, not to mention the controversial figure Solar, who is quite hated by many in the hip-hop community for his involvement in what appeared to be shady maneuvers that attempted to keep family and loved ones away from the rapper while he was in a coma in the hospital.
The Story of Guru BBC Radio 1Xtra's Stories, Gone Too Soon: Series 2 Episode 1 of 4
Keith Edward Elam was known to the world as Guru - Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal. He made his name as one half of the legendary hip-hop duo Gang Starr and went on to reinvent the genre by fusing jazz with hip-hop in his widely acclaimed Jazzmatazz project.
But this dazzling musical success is just part of his story...a story that ended in tragedy and controversy.
In a unique programme, BBC Radio 1Xtra exclusively hears from Guru's family, his Gang Starr partner DJ Premier, the stars who worked with him, and Solar, his last business partner, who would be at the centre of the claims and counter-claims surrounding the rapper's untimely death.
The story starts in Boston and Guru's father, brother and sister help tell of his growing up there as the son of a judge. Original Gang Starr member Big Shug explains how he taught this well-educated, middle-class kid to rap and of Guru's move down the coast to the birthplace of hip-hop, New York.
It was in New York that Guru would join forces with DJ Premier to form the now celebrated final line up of Gang Starr. Side-by-side for almost 15 years and six albums, together they pioneered jazz sampling hip-hop, working with Jeru the Damaja, Snoop Dogg, Nice'n'Smooth, Jadakiss, MOP, Big L and Inspectah Deck of Wu Tang. Later Guru's solo project, the Jazzmatazz series, brought together jazz musicians and rappers including Donald Byrd, Herbie Hancock, Roy Ayers, Erykah Badu, The Roots, Common, Kool Keith, Angie Stone and Slum Village.
DJ Premier, rapper Common and Radio 1 and 1Xtra's Trevor Nelson will all talk about working with Guru, giving listeners an insight into his rhymes, the music, the man and his character. Radio 1Xtra's DJ Semtex and Benji B will study Guru's lyrics, style and delivery, looking back at when they first encountered Gang Starr, the group's early impact on hip-hop, and how Guru's Jazzmatazz series would cement his place as a musical innovator.
It was while moving back and forth between Gang Starr and Jazzmatazz projects that Guru would first meet the producer Solar. Although Gang Starr never officially split, Guru announced his next musical project would see him work with Solar and they went on set up their own label. It is from this point that The Story of Guru becomes disputed.
In this programme we'll explore how DJ Premier and members of his family began to feel distanced from Guru, struggling to maintain communication with him. Even so, Guru was busy with Solar, making music and playing live. But when Guru was diagnosed with cancer, the real problems started.
While Guru lay in hospital his family claimed that Solar banned them and long-term friend DJ Premier from visiting him. Guru's nephew posted a very public video on YouTube entitled "Guru. The True Story behind hospital and coma" in which he asked people to help him and his family gain access to his uncle, referring to Solar as "manipulative." However, Solar says he was doing what Guru told him to and so it was Guru who chose who he wanted to visit him.
The situation peaked when Guru died on 19th April, 2010. Solar released a statement, which he says was written by Guru himself, which shocked family, friends and fans alike. Not only did it ask Solar's family to look after Guru's son, but it also requested his "ex-DJ" Premier to dissociate himself from Guru's name. Many believe this letter to have been penned by Solar himself, it caused outrage among many who knew Guru, and in this programme we'll hear both sides of the story.
Irrespective of the drama, or rights and wrongs of what happened in those final days, no one can dispute that Guru was an incredible artist. He left fans with ten albums to enjoy, including massive hits like 'Full Clip', 'Just To Get A Rep', 'Moment of Truth' and more.
This programme will celebrate the music Guru left behind and try to solve some of the mystery surrounding his untimely death.
I took the time to capture the streaming audio today and will upload an mp3 file tomorrow. Does anyone have a preference what bitrate for the (re)encoding?
Never mind for now. My stupid recording program also picked up ALL other sounds from my computer, like email alerts and whatnot. I can re-record it on Monday.
dirt_dog wrote:Never mind for now. My stupid recording program also picked up ALL other sounds from my computer, like email alerts and whatnot. I can re-record it on Monday.
What's good Dirt? By any chance did you get to record that today?
Both files are properly tagged, include artwork and also come with a .txt file of the episode description from the BBC site. I plan on grabbing the Gil Scott-Heron and Amy Winehouse episodes for myself. If anyone else wants them after they air, just let me know.
Both files are properly tagged, include artwork and also come with a .txt file of the episode description from the BBC site. I plan on grabbing the Gil Scott-Heron and Amy Winehouse episodes for myself. If anyone else wants them after they air, just let me know.
Good fuckin shit man! THANK YOU!! And I like your style with the "both files are properly tagged, include artwork and also come with a .txt file of the episode description from the BBC site" cuz I'm similar. haha I would like to hear most of these so any other you would like to upload I say go for it. I'm gonna peep the ODB one right now...
Nobody asked for it, but here's the 4th installment. It's a great listen plus I had forgotten she worked with Salaam Remi. And I thought I might as well complete the series.
If anything like this series ever comes up again, somebody message me and I'd be happy to grab/convert the audio.
Nobody asked for it, but here's the 4th installment. It's a great listen plus I had forgotten she worked with Salaam Remi. And I thought I might as well complete the series.
If anything like this series ever comes up again, somebody message me and I'd be happy to grab/convert the audio.
Good lookin out Dirt Dog, it's appreciated... I'm listened to the last 3 so I'm a give this a listen as well.
Well, after giving it the full listen, not nearly as good as the other 3. Plenty of good back story, interview snips with Salaam Remi, Mark Ronson and Nas, but also a lot about the foundation that was created after her death.
thanks for the rips. i spent about fifteen minutes trying to figure out how to DL the audio files directly from the website before giving up. Definitely didn't want to record the stream. What software did you use?
I'm a Mac guy and use Audio Hijack. I set it to record the stream directly out of Firefox so it wouldn't pick up other noises from other apps (ie: email alert sounds, etc). It also let me set a recording time. I set it for 62 minutes, hit record and pressed play in Firefox. Then I went out to lunch. It couldn't have been any easier.
After that I threw the .aiff into Sound Studio and increased the overall volume, removed any dead space, fixed fade ins/fade outs. Then off to iTunes to make the mp3.
A few steps involved, but really wasn't that bad.
@atlantiswasreal: Where abouts in Chicago are you? I live out in the burbs but work in River North.
