Gang Starr - Full Clip
"I don't know why so many of you wanna be thugs anyhow? Face the consequence of your childish nonsense."
Album: Full Clip: A Decade of Gang Starr [Compilation Album]
Recorded: Manhattan, New York City
Genre: Hip Hop, East Coast Hip Hop
Album Release: July 13th 1999
Single Release: June 8th 1999
Length: 3.37
Producer: DJ Premier [age 33]
Vocalist: Guru [age 37]
Label: Virgin Records
Music Video
Live on Jools Holland in 1999
Charts, Streams & Sales
Spotify: Over 150 million
YouTube Music: Over 30 million
Credits
Details
- 'Full Clip' is dedicated to the Harlem rapper Big L who was shot to death on February 15th 1999. L, who was a member of the D.I.T.C. crew, was a respected lyricist and battle rapper whose delivery and punchlines made him stand out to such an extent that some of his contemporaries rated him as a better rapper than Jay-Z, Nas and Biggie Smalls. 'Full Clip' was released four months after Big L's death, and the Guru adopts two distinct perspectives that reflect the reality of hip hop during this period.
Firstly, Guru adopts a a posture of bravado spitting lines like "fuck around, make you a martyr" and "chase a fake n***** down" which is exactly the type of violent posturing that contributed to the death of Big L. The difference here is that the violent energy is channeled into bragging about how good Guru is at rhyming, instead of into making personal attacks.
Later in the song, Guru says "you talk crime but you scared of jail" and "I don't know why so many of you wanna be thugs anyhow?" It's a call to keep the aggression on the mic.
The rappers can shred each other as a display of rhyme skills, but it shouldn't go further than that. People say hip hop promotes violence, and sometimes it does, but the music is a reaction to the pre-existing crime in society as well as a contributing factor.
If hip hop one day vanished, the violence would remain. Gun crime existed before hip hop and will continue to exist long after the genre has died, but it would be prudent to aware that the culture can facilitate violence. Which is to say, there's enough fucked up shit in the world we don't need to add to it.
- DJ Premier is the greatest hip hop producer of all time. Although I admit to a bias because of my fondness for mid-nineties east coast hip hop. I couldn't possibly respect any list that has Preemo outside of the top 10. It's amazing how consistently his name is mentioned when people ask the question: who was the greatest?
Premier's production style is based around DJing and sampling from rare records unearthed from dusty stacks of vinyl. He would then load them into an MPC or SP-1200 drum machine to slice and chop things together until they clicked. More impressive than the technical feats of engineering involved in making the beats themselves however, was Preemo's uncanny ability to fit the beat to the rhyme in a way that made what the rapper was saying more impactful.
Even though Premier has continued working well into the 2020's he will forever be associated with the late-80's and nineties era of east coast hip hop which saw him produce his best work.
A selection of beats made by Premier. - Afu-Ra - Equality
- Big L - The Enemy
- Biggie Smalls - 10 Crack Commandments
- Common - The 6th Sense
- Gang Starr - Above the Clouds
- Gang Starr - DWYCK
- Gang Starr - Mass Appeal
- Group Home - Livin' Proof
- Ill Bill - Society Is Brainwashed
- Jay-Z - D'Evils
- Jeru the Damaja - Aint the Devil Happy
- KRS-One - Outta Here
- Mos Def - Mathematics
- Nas - Nas Is Like
- Nas - New York State of Mind
- Nas - Represent
Artwork
