PopularLemonade

Photo by Juan-Carlos Hernandez

There aren’t many folks who can maintain a career in music (especially hip hop) for over 20 years.  Guru has been at the forefront of modern music since the early 1990s and is best known as one -half of the hip hop duo Gang Starr with legendary wheels of steel master Dj Premier.  Everyone knows who  Gang Starr is.  If there was a book of hip hop, you’d find their story within the first five chapters and their names littered within the following chapters until the end.  Along with truly driving the New York sound through Gang Starr‘s music, Guru has truly paved the way for extremely creative jazz-based projects through his Jazzmatazz albums: four releases which focus on sharing the spotlight with some of the best movers and shakers in modern jazz, R&B, and rap, including Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd, Chaka Khan, Slum Village, Herbie Hancock, Isaac Hayes, and Erykah Badu.

Guru suffered cardiac arrest and reports indicate that he may be in a coma.  On a much more personal level, this web site wouldn’t be what it is without Guru‘s lyrics from D.W.Y.C.K.:

I chant eenie meenie, minie moe
I wreck the mic like a pimp pimps hoes
Here’s how it goes, I am a genius, I mean this
I shake this you’ll take this
I’m kinda fiendish
You wish that you could come into my neighborhood
Meaning my mental state
Still I’m 5 foot 8
Crazy as I wanna be
Cause I make it orderly
You could say I’m sorta the boss so get lost
The brotha that will make you change opinions
Dominions I’m in them when it’s time to kick shit from
The heart, plus I get a piece of the action
I’m feelin satisfaction from the street crowd reaction
Chumps pull guns when they feel afraid, too late
When they dip in the kick they get sprayed
Lemonade was a popular drink and it still is
I get more props den stunts den Bruce Willis
A poet like Langston Hughes and can’t lose when I cruise
Out on the expressway
Leavin the bodega I say “suave”
Premier’s got more beats den barns got hay
Clips are inserted into my gun
So I can take the money, never have to run

With a heavy heart, I ask you to send positivity and love in Guru‘s direction today with the hopes that he will have a speedy recovery.  In the meantime, acknowledge the man through his music.