Rub Radio – Matthew Africa “Best of Gang Starr”

We don’t know about you but we’re loving the new Gang Starr album.  We thought of doing a mix of classic Gang Starr tracks but remembered that our homie Matthew Africa (who we miss every day) did a really great one, so we decided to revisit his.  Big thanks to DJ Step One for digging up the file and sending it over!  (https://twitter.com/PaulDJStepOne)

Matthew Africa wrote this when he first put out the mix:

“Gang Starr is one of my favorite acts from the 1990s. There is no rap group I listened to more in that era, although De La Soul, Outkast & A Tribe Called Quest all run pretty much neck and neck.

Still, in recent years I haven’t listened to Gang Starr much. Maybe it’s because they haven’t released any new music since 2003. Maybe it’s because in the last decade the school of hardcore hip hop that they defined stagnated and played out so hard.

For me, this mix was about rediscovery. It grew out of an episode of 2 Busy Saying Yeah [Matthew’s rap podcast at the time] from a few weeks ago; after reading about Guru’s health troubles, I devoted a 2-hour episode to Gang Starr’s music. It was my first time mixing a lot of the songs in years and it felt so good, so natural, that I knew I had to turn it into tape along the lines of my previous tributes to $hort, Kells, etc.

Unlike those mixes, which I struggled with for weeks and months each, this was a breeze. I spent an afternoon figuring out the track list, recorded the mix live one evening and then spent a few days puttering with the multi-track to clean it up, add drops and get it down to CD length.

I drew tracks from all six of Gang Starr’s albums, and each is represented more or less in proportion to how much I like it: 1992’s Daily Operation tops them all with 9 selections, although 1990’s Step in the Arena, 1994’s Hard to Earn and 1998’s Moment of Truth all feature prominently with 7, 6 and 5 tracks, respectively. The first and last albums got kind of short shrift, although there were more songs I would have included from each if I hadn’t run out of space. They have one of the strongest catalogs in rap music and there were a lot of additional songs, verses and scratch parts I wish I could have included.

Big thanks to my man XJ, who laced the cover, and my main man DJ Eleven on quality control.”

Listen to <a href="https://hearthis.at/brooklynradio/matthew-africa-the-best-of-gang-starr/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Matthew Africa &#8211; The Best of Gang Starr</a> <span>by</span><a href="https://hearthis.at/brooklynradio/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Brooklyn Radio</a> <span>on</span> <a href="https://hearthis.at/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">hearthis.at</a></p>
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DOWNLOAD Rub Radio – Matthew Africa “Best of Gang Starr”

Tracklist:

1. Intro

2. You Know My Steez

3. Just to Get a Rep

4. Mass Appeal

5. Step in the Arena

6. Now You’re Mine

7. The Militia feat. Freddie Foxxx

8. B.Y.S.

9. Take It Personal

10. The ? Remainz

11. Full Clip

12. DWYCK feat. Nice & Smooth

13. Who’s Gonna Take the Weight?

14. Jazz Thing

15. Soliloquy of Chaos

16. Check the Technique

17. Credit Is Due

18. Speak Ya Clout feat. Jeru the Damaja & Lil Dap

19. It’z a Setup feat. Hannibal

20. Words I Manifest (Remix)

21. 2 Deep

22. The Place Where We Dwell

23. Suckas Need Bodyguards

24. Flip the Script

25. What You Want This Time?

26. Love Sick

27. Ex Girl to Next Girl

28. The Planet

29. Make ’em Pay

30. Execution of a Chump

31. DJ Premier Is In Deep Concentration

32. Take Two & Pass

33. Gotta Get Over (Taking Loot)

34. Rite Where You Stand feat. Jadakiss

35. I’m the Man feat. Lil Dap & Jeru the Damaja

36. Code of the Streets

37. Tonz ‘o’ Gunz

38. Next Time