Fronted by evocative cowl artwork that depicts Gang Starr’s MC Guru and DJ Premier plotting in a clandestine assembly room embellished with a portrait of Malcolm X, a turntable flight case, and a briefcase overflowing with banknotes, Each day Operation is a heady foray into an early 90s New York Metropolis the place street-level hip-hop ethics combined with 5 % Nation of Islam philosophy.
Hearken to Gang Starr’s Each day Operation now.
Launched in 1992, the duo’s jazz-tinged third studio album opens with the punchy introductory assertion “The Place Where We Dwell.” Rapping over the monitor’s raucous cymbal-saturated percussion, Guru presents an in depth anti-tourist’s information to his and DJ Premier’s adopted borough of Brooklyn. “Don’t be afraid to venture over the bridge/ Although you may run in to some wild ass kids/ Take the J train, the D or the A if you dare/ And the 2, 3, 4 or 5 also comes here,” advises the MC in trademark monotone type. ”There’s a lot to see ’trigger Brooklyn’s historic/ Fools act jealous however you must ignore it.”
As Each day Operation progresses, Guru stretches easily into relationship rap territory (“Ex Girl To Next Girl”), relays a fraught incidence of violence erupting outdoors a hip-hop venue (“Soliloquy of Chaos”), and laces “Conspiracy” with commentary on chemical warfare theories, the American schooling system and the music business alike. “Even in this rap game all that glitters ain’t gold/ Now that rap is big business the snakes got bold/ They give you wack contracts and try to make you go pop/ ‘Cause they have no regard for real hip-hop,” vents the MC over DJ Premier’s subdued piano loop. Additionally notable: Each day Operation launched Gang Starr Basis members Jeru The Damaja and Group Residence (represented by the rapper Lil’ Dap), who mix on the swaggering beat-shifting braggadocio commonplace “I’m The Man.” (The track consists of Jeru making an unlikely lyrical comparability to chief barfly Norm Peterson from the TV sitcom Cheers.)
Over the course of a revered studio album discography that kicked off with 1989’s No Extra Mr. Good Man, the Gang Starr lyrical agenda has regularly explored the connection between street-honed smarts and aspirations in direction of gaining wider worldly information. It’s a redemptive mix that Guru thoughtfully pushes to the fore all through Each day Operation. “I used to steal goods and fake my parents out real good/ But now I got K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E of self ’cause I’m me,” raps the MC over the brassy motivational manufacturing of key mid-album minimize “2 Deep,” earlier than layering in references to the 5 % Nation’s efforts to “get through to the brothers on the corners with the reps.” Then after confronting a child toting a firearm, Guru cash a couplet that aptly sums up the nuances of the grand Gang Starr operation: “But violence is never my first choice/ I come in peace to release the effect of my voice.”
Hearken to Gang Starr’s Each day Operation now.
