Guru

Rip It Up, Issue 217, 1 September 1995, Page 14

Guru

All That Jazzmatazz

Do you prefer Keith or Guru? “Guru, please.”

I’m not surprised. For many rappers the street name is a blessing. Can you imagine selling records as MC Keith? No, neither did Mr Elam, who picked Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal (Guru) as his lyrical moniker. But we’re not here to talk about what’s in a name. Guru, DJ Premier’s other half in Gang Starr, has released another of his Jazzmatazz projects, this time with rappers and jazzsters from the States, and some soul divas and acid jazz musos from the UK. Of course the million dollar question is, why do you think hip-hop and jazz mix so well? “Well, hip-hop and rap are forms of music that embrace every other style of black music that has come before it. I think hip-hop and rap are a resurrection for other forms of black music: blues, jazz, funk. “With the first Jazzmatazz, I wanted to find a lot of the cats we sampled a lot. I mean, they were getting these royalty cheques from guys sampling them and stuff, but what about getting them to play along with hip-hop tracks? Because, if you look at their careers, you’ll see their music evolved over the years. They view jazz as a living music that changes with the times. A lot of these guys wanted to play to hiphop. I didn’t need to persuade them. “After that first album, I was exposed to a greater number of artists. I was running into people like Me’Shell and Lansey Lewis, and they're asking me: ‘When are you going to do

another Jazzmatazz?' There were a lot of people familiar with my work. So, that’s why there are more names on the second one, because I came across so many more people who were interested.” Chaka Khan, Me’Shell, Jamiroquai, Ronny Jordan, Mica Paris, Courtney Pine, The Solsonics, Bahamadia, Donald Bird, Branford Marsalas, Bernard Purdy and loads more make up the 25 guest artists. “After [Gang Starr] did ‘Jazz Thing' for Mo’ Better Blues, I had a chance to travel. It was a chance for us to tour around the world and see music from an international viewpoint, to see guys rapping in different languages, and seeing kids dress hip-hop all over the world. It was interesting to see that. Then we did shows and remixes of all these UK groups, and we started to get a whole family of artists we worked with.”

You’re in a unique position, having worked with a lot of upcoming talents from both sides of the Atlantic, but it must have been expensive.

“The second Jazzmatazz has been more expensive, definitely, because I had to travel more extensively from New York, to LA, to London. There’s the cost of travelling, and the studios, and then the artists.” Why London this time round? “It’s funny, because a lot of the artists I’ve used from the UK, a lot of soul artists, a lot of them don’t get enough credit for their music, and it’s a chance to spotlight them, like: ‘Hey look at this person.’ With the older jazz cats

too, it’s like: ‘Don’t forget about this person.’ Do you think the UK holds its own? “Well, I give the UK a lot of credit and Europe a lot of credit for having so much respect for the DJ. A lot of these forms of music were developed by the DJs — hip-hop, acid jazz, techno, jungle and so forth — all of these forms of music were developed by the DJs, man. In the States, the DJs can’t get enough vinyl, they gotta bootleg. Whereas over there, DJs are well respected, people still go record shopping, people trade records, and there’s so much respect for soul music." Guru’s always been known as a moral kind of guy. There’s no bitches on the triggaz, or sucking dicks, or niggaz in his lyrics. You’re more likely to come across a bit of crochet and cups of tea. Well, not quite. “The message has to do with family. Throughout my work with Gang Starr, people have known me for being a rapper with a message. And that’s another reason these guys want to work with me, the young jazz cats, the vocalists, because they relate to my lyrical perspective. A lot of people that listen to Jazzmatazz might not listen to a whole bunch of rap. They might say: ‘This is some rap I like because the lyrical content is different, more positive.’ With Gang Starr, it’s always a little different because I'm talking one on one with urban youth. With Jazzmatazz, I’m talking to generations together. I’m talking to my uncles and my cousins, and moms and dads, and I’m creating some unity by including all of them.”

JOHN TAITE