Gang Starr's Best Album

Gang Starr is one of the most respected Rap groups of all time. The duo of Guru (The MC) and Premier (The DJ) is incredible. Guru is a highly skilled and insightful rapper and Premier is possibly the best Hip Hop producer ever. Put these two together and you get one of the best groups Rap has ever seen. Now in my opinion, this is Gang Starr's dopest album. And believe me, Gang Starr has released more then one dope album. Actually, every album the duo has released is dope. From "No More Mr. Nice Guy" up to "The Ownerz", everything Gang Starr has released is ill.

Okay now on to the album. After a little intro, the first track is "The Place Where We Dwell". Premo provides a nice little instrumental and Guru rhymes over it and talks about his home, Brooklyn, New York. He just basically talks about it and gives it props. It's a very nice track. One of my favorite Gang Starr track of all time. The next track "Flip The Script" is more of a battle song where Guru flexes his microphone skills and shows off his nice battle skills. Great track and Premo provides another nice beat. The next track is "Ex Girl To Next Girl", a song about Guru's relationships with some good looking girls gone bad. Guru basically ends each verse with "But now you my ex' girl cuz' I'm out with the next girl". Premo provides an extremely nice, jazzy beat and Guru flows over it very well.

Now the next track, "Soliloquy Of Chaos" is a story-telling track. The beat is extremely good and Guru's lyrics are top notch. The track is arguably the best of the album. Guru talks about the murder of an innocent fan in one of his shows. It's one of the best story telling tracks I've ever heard in Hip Hop. The next track is "I'm The Man" featuring Lil' Dap from Group Home and Jeru The Damaja. Each MC gets an individual beat. It's basically a track where each MC shows off their mic' skills. Guru is first and drops a dope verse and Premo gives him a dope beat. Lil Dap' drops a nice verse but not as good as Guru's. Now on to Jeru's verse.....he KILLS the track. Premo gave Jeru the best beat of the song and Jeru ripped up the mic. Jeru was the man of this track, in my opinion. He stole the show.

Now after a little interlude, we move on to the stand out track of the album, "Take It Personal". Premo provides a very dark beat, possibly the best of the album. In this track, Guru let's someone know that he's angry. Clever lyrics. In "2 Deep", it's mostly clever battle raps Guru spits out. Guru is at his peak here. Premier gives an excellent beat, as usual. "24/7" is just a 24 second track with a dope, jazzy beat and nothing else. After "24-7", Gang Starr gives us another classic track in "No Shame In My Game" where Guru spits some more battle raps over yet another dope Premo beat, he get's deep on "Conspiracy". It's a very serious track where Guru talks about discrimination and racism against African Americans, the government, education. This is a very serious track. The beat is very good but the lyricism of Guru in this track is incredible, in my opinion. Possibly the best track of the album.

"The Illest Brother" is another track where Guru flexes his mic skills and his lyrical ability. Premier gives another nice, old school, jazzy beat. It's a very solid track. "The Hardcore Composer" is just more of Guru's battle rap's. The beat is again a very good one and very old school too. "B.Y.S" is a very nice song with more battle rap's from Guru but the beat Premo provides is extremely nice. The last few track's have been Guru flexing his mic skills over dope Premier beats. By the way, "B.Y.S" stands for "Bust Your Sh*t". The next track is more typical Gang Starr. More intelligent battle raps from the cocky Guru and yet another ill beat from DJ Premier. In the next track, "Take Two To Pass", Guru actually talks about smoking weed. Actually, the whole song is about smoking. It's probably the most laid back track on the album. The lyrics are clever too and Premier gives a nice laid back beat. The final track of the album is "Stay Tuned" which is more bragging from Guru about Gang Starr. It's actually a nice set up for the next album, which was "Hard To Earn". A great finish to a great album.

If you liked albums like "Illmatic" By Nas, "The Sun Rises On The East" by Jeru The Damaja, you'll definitely like this classic by Gang Starr. Again, this was their best album, in my opinion. Guru, lyrically is at the peak of his career. The tracks that stand out are the following: "Take It Personal", "2 Deep", "Conspiracy", "I'm The Man" and "Soliloquy Of Chaos".

1. Intro (Not Rated)
2. Place Where We Dwell (10/10)
3. Flip The Script (8/10)
4. Ex Girl To Next Girl (10/10)
5. Soliloquy Of Chaos (10/10)
6. I'm The Man Feat. Lil' Dap and Jeru The Damaja (10/10)
7. 92 Interlude (Not Rated)
8. Take It Personal (10/10)
9. 2 Deep (10/10)
10. 24/7 (Not Rated
11. No Shame In My Game (9/10)
12. Conspiracy (10/10)
13. The Illest Brother (9/10)
14. The Hardcore Composer (8/10)
15. B.Y.S (Bust Your Sh*t) (10/10)
16. Much Too Much (9/10)
17. Take Two To Pass (9/10)
18. Stay Tuned (9/10)