Continuing the trend of diversity my opening posts, I give you my favorite Hip-Hop duo of all time: Gang Starr. Gang Starr is as big as it gets as far as underground Hip-Hop. They brought their own style to the east-coast Hip-Hop scene, with many of their songs incorporating jazz samples. DJ Premier is one of the best producers of all time and definitely the most consistent. All of these tracks have such a good grove and Premier isn't afraid to find original samples to exemplify the mood. There are horns in Step In The Arena and Ex Girl To Next Girl to strings in Code Of The Streets and Check The Technique, plus a healthy does of scratching (you know, like a REAL Hip-Hop DJ). What will make or break this album is Guru. He has a monotone style of delivery, which he admits. This apparently bothers some people, of which I am obviously not a part of. Regardless of his voice, Guru's lines are just sick. My roommate, you is a huge "punker" loves his lines. Together these two men have crafted some fine Hip-Hop. This is a best of album that samples from most of their albums and is a good starting point for this group, or 90's Hip-Hop in general. It is missing some essential songs of theirs, like Work and You Know My Steez so check out their actual studio albums if you dig their stuff.

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