Guru

Guru
a.k.a. Keith Elam

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A JAZZ THING
With Streetsoul, Gang Starr Frontman Guru Continues His Hip-Hop Fusion Movement
With a little help from Erykah Badu, Macy Gray, and others, Gang Starr's gruff MC Guru (Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal) continues to broaden his hip-hop vision. Streetsoul picks up where the rapper's acid-jazz forays left off five years back, but whereas prior Jazzmatazz discs paired hip-hoppers and be-boppers, this latest incarnation tips the balance toward R&B veterans and the latest crop of neo-soul strivers. Angie Stone, Donell Jones, and French sister act Les Nubians join Badu and Gray alongside legends such as Isaac Hayes and Herbie Hancock. B&N.com Rap/R&B editor Tracy E. Hopkins caught up with Guru in New York City, where the MC waxed poetic on his favorite jazz and hip-hop artists and on the evolution of all that Jazzmatazz.

Barnes & Noble.com: It's been five years since you did the last Jazzmatazz album. What took you so long?

Guru: Well, Jazzmatazz is a concept that I knew was going to be timeless. I could do it 20 years from now and not even perform on the records anymore -- I could just be the executive producer. So I knew that I was going to do another one, but I didn't know when. Since 1995, however, I felt that there was a void in the music that was coming out, and I wanted to help fill the gap. Also, the last two Gang Starr records, which were released on Virgin Records, were our most successful records. So I decided to release Streetsoul on Virgin as well.

B&N.com: How has the Jazzmatazz project evolved?

Guru: The first two Jazzmatazz discs were an experimental extension of my work with Gang Starr. Gang Starr came into hip-hop at a time when everyone was sampling James Brown, but people like DJ Premier, Q-Tip, and Pete Rock blended jazz records with hip-hop beats to create a new form of hip-hop. Then when Gang Starr did the song "Jazz Thing" with Branford Marsalis for the soundtrack to Spike Lee's Mo Better Blues, we had the chance to tour and see how people overseas view hip-hop. They look at the music we do as a merit to our society.

B&N.com: What are the similarities between Streetsoul and the previous Jazzmatazz projects?

Guru: Jazzmatazz itself represents spontaneous collaboration. So on every Jazzmatazz project, I write the lyrics in the studio -- very much vibing on the spot. The other similarity is that they all have different generations represented. This time I have young guys such as Bilal and Craig David, and I also collaborated with legends Herbie Hancock and Isaac Hayes.

B&N.com: What are the differences?

Guru: A couple of the critics of this album have commented, "Well, there's no jazz." First of all, I never said there was going to be [jazz], because the album is called Streetsoul. Jazzmatazz itself represents a style of music, a style of thought, and an attitude -- not necessarily music with jazz. There's a jazzy attitude and a jazzy format to the way the tracks were put together because of the level of improvisation and the spontaneous collaboration. That's what Jazzmatazz is. So the concept behind Streetsoul is "street" -- meaning hip-hop -- and "soul" -- meaning black music. From now on, every Jazzmatazz record is going to have a theme.

B&N.com: On Streetsoul you worked with a host of big names. Was it difficult assembling such a stellar lineup?

Guru: This album could really be called Guru and Friends. These are people I met during industry events, while working at the same studio, staying at the same hotel, friends of friends, and so forth. You can't put a monetary value on the good feeling you get when an artist whose music you're a fan of tells you that they appreciate your music too. This project was a real mutual admiration society. It wasn't really hard to get artists involved -- the hardest part was scheduling.

B&N.com: How did you overcome scheduling difficulties?

Guru: I put together a team, and we scheduled everything. It took about ten months to complete the whole thing. But what really made everything come together was my willingness to go to each person's environment -- that way they felt more comfortable and gave even more creativity to the project. I went to Dallas to work with Erykah; I went to Philly to work with the Roots; and I went to Virginia to work with the Neptunes to get beats for the Kelis and Macy Gray tracks. With Angie Stone, I sent the track to her while she was on the road. Basically, I lived out of a suitcase.

B&N.com: Do you take the same improvisational writing approach to Gang Starr projects?

Guru: No, Gang Starr is different. DJ Premier is sending me beats while I'm on the road, and I'm going to write to him. With Gang Starr, we start with titles and beats, and we match the titles to the beats. I'll give him a list of 20, sometimes 30 song titles, and we just break them all down. With Gang Starr, I speak lyrically for myself and for Premier.

B&N.com: When did you start listening to jazz?

Guru: I was about 14 or 15. I'm an old-schooler, so I was into people such as Funkadelic and Cameo. But when I used to go to my godfather's house -- he was a high school principal and a jazz buff -- he used to make me sit in front of these big speakers and listen to Charlie Parker, Betty Carter, Ella Fitzgerald, Sonny Rollins, and Ornette Coleman. He would say, "This is real music. That stuff you listen to is all right, but this is real music." I used to laugh, but it stuck with me. And then when I went to Morehouse College in Atlanta, I got into Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd, Bobbi Humphrey, and Ramsey Lewis.

B&N.com: If you had to compare yourself to a jazz musician, who would it be?

Guru: Probably Miles Davis or Herbie Hancock, because they both experimented with fusion.

B&N.com: Your lyrics have always been pretty positive, but with the popularity of artists like Mos Def, "conscious rap" seems to be making a comeback.

Guru: Well, for me it never went out of style because I have passed through every era and still kept a message -- and that's hard to do. But I think that more positive rap is coming back because people get tired of hearing the same thing. And when you have incredible skills like Mos Def and Common and a good label behind the music, you're gonna have results. In hip-hop, whatever they put money behind is what's gonna sell.

B&N.com: What artists are you currently listening to?

Guru: Well, those guys that you mentioned (Mos Def, the Roots, Common). I like Pharoahe Monch, too. In a different style, I like Xzibit, Eminem, and Snoop. Snoop is the man. I admire cats who've held it down a long time such as LL, Scarface, and Ice Cube. Those guys have been around as long as, if not longer, than me -- so that's inspirational. I'm also feelin' Big L, OutKast, Cam'ron, and M.O.P. Jay-Z and Nas are dope -- they make rappin' look easy. [Pulls out his Cd case]. Let me see. Oh, I love Jill Scott! I want to work with her. As a producer, I like what Jermaine Dupri does. He should be remembered as one of the top ten producers of all time because he mixes things up between hip-hop and R&B. Now he has Lil' Bow Wow blowing up the way he had Kris Kross blowing up. I look up at the entrepreneurs like Cash Money and Ruff Ryders. I admire how these guys moved units independently by having their whole neighborhood support them, then they got big record deals. Boy, if I had known about doing that, I'd be a rich man right now. But I'm not a hater, I'm a congratulator.

B&N.com: What gets you excited about hip-hop?

Guru: New beats, new rhymes, new styles, new opinions, and new slang. Hip-hop has become very regional. Who would have guessed that a guy from St. Louis (Nelly) could sell three million albums? Now it's wide open. Before [younger cats] used to want to be like us. Now they're rhyming about their own issues in their own language.

B&N.com: What jazz records would you recommend to someone new to jazz?

Guru: John Coltrane's My Favorite Things; Roy Ayers Ubiquity's Everybody Loves the Sunshine ; Ramsey Lewis's Sun Goddess; and anything by Charlie Parker.

B&N.com: What's next for you?

Guru: After I promote this album, I'm going to do another Gang Starr record with Premier. So look out for that one around fall 2001.

October 6, 2000