Album: One of the Best Yet
Artist: Gang Starr
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Record label(s): Gang Starr Enterprises
Recommended Tracks: Track 8 – Family & Loyalty (ft. J. Cole) Track 16- Bless the Mic
Gang Starr was a hip-hop/rap duo originating from Boston. Gang Starr consists of two members, MC Guru & DJ Premier. However the late MC Guru passed away at the age of 48 in 2010. The group is now being continued on single handedly by DJ Premier. Gang Starr had their peak of fame and popular mostly from 1989 to 2003. Their most popular songs at the time were, “Mass Appeal” & “Above the Clouds”. This is the first album dropped from Gang Starr since the death of one of their members. They’re known as one of the best producer & MC duos in rap history. I would give this album a 7/10 because I really liked the old school instrumentals but felt like less features and different flows would’ve really made it stand out even more.
“Family and Loyalty” is the eight track off of “One of the Best Yet”. It is also one of the best tracks on the entire album. It brings in that old school hip-hop vibe with DJ Premier’s MC’ing voice in the background, giving you a real 90’s type of vibe. Also, with the album being Gang Starr’s first album in a while it add that spice of new school music with the touch of J Cole onto the track. If you’re more of a person with that old school and new school music then you’ll definitely love this song.
“Bless the Mic” is the last song on the album and acknowledges a real shift in hip-hop in music as some would call, “back in the day” to the way it is now. It’s a good track for an iconic person in the rap industry to actually show how they’re acknowledging things in the industry isn’t the same as before but how they’re willing to adjust to it. With this track adjustment is made by throwing in little hints of the beat to appeal to a younger audience than they’re old fans as back in the day.
Gang Starr uses this album to voice that they haven’t fully gone away even if it’s only one of them left. For the most part the album held a collective of more old school hip-hop/rap instrumentals compared to the sound you hear more today. And that’s totally fine as a lot of younger adults in our generation also prefer older music than the music nowadays. If you like listening to old school and like the new sounds I would recommend this album for you. Also, other artist I would recommend would be a Bone, Thugs N Harmony, Nas, and Fabolous. They also carry that really nice old school musical vibe.
