By Odeisel

A year ago, Hip-Hop lost one of its greatest contributors in Keith “Guru” Elam to cancer. When you consider that DJ Premier doesn’t rap, there aren’t many rap artists whose stand up to Guru. 2011 is the 20^th anniversary of Step In The Arena, the album that took Gang Starr from one and done to a legitimate force in Hip-Hop for years to come. The production began the run of immaculate soundscaping that typified the prototypical Gang Starr album.

The album opens with an introductory “Name Tag,” with a simple refrain over a spiraling piano, “My DJ’s name is Premier and I’m the Guru,” leading to “Step In the Arena.” The song features Primo’s signature high-pitch scratching and frantic jazz horns over the main bassline.

KRS-ONE’s voice is summoned next on “Form Of Intellect” as Guru notes, “When the road is too steep, do you have the stamina/First album took us two weeks, since then we have been planning an exclusive attraction, conducive to your satisfaction,” letting you know how much more went into this project. You start to get a feel for Guru’s hood intelligence as he weaves a tale of a sucker who tried to play him on “Execution of a Chump (No more Mr. Nice Guy).” Primo gets subtle, sneaking a piano run beneath the bassline for the hook for emphasis during the verse.

Primo’s penchant for noise takes center stage on the classic “Who’s Gonna Take The Weight,” while Guru exhorts the community to solve its own ills. “Can we be the soul controllers of our fate,” he asks in the midst of a sonic maelstrom scratched to the point of pleasant obnoxia by DJ Premier. Kool & The Gang’s “Who’s Gonna Take The Weight,” also used on Tribe’s “Oh My God” is sneakily chopped to pieces on this, while Maceo Parker’s “Party” forms the body and LL Cool J’s vocal from “To Da Break A Dawn” forms the hook.

The hazy, plodding intro of “Beyond Comprehension” gives way to a guitar riff sample to which Guru attaches an off-balanced ill flow that blends perfectly. The song serves as short respite from the high-powered noise heavy tracks. “Check The Technique” flaunts booming drums and lofty strings that fight for supremacy throughout the track. “Love Sick” tells the tale of a doomed relationship, handled with an earnest and adult delivery, absent the juvenile dismissal or the whiny bitch fests that these songs can become.

Guru speaks to the bullshit of the industry and how lesser talented artists find themselves selling out in order to get signed on “We’re Today, Gone Tomorrow.” The title speaks to the brevity of careers based on that mechanism. Biz Markie and Chuck D are drafted vocally on the hook. “Take A Rest,” with its blaring brass and “Rapper’s Delight” reference stands as one of the gems of the album with pace-switching bridges and perfectly crafted urgency complementing Guru’s methodical delivery. The beat contains no less than seven samples from groups as varied as Kool & the Gang, Marvin Gaye, The Meters, and BDP.

“What You Want This Time” finds Guru dismissing the groupies trying to attach themselves to his rising star. No misogyny included as Guru deflects the skeezers for the sake of is music. “Street Ministry” gets the album back on track as the Gifted Unlimited drops a short and sweet narrative of his rhymes as missive to the masses. The immortal stickup kid narrative “Just To Get A Rep” follows with its bubbly foundation and bassline; serving as a warning to those walking the streets to respect the jux (watch your ass for the hood impaired).

“Say Your Prayers” is a slow-sizzling memo to respect life and to fortify yourself with believe in the higher power that segues into the Primo scratch-fest “As I Read My S-A,” the mission statement of Gang Starr. “Precisely the Right Rhymes” is a tough, deftly handled composition with a funk guitar, turntable tightrope walking, and muffled hard drums. The album closes with its summation “The Meaning of the Name.” An energized Guru hard charges through a high-hat heavy  track with a brooding bass atop a sparse piano, intent to let anyone who missed the debut or who didn’t get what Gangstarr is about, know what time it is.

Step in The Arena is beautifully crafted leap in evolution for a group that evolved beyond James Brown loops to boil Jazz, funk, soul music and other genres into their cauldron while paying homage to some of Hip-Hop’s biggest names, blending the past and the (then) present into compelling testimony for Hip-Hop’s legitimacy. Guru can rest knowing that if Gang Starr went no further, his legacy was already assured.

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