Also, how would you rank them?

6. Premier & The Guru
5. Put Up or Shut Up
4. Step in the Arena
3. You Know My Steez
2. The Place Where We Dwell
1. ALONGWAYTOGO

Poll question: What's the best opening track on a Gang Starr LP?

Poll result (30 votes) Premier & The Guru (1 votes) Vote Step in the Arena (3 votes) Vote The Place Where We Dwell (4 votes) Vote ALONGWAYTOGO (8 votes) Vote You Know My Steez (13 votes) Vote Put Up or Shut Up (1 votes) Vote

Soon as that opening interview comes on I'm like ohhhh shit here we go.

That beat is absolutely ludicrous.

now here's a funky introduction....... na na na, now here's a fun fun funky, fu fu funky......


werd.

They'll be days I run it back 5 times or so before the song goes

>now here's a funky introduction....... na na na, now here's a
>fun fun funky, fu fu funky......
>
>
>werd.


__
I don't like the beat anymore because its just a loop. ALC didn't FLIP IT ENOUGH!

Flip it enough? Flip these. Flip off. Go flip some f*cking burgers.(c)Kno

Allied State of the National Electric Beat Treaty Organization (NEBTO)

stands in this line. the feel, the mood (even though GURU was drunk when he recorded), perfect set up for how the rest was going to go. I play that album to this day.

And while it's not the second best...Put Up Or Shut Up is dope

.

ALONGWAYTOGO presents the album a bit better, but "Steez" is so magnificent that it really brings you out on a high. It's also the lead single, so there's that. Steez is great wherever it would have been sequenced.

The "I just 'em a pound, tell them my name, and I'm out" intro into "ALONGWAYTOGO" is pretty much the perfect way to start an album, even though "You My Steez" is one of the best songs Gang Starr ever recorded.

...."MOT" dropped in April 98, "Steez" had already been out since November of 97 (mixshows were playing it in October 97) ...So when i finally got the NEW Gang Star LP, do you think i'm going to sit through the same song i've been listening to for the past 6 months???? FUCK no, i'm skipping that shit and going right to this new "Robin Hood Theory" joint


...so yeah, as dope as Steez is, it was SKIPPED for a while ..today it works, but when it dropped?? Nah

...it's like if Enta the Stage started with "Who got the Props", or Midnight Marauders started with "Award Tour" ..or Livin Proof Starting with "Livin Proof" ...just doesn't work for me

now if you lived under a rock and it was your first time hearing "Steez" well thats a different experience.. but that shit charted decently on billboard months before the LP dropped.. shit was old lol

In fact, I've used both "Steez" and "ALONGWAYTOGO" as lead-off songs on "Best of Gang Starr..." mixtapes that I've made over the years.

Or, if one were to, say, make a "Best of 1997" mixtape (cough, cough), "Steez" would be a great choice for a lead-off song.

>Or, if one were to, say, make a "Best of 1997" mixtape (cough, cough)

It's largely made up of verses/lyrics that Guru used on House of Pain's "Fed Up" remix, which dropped about a year earlier.

Yeah, I get it that no one heard or remembered that third House of Pain album, and "Steez" is >>>>>> "Fed Up" remix as song, but it's always stuck in my craw. I always feel some sort of way when an MC re-uses lyrics from a song that's already been legit released.

So I can kinda see why you'd be miffed. Still, the 3 Men And A Lady remix made up for it

I recall Common using similar lyrics on songs like "Life Goes On" and "Tekzilla," and shit like that. A lot of MCs did it because it wasn't as easy to access these mixtape type songs so hardly anyone noticed or really cared if they did.

An MC reusing whole verses now would get killed on the internet.

Unless the verse was recorded a long time ago, and the original didn't come out...

We didn't find out Nas' great opener from Verbal Intercourse was a recycled verse until the last year or so. The song that the verse was on didn't get released. I remember Inspectah Deck using the same verse on the 2 Wu Based songs on the third Funkmaster Flex mixtape on Loud (I think it was America's Cream Team and Lay Your Hammer Down).

But Fed Up was released not too much earlier than "Steez". If I recall correctly, I think there was a video for this remix. Man, that's just not a good look at all. But, the verse is dope, so it bears repeating. His flow on Steez is much better to me anyway.

If it works, then it works-and sometimes it works better. Deck's verse on Triumph is a prime example.

It's not a problem though. I'd like it more if it was an unreleased record.

I'm pretty sure those verses were used at least 3 times (Mixtape, their album, and that single they did with MJB)

Because, hey, they're unreleased. And if a rapper did a dope verse and it didn't get used/released, then I've got no issue if it gets re-used for another song.

Feel similar about re-using verses that were first on mixtapes. I know 90% of these dudes don't/didn't freestyle back then, and most weren't going to write verses especially for a mixtape that they were seeing little money from.

"Once again ladies and gentleman"

That's arguably their biggest hit.

suckas be comin up to me on some bullshit
talking about they wanna freestyle and shit
breath stickin like a muthafucka...

Whenever I went to Fat Beats it was that rant come to life

I used to fuck to that Hard to Earn intro. I looped up the part at the end where isn't a lot of talking, and filled a tape with it and put in work

I have the track floating around the house somewhere

on any tape player in the house. Probably just leave as is and make another one for the phone. I have the record and don't need to go the pause tape route again.

I may have the digital files somewhere, but between transferring/redoing everything from Amiga to PC I can't remember if I have it in a folder on my server or on a CD.

Now I miss my old Commodore Amiga/AD1012 soundcard setup