The Archive

Hand picked records important to the history of Soul Strut.

Gang Starr - Hard To Earn

  • Gang Starr

    Hard To Earn LP (1993)

    Chrysalis

Ranked #82 in the Soul Strut 200

Gang Starr is a group that has been enshrined on Soul Strut as hip hop gods.  DJ Premiere and Guru churned out intelligent and innovative sample based hip hop throughout the 90s.  For sample spotters, the much spun "Mass Appeal" from their fourth studio album Hard to Earn caused concern and controversy in the early 00s. The email list serve called "The Crates" was the precursor to the Soul Strut message board.  It became evident after many emails on the subject that it became a life mission for some crate diggers to find out where the 3 second funky Rhodes loop originated.  After the the Crates List dissolved in 2001, there was a mass migration here and with it came the great "Mass Appeal" sample mystery.  Was it a Brian Auger record?  Was it Bob James?  No.  It was Vic Juris.  A Soul Strut board member from Scandinavia disclosed that it was on a track called "Horizon Drive" (3:29 mark) off a snoozy early 80s smooth jazz LP on the questionable Muse label. The genius of DJ Premiere was solidified and a 7 year mystery solved.


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