Step In The Arena – Gang Starr – Released on Chrysalis Records, February 15th 1991
Released in 1991, Step In The Arena was the second album by Gang Starr, following their breakout debut, No More Mr. Nice Guy.
At the controls once again was DJ Premier, who remains one of my favourite hiphop producers, alongside Guru, the wise and inspirational frontman who, unfortunately, passed in 2010.
Gang Starr enjoyed a unique place in the history of hiphop and as the name suggests, they represented street life, yet never missed an opportunity to shine.
Theirs was a style of elevated street poetry, representing not just hiphop culture but the full breadth of black culture.
While other crews merely sampled old jazz records, Gang Star took pains to educate young listeners on who those jazz greats were and why they still mattered.
And while it was common for their peers to highlight the problems faced by the black community, Guru was always one step ahead, having already meditated upon such matters before devising his solutions.
He would then outline his strategy succinctly over Premier’s dope beats, illuminating the path forward though the use of stellar metaphors.
As a result, Gang Starr got labelled as “conscious rap”, which has to be one of the most retarded genre names of all time – as though all other forms of hiphop are comatose.
Argh… struggling not to go off on a rant here but that’s not what we’re here for, we’re here to celebrate one of the greatest hiphop duos of all time, and an 18-track album that’s packed with classic jams that celebrates its 33rd birthday today.
Step Up, Step, Step Up, Step Up…
The album begins with Name Tag (Premier & The Guru), a short instrumental before the title track, Step In The Arena sets the tone as we get our first taste of the Guru flowing effortlessly over Premier’s jazzy beats.
These jazzy vibes continue on Form Of Intellect, which sees Premier sampling Maceo Parker while Execution Of A Chump (blatantly) borrows the beat from the Pointer Sisters’ Don’t It Drive You Crazy.
On to track five, Who’s Gonna Take The Weight? Once again, we have a sample from Maceo Parker, but what I really love about this track is that loopy high-pitched whine that rides over the top. Very much of its time and quite reminiscent of Public Enemy in that respect, but that’s a good thing.
Beyond Comprehension is a slow jam based around a sample from The Band and is packed with cryptic yet profound lines, “like planets in orbit, we ride the life cycle.”
Check The Technique features a blatant sample of California Soul by Marlena Shaw, looped and spliced over rough percussion.
This sample’s been used many more times since so it’s probably familiar to many of you, but Premier was the first it use it and he utilised it best.
See, the thing with longshot samples like this is that you need to bring something extra to augment it, otherwise it falls flat. Course Gang Starr never have this problem.
Premier will always put his stamp on any tune he uses, however familiar or obscure, while Guru never fails to elevate every track he rhymes on through sheer skill and charisma.
Guru’s name stands for “Gifted, Unlimited, Rhymes Universal.”
But of all his rhymes, there’s none more universal than Lovesick.
From musings on the gangster lifestyle to eloquent dissertations on the philosophy of jazz, it’s fair to say that Guru exhibits a far wider scope of topics than most rappers.
Which invariably means that much of it doesn’t always necessarily resonate with his audience. But you don’t need to have grown up in one of the five boroughs dodging stick up kids to feel Lovesick.
Because Lovesick’s truly universal.
It’s all about relationships and the invariable arguments that come with it. All those misunderstandings, communication issues, trust issues and insecurities…
You’ll recognise it all once you hear this track.
Lovesick is another album highlight and one of Guru’s finest moments, in my opinion, while Premier’s on point as always, snatching the perfect beat from The Delfonics, with additional elements via The Ohio Players.
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow, sits on top of a bouncy Billy Cobham beat and comes in at just over two minutes. It’s followed by a short instrumental track called Game Plan, just a sampled loop which, I was surprised to later learn, is actually from a Tom Jones live album. (You can actually hear a loop of Tom laughing in this track.)
Next comes Take A Rest. I love this beat, proper old skool. Raw one moment and funky the next, drawing on multiple sources and all blended together with skill while Guru delivers lines, “arranged by a great brain, delivering rhymes clear and concise with a nice dope voice.”
My sentiments exactly.
Track 12, What You Want This Time?, is all about the various ladies chasing after the Guru – poor fella, must be very stressful for him.
Street Ministry is another short instrumental and features another sample from Billy Cobham before we get to my favourite track of the album, and the one which was my first true introduction to the group, Just To Get A Rep.
Just To Get A Rep samples EVA by Jean Jacques Perry. In the mid to late 90s (I forget exactly when) EVA was also used on an ad for Lucosade causing us to go, “hey, it’s Gang Starr!”
The EVA sample makes this one of my all-time favourite Premier beats. It’s also one of Guru’s career highlights also, as one of the best pieces of storytelling to be found anywhere in hiphop.
It’s all about young stick-up kids going over the top with the violence “just to get a rep.”
Say Your Prayers is a short (not even a minute and a half long) sermon from the Guru over a loop via the Blackbyrds.
It’s followed by As I Read My S-A which, again, is just classic Guru; “forming a poetic mass over pathetic trash, other writers are outclassed, surpassed by the words and the wit.”
The penultimate track is called Precisely The Right Rhymes, which is exactly what Guru always delivers. It’s fair to say that his rhymes only got better with time, as his flow became more pristine with subsequent releases.
The album finishes with The Meaning Of The Name, yet another jazz-infused beat where Guru explains the meaning of the name Gang Starr and what the group represents.
Gang represents my boys or a posse, so just back up off me
And the Starr symbolizes the power, making the suckers and weak brothers cower
– Guru, The Meaning Of The Name
Indeed
The Music Is Picked Right, The Mic Is Gripped Tight
It’s easy to forget how ahead of the game Step In The Arena sounded on release.
Keep in mind this dropped right at the beginning of 1991 and was recorded in 1990, during MC Hammer’s heyday.
Yeah that’s right, we’re talking MC Hammer and Vanilla fucking Ice. This is what mainstream radio was playing at the time and what the majority of the world thought was rap music.
But even if you listen back to the true hiphop stars of the time, like Run DMC, Public Enemy, Eric B and Rakim, you’ll notice how comparatively stilted and often staccato the delivery is, while the lyrics mainly comprise of rhyming couplets.
But Guru’s lyrics were far more complex, with multiple rhymes connecting at different moments.
Similarly, the full meaning would often only take shape after the entire verse was delivered, while repeat listens would join even more cranial dots helping you to gain ever deeper insights.
This is the essence of the Guru.
A lyrical puzzle unfolding itself gradually, meanings within meanings, equal parts illuminating and entertaining.
Two albums in and he’s already got it down, but subsequent releases would refine that flow further.
Premier, likewise, earned his place alongside the best hiphop producers with an innate ability to not merely sample a record, but to unleash its core essence in new, unforeseen ways.
He could take a long brazen loop that others would be too nervous to touch, or a tiny, imperceptible slice, chopping it up even finer, before rearranging those microsamples into something truly special.
The blueprint already existed by this second album but the best was yet to come.
1992’s Daily Operation, their next album on Chrysalis and third album overall, would see the pair truly hitting their stride to become one of the best double acts in the history of hiphop.