Guru - Jazzmatazz Streetsoul, Vol. 3 (2000) ***GANG STARR***

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01. Intro
02. Keep Your Worries (Feat. Angie Stone)
03. Hustlin' Daze (Feat. Donnell Jones)
04. All I Said (Feat. Macy Gray)
05. Certified (Feat. Bilal and Slum Village)
06. Plenty (Feat. Erykah Badu)
07. Lift Your Fist (Feat. The Roots)
08. Guidance (Feat. Amel Larrieaux)
09. Interlude
10. Supa Love (Feat. Kelis)
11. No More (Feat. Craig David)
12. Where's My Ladies? (Feat. Big Shug)
13. Night Vision (Feat. Isaac Hayes)
14. Who's There? (Feat. Les Nubians)
15. Mashin' Up The World (Feat. JR Reid)
16. Timeless (Feat. Herbie Hancock)

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Give Guru credit for knowing how to surround himself with great talent. It's a fact that has guided his career from the early days of Gang Starr, the group he formed with one of the greatest hip-hop producers of all time, DJ Premier, to his solo Jazzmatazz albums, recorded with a host of jazz legends including Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd, Freddie Hubbard, and Branford Marsalis. This third volume in Guru's Jazzmatazz series came not only after a five-year break, but at a time when the notion of jazz-rap was almost as antiquated as the '70s jazz-funk sound it helped resurrect back in the late '80s. Guru undoubtedly realized this, so instead of focusing strictly on jazz this time out, he made Streetsoul more of a roots album. With all the great contemporary R&B talent on display, though, any jazz-rap fans still left could hardly be annoyed with Guru's shift in focus from jazz to soul. A trinity of late-'90s soul divas, Macy Gray, Erykah Badu, and Kelis, each have features, and the swing-to-urban production behind Badu's contribution frames her vocal excellently. DJ Premier also shows up, contributing his usual excellent trackmaster skills to "Hustlin' Daze," with vocals by Donell Jones. Fellow rapcentrics the Roots make an appearance on the fight-for-your-right anthem "Lift Your Fist," and Guru inserts two pioneer tracks, Herbie Hancock's "Timeless" and Isaac Hayes' "Night Vision" near the end.

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mp3 @ VBR / Lame 3.98 / Avg. 210 kbps / 93,7 mb

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Guru - Jazzmatazz Volume II: The New Reality (1995)**GANG STARR**

Click The Picture Above To Enlarge

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01. Light It Up (Intro)/New Reality Style

02. Life Saver

03. Living in This World

04. Looking Through Darkness

05. Watch What You Say

06. Defining Purpose

07. For You

08. Medicine

09. Lost Souls

10. Nobody Knows (The Real Deal)

11. Hip Hop as a Way of Life

12. Respect the Architect

13. Feel the Music

14. Young Ladies

15. The Traveler

16. Maintaining Focus

17. Count Your Blessings

18. Choice of Weapons

19. Something in the Past

20. Revelation (Alot on My Mind)

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The follow-up to the heavily acclaimed Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1. This album might not have quite as much jazz-rap power as the first volume did, but it's still quite good. Some of the big guns of jazz found their way into the album, including Branford Marsalis (who, of course, had already experimented with urban beats a bit with his Buckshot Lefonque project), Freddie Hubbard, Ramsey Lewis, and Kenny Garrett. Underground rapper Kool Keith (at this point still a member of the Ultramagnetics) also makes an appearance. Dancehall reggae princess Patra is included on a track, as are Chaka Khan and Me'Shell N'Degeocello; Jamiroquai helps out in another. In some ways, the personnel on this album may be slightly superior to the first outing, but the music also seems a tiny bit blander. Still, what makes the Jazzmatazz albums special is the live synthesis of jazz and rap. With Guru's vocals over the top of live jazz performers (as opposed the usual samples), interplay is facilitated between the two, and thus a whole new dimension is added to the fusion. For someone interested in jazz-rap in general, the first album is a higher priority (as would be Us3's albums, with extensive Blue Note sampling), but this album is still high on the list.

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mp3 @ VBR / Lame 3.98 / Joint Stereo / 100 mb

(( AVERAGE: 189 kbps ))

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Click On The Arrow To DL

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Guru - Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1 (1993) **GANG STARR**

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1 - Introduction (1:20)

2 - Loungin' (4:38)

3 - When You're Near (4:02)

4 - Transit Ride (3:58)

5 - No Time To Play (4:54)

6 - Down The Backstreets (4:47)

7 - Respectful Dedications (0:54)

8 - Take A Look (At Yourself) (3:59)

9 - Trust Me (4:27)

10 - Slicker Than Most (2:36)

11 - Le Bien, Le Mal (Feat. Mc Solaar) (3:21)

12 - Sights In The City (5:10)

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After rhyming over Premier's doctored jazz beats in Gang Starr, Guru decided to take it to the next level, employing the talents of actual jazz musicians to create the grooves over which he would flow. Coming off like a jazzier extension of the Brand New Heavies' Heavy Rhyme Experience: Vol. 1, Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1 brought together a diverse group of jazz cats both old-school and new, including Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd, Lonnie Liston Smith, Ronny Jordan, and Courtney Pine. Guru even enlisted the serene pipes of Carleen Anderson and N'Dea Davenport and acted as something of an international hip-hop ambassador when he flipped "Le Bien, Le Mal" with French mic pro MC Solaar. From the Blue Note-style cover art to the hepcat spoken-word intro, this package is pure hip-hop jazz music. Jazz purists may wish to note that the grooves lean heavily toward the funkier 1970s era of jazz, and hardcore hip-hop heads my be turned off by the mellower musical stance. But then again, this is neither pure jazz nor hardcore hip-hop but rather an extension of the two.

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