Gang Starr: Hard To Earn (2LP) [HIP-O]

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set gives DJ Premier's beats room across four sides. Hard to Earn carried "Mass Appeal," the duo's first Billboard Hot 100 single, plus "DWYCK" with Nice & Smooth and "Code of the Streets."

This edition

• 2LP set
• Stereo mix

About the album

The back cover puts it plainly: DJ Premier on the wheels of steel, Guru on the mic. By 1994 that division of labour was the gold standard in East Coast hip hop, and Hard to Earn is the pair at full strength, gritty and stripped down after the jazzier sound of their earlier records.

Premier's beats are built on chopped samples and hard-hitting drums, and Guru's calm, steady voice rides them perfectly. "Mass Appeal" is a hypnotic, sly jab at commercial rap, "Code of the Streets" flips "Little Green Apples," and "DWYCK" with Nice & Smooth, first issued as a stand-alone single in 1992, made it on because fans and the label demanded it. Members of the Gang Starr Foundation, Jeru the Damaja, Group Home and Big Shug, step up on "Speak Ya Clout" and elsewhere, and "Now You're Mine" first turned up on the White Men Can't Rap soundtrack.

The album set the stage for Premier's work with Group Home and Jeru, and "Mass Appeal" later found a new audience on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4. Guru famously had one of the most soothing voices in rap, which is a strange thing to say about a record called Hard to Earn, but there it is.

Also at Kops: more Gang Starr on vinyl · browse Hip Hop / R&B

Tracklist

Listen

On Chrysalis / Virgin / Hip-O (cat# B0021741-01), a reissue of the 1994 album.