There's a time in every hip-hop listener's life when they first hear a classic turn of phrase: the first "No shame in my game" or their virgin "yo, flip the script." There's a time when every pot-smoker first throws on a track that indicates to him he should "take two and pass." Now, if all three of these happened while someone was also experiencing pure New York Grit-Hop, straight out of Brooklyn, and it all went down back in 1992, it's because said listener was listening to DJ Premier and Guru's masterpiece of turntables and a microphone, Daily Operation. (Hey Beck. Fuck You.) Regardless of the hints of criminology, Gang Starr have always been the kings of the working man's hip-hop, the form of rap shorn of DMC style-antics, PE style-politics and Dre style-comedics: a pure, undistilled form of bass, vinyl and gravel-velvet vocals. If the Full Clip compilation ain't convinced the 'heads that Daily Operation was/is/forever shall be the best Gang Starr album ever, than it's because 'heads be lying. Innovation doesn't always come in the forms of beeps, whistles and theremins: sometimes innovation means you do what you do best, and you do it better than anyone else.
-Tucker Stone, 2006
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