ThaFormula.com - What is it like touring in Europe and what kind of love does Gang Starr receive out there?

Guru - Europe has always been great for Gangstarr. Over there I run into groups like The Alkaholiks. A lot of quote unquote "underground" groups do well over there. It's a good market to tap into as far as keepin' your head above water financially, because if you don't get a lot of radio play in the states your not gonna be a platinum artist and you still gotta eat, so Europe is uh the same as it was for Jazz cats.

ThaFormula.com - Can an artist live off of just Europe alone. Is it that good out there?

Guru - Yep. I mean there is German artists that live off of sales in Germany. Some of those German artists sell a million copies and the same in France and I didn't even go to those countries on my Bald Head Slick Tour because I saved those for the Gangstarr tour.

ThaFormula.com - Do U.S. artists sell good out there too?

Guru - Depends, because a lot of them don't care and they don't go over there to perform. You do as well as the work you put in.

ThaFormula.com - Was the Bald Head Slick album pushed in Europe?

Guru - Yeah, I mean that's why I went and it did about 30,000 copies out there.

ThaFormula.com - So do you feel the artists out here have yet to realize the amount of money that could be made?

Guru - First of all, we been going there since 1990. I'm like the biggest U.S. rapper there. I'm bigger there then I am here. I mean Eminem is big over there and Snoop, but that's because they go over there and do shows.

ThaFormula.com - So how has the Bald Head Slick album done in the U.S.?

Guru - I would say between 80 and 100,000, which is good for an independent artist. Anything over 20,000 is good.

ThaFormula.com - Are you happy with the results of everything that had to do with the album?

Guru - Yeah, it's cool. I didn't do a video so now I will get a fat distribution deal and that's what it's all about.

ThaFormula.com - What made you go to Landspeed?

Guru - Freddy Foxxx actually turned me on to them before his problem with them happened. It's been cool, but it's only a steppin' stone.

ThaFormula.com - Were you happy with the way your album turned out as far as production wise and stuff like that?

Guru - Oh yeah. I mean the album itself shows my expertise as far as Executive Producin'. I spent all my own money. I got Ice T, Treach, Killah Priest, Ed O G, and people that heads wanna still hear that they haven't heard in a while. Then I got Krumb Snatcha and I had him on tour with me in Europe.

ThaFormula.com - When are you planning on dropping his album?

Guru - Next year, and I will be executive producin' that album also. We haven't even started on the album though. He has 2 independent albums that he put out.

ThaFormula.com - Now a lot of people thought that this third Jazzmatazz album was gonna be like the past two as far as being Jazzy?

Guru - I wanted to make a contribution to the soul movement. That's why I called it Street Soul, plus I wanted to let people know that Jazzmatazz does not mean that it's gonna be a Jazz record. It's a hip-hop record. That record should have been double platinum. I had crazy singles on there. The Angie Stone single itself should have been a Gold single. But Virgin screwed that up so I'm dealing with a new label. I only did a one-album deal. Basically the label fumbled the whole project. They have always fumbled Jazzmatazz though, even when I did a more jazzy one.

ThaFormula.com - What do you think has been the problem with marketing the Jazzmatazz series?

Guru - Because it's fusion. They can't figure it out. In New York it always does good though. In Europe it's like I got Gold records and in Europe they understood that this is called Street Soul, so it's not all totally jazzy, except track number 6 that I did with Erykah Badu. It's like a new style of jazz. So even that one track should shut the critics up. That song right there is a whole new style of Jazz.

ThaFormula.com - That was one of my favorites on the album...

Guru - Yeah, if your looking for jazz. My favorite song was the one with Donnell Jones that Premeir did. See my stuff is contemporary. I gotta deal with uh, see you can't just start doin' music or I'm not gonna start doin music just to do some eclectic, happy rhymin'. I don't do that. So even when I do Jazzmatazz, I'm not gonna do something just to please the critics or the people that want Jazz. My life is not like that. I deal with the streets. I'm in the streets everyday and that's why I called it Street Soul and that's why I did it the way I did it because I'm not gonna do something that's not me. I can't be rhymin' about a bunch of happy stuff, and I can't be sittin' there and just do a bunch of straight jazz tracks. I'm not doing that. I got a street audience or a core audience that I got to supply and plus my intent on the album was to bring the Jazzmatazz and Gangstarr audience closer which I succeeded at. Before they used to be separate. So that's the answer to that question.

ThaFormula.com - No doubt, and that is a great thing when you can expand your audience like that...

Guru - Also, the reason why I did Jazzmatazz initially was to protect Gangstarr form the Jazz/Rap label. To me the media caused the death of Biggie and Tupac, and they helped drown many careers in hip-hop because they started labeling groups as gangster rap, as Jazz rap, this and that, political rap, whatever. They ruined Public Enemy and they ruined a lot of Jazz rap groups because of this whole labeling and I knew that if Gangstarr fell under that in '93 when they started doing that, that there wouldn't be any Gangstarr after that. As soon as that Jazz rap thing dies, Gangstarr was gonna die out. So I protected Gangstarr and took it to the next level and I actually went and got the Jazz guys who we sampled. The whole thing is that Gangstarr came into hip-hop in an era that everyone was sampling James Brown and was like, "ok where is hip-hop going next?" People like Premier, Pete Rock, Large Professor, Q Tip and Ali, Diamond D, Showbiz, those guys were DJ's / Producers diggin' in the crates finding Jazz records to sample. Not to create hip-hop Jazz records, but to create hip-hop period. So that just was an era, but then the media started classifying us like that was all we could do and if you notice all those groups that were doing Jazz Rap are outta here. So that was important for me to protect Gangstarr. Because we can take the sound of a toilet flushing and make a Gangstarr track.

ThaFormula.com - And I don't doubt that for a second...

Guru - At the same time though, to protect Gangstarr and to take it to the next level, I said ok this whole concept of me and Premier doing separate projects was important because a lot of groups from our era and even before us broke up and then they get back together for the money and the chemistry is gone. That's wack! We don't do that. We calculated from the beginning, "Ok, he's gone produce people, I'm gonna do separate projects and were always gonna come back and do Gangstarr and have more and more energy and bring more and more skills to the table." It's like coming home with a bag of goodies and everybody's eating. Because like I said, again in order to really eat in this game you gotta have versatility. You gotta do more then one thing. A lot of MC's can only do one thing and when that one thing is done, they are finished. I got other projects coming on Ill Kid. I got a group called Northern Alliance, which is gonna be me and Krumb Snatcha. That's a whole 'nother project. Cause I could rhyme man. I could rhyme better now then I used to. Most rappers from my era are washed up. Seriously, I don't know what happens. I think they get out of touch because I'm in the streets everyday.

ThaFormula.com - Do you really think a lot of these veterans are washed up?

Guru - A lot of them. The only ones that aren't are like Cypress Hill. They inspire men. LL Cool J, De La, you know to name a few.

ThaFormula.com - Was there ever a time when Gangstarr might have broken up?

Guru - Nope. All they had was rumors.

ThaFormula.com - Why has the Gangstarr foundation shown so much love to Dilated Peoples?

Guru - Those are like my boys. They're up and coming cats who do real hip-hop and I respect them a lot. Before I got linked up with them, I been down with Alkaholiks. The Alkaholiks been around and that's like another group who does bangin' hip-hop, who doesn't get the props they are supposed to get.

ThaFormula.com - When you see Dilated do you see what Gangstarr was when you started as far as not getting the full props that is deserved?

Guru - That way, yes. But I mean a lot of people remind me of Gangstarr. A lot of Alchemist tracks remind me of Gangstarr. Wu-Tang remind me of Gangstarr in some ways too. In fact Wu-Tang inspired me in a lot of ways because they don't want to follow any trends. They set their own trends and if they get sells, they get sells. If they don't, they don't. They don't sit there and worry about whether they are going platinum or not. They do what they feel is important.

ThaFormula.com - Now how is the Gangstarr album looking?

Guru - We got 7 songs done and about to go do another one tonight. It will probably be out like late 2002. We gonna have some special guests on there. We got foundation members. Probably "Militia Part 2" with Shug and Freddie, another joint with Krumb Snatcha that I did already, and one with M.O.P. and Scarface. Were trying to get one done with Busta and Redman, probably D'Angelo and one with Mary J Blige.

ThaFormula.com - Will the formula be the same production wise?

Guru - Everything will be the same. Probably just Premier, unless Premier would like for someone like Alchemist or Pete Rock do to a track. It's got to be somebody who he's close to on the production and friend level and also on a respect level.

ThaFormula.com - A lot of people ask why you didn't bust a verse on the original version of "Worst Comes oo Worst" from Dialted?

Guru - Uh, they didn't ask me too (Laughs). I'm not gonna go, "Yo let me get a verse", you know what I mean. I'm not like that. They asked me to do that and I did that. Alchemist gave me 2 beats for free though for the Bald Head Slick, so anything else he asks me to do, I will do. We were supposed to drop a remix with a verse, but something happened with their label and it never went through. And that's the whole thing about this business.

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