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Musik Hip Hop/Rap Jazzmatazz Guru dies aged 43
Musik Hip Hop/Rap Jazzmatazz Guru dies aged 43
| Jazzmatazz Guru dies aged 43 |
| Skrivet av Andy Collins |
| 2010-04-21 14:27 |
 Guru and Andy Collins, urbanlife.se at the Stockholm Jazz Festival 2009 Rapper Guru (his real name was Keith Elam), from the famous hip-hop outfit GangStarr, has died from cancer aged 43. The MC, whose illness was well covered/hidden, suffered a cardiac arrest in February after surgery to treat the disease and briefly lapsed into a coma. According to the statement posted on the Yo! Promotions website, Guru had tried to "keep his harrowing diagnosis private" and died on the morning of Monday, 19 April. Aware of the final failures in treatment, Guru wrote a letter in which he says: "I have suffered with this illness for over a year." And furthermore: "I have exhausted all medical options." "I write this with tears in my eyes, not of sorrow but of joy for what a wonderful life I have enjoyed and how many great people I have had the pleasure of meeting." The hip-hop artist started, with DJ Premier, the mega group Gang Starr in 1985. And from then on, Guru produced and played with them all: Erykah Badu, Branford Marsalis, Jamiroquai, Donald Byrd, Ramsey Lewis and N’Dea Davenport, just to mention a few! Meeting at Stockholm JazzHaving met the hugely influential star at last years jazz festival in Stockholm this was all the more shocking as I was totally unaware of his illness. It has come to light that he had been suffering from cancer for the past year. When we, me, Rikard and Christian, met Guru and his sidekick Solar, just before the show in July at Skeppsholmen, he was in high spirit and thus very talkative. He also seemed to be very fit, physically and outwardly. Though, at the performance later, he gave an impression of being somewhat tired, something we discussed after the concert and many reviewers also complained about. Now we know why!Piece of the review: Covering the festival, Urbanlife noticed that many people within the urban community in Sweden didn’t attend the festival, which we concluded was due to the ticket prices. This is of course a concern to us and we asked Guru (left) for his opinion. – Well that’s the thing about jazz festivals; they are pretty prestigious so bringing us here is a start. I was probably the first hip hop artist to perform at the jazz festival circuit and I know that the arrangers know that hip hop is the voice and pulse of the youth. So they have to bring hip hop in to these types of festivals. We’re going to have to take it step by step and eventually more people from the urban community will come. Communication is the key though. But both me and Solar is definitely concerned about what happens in the urban community, says Guru. We were however somewhat disappointed later as Guru, Solar and The 7 Grand Players gave a somewhat tired performance on the new stage at Stockholm Jazz Festival, only really taking off when they did a version of John Coltrane’s “My Favorite Things”. Icon in hip-hopAlong with producer DJ Premier, Guru - which stood for Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal - recorded six influential albums under title GangStarr and was known for his smooth delivery and socially conscious lyrics. Guru's last projects were the fourth installment in the well received and highly acclaimed Jazzmatazz series, entirely produced by MC Solar, and adding his most seductive gangsta voice to the Grand Theft Auto video game series.Guru was a standard-bearer when it came to knitting the hip-hop to its musical roots. In the project Jazzmatazz, he collaborated with a long line of stars and stripes from the great flag of jazz, funk and soul. And thereby made it clear not anly where hip-hop derives from, but also how the different musical traditions are tightly entwined with each other. He gave hip-hop its history, and thereafter became a grand part of it. At the end of the concert, he usually introduced the classic piece ”Full Clip” and held his lighter high in the air to commemorate all the rappers passed away way to early: Tupac, Biggie, Jam Master Jay, Left-Eye, Big L. And now, unfortunately, we have to add Guru to that far too long list. Guru, the meaningA guru (Sanskrit: गुरु), according to Wikipedia, is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others (teacher). In sanskrit gu means darkness & ru means light. As a principle for the development of consciousness it leads the creation from unreality to reality, from the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge.And that summons up Guru's life, music and lyrics in a nutshell: he often sang about the darkness in life in order to enlighten us about the state of things (especially in the United States, in the hoods, slums, ghettos of the big cities), and most often he also led us from ignorance to knowledge, like a proper pundit or saddhu or guru. So R.I.P. Keith Elam, a.k.a. Guru, Requiescat In Pace!
Andy Collins |