May 23, 2019
The Album: Gang Starr: Hard to Earn (1994)
Gang Starr's Hard to Earn dropped in the pivotal year of 1994,
arguably the height of the Golden Era as it came alongside
everything from Biggie's Ready to Die to
Nas's Illmatic to
OutKast's Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik. Unlike
those other debut albums, this was Gang Starr's fourth LP and by
'94, they had established themselves as the (no pun intended)
premier rap duo, avatars of a boom bap/braggadocio style that would
help define an entire era. For DJ Premier, Hard to
Earn marked the beginning of his imperial era, where the
telltale sound of a Primo scratch was a mark of quality. Meanwhile,
G.U.R.U.'s lyrical craft stepped up another notch (even if it was
still "mostly tha voice" that got folks up). Fans will debate
whether this was Gang Starr's best album but for
Morgan and Oliver, it happened to be
their favorite by the group. Aight? Chill.
Hard to Earn was the pick of a dynamic duo of guests.
First up: Vikki Tobak, author of the astounding new
book, Contact High: A Visual
History of Hip-Hop, quite possibly the best rap
photography book ever created. She was in town as part of the
new Contact
High exhibit at the Annenberg Space for Photography (which
is up through August, come catch it!). As part of the exhibit,
there's a wonderful documentary video that accompanies, assembled
by other other guest: Joseph "Jazzbo" Patel. He and Oliver go back
to the '90s when both were young writers at URB
Magazine and by the '00s, Patel had moved into video
content, becoming one of the most influential behind-the-scenes
talents at places like Vice TV, MTV, The
Fader and Vevo. (He and Vikki are now working on a
docu-series based on Contact High). In tackling this
album, the four of us discussed everything from the highs and lows
of the jazz-hip-hop era of the early '90s to why we need to bring
back answering machine/voicemail skits to how to properly pronounce
"DWYCK."
More on Vikki Tobak and Joseph Patel
More on Hard to Earn
Show Tracklisting (all songs from Hard to Earn unless indicated otherwise):
Here is the Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find on there
If you're not already subscribed to Heat Rocks in Apple Podcasts, do it here!