Listening to the 2LP reissue of No More Mr Nice Guy from last year, I noticed that one of the bonus cuts was the dub version of ‘So What’, which I’ve never heard of (there’s also the unheard ‘Return of the Bass’ mix of the title track, which sounds better than the normal one just because the hi-hats are turned all the way up). Turns out it’s really early demo from Keithy E. The Guru that never saw a proper release!
A tape of Gang Starr demos from when the crew was Keithy E, Damo D and DJ 1.2. B-Down was released in 2011, but it didn’t include this one. I found this over at Soundcloud:
Matt Reyes sez: This is an early song by Gang Starr; “So What”, as played on Magnus Johnstone’s “Lecco’s Lemma” Boston rap radio show in 1986. Vocals by Keithy E (Keith Elam), production by Beatmaster Jay (John Johnson). Damo D-Ski and/or Mike Dee may have been involved in this recording as well, but that was never my impression. I just wanted to upload this here, since I didn’t find any other instances of it anywhere else on the internet. I suppose it’s included somewhere within cassette side rips on the Massachusetts Hip-Hop Archive, but this seems simpler and more direct.
It is legitimately one of my favorite rap songs I was listening to back then, on record or not. It features rapping, singing, drum programming, bass, keyboards, vocoder, and what sounds like some primitive sampling… It is a PRODUCED song, and was a big influence on 13/14-year-old me as I began to produce my own music. Back when Gang Starr appeared at Tower Records on Newbury Street for their induction into the Walk Of Fame, my friend and I drove back and forth in front of the store blasting this and “Cold Cold World” and “Disa Disa”, in an effort to… I dunno, be funny and clever, maybe catch the ear of other fans who remembered Lecco’s Lemma, or perhaps even to bring a smile to Keith’s face if he heard his songs go by.
Here’s the dub version for those of you who want to enjoy Beatmaster Jay getting dumb on the keys, as they say:
Nice! Thanks for the link and the attribution, I hope people outside of the 1980s Lecco’s Lemma family enjoy hearing something they might not have before.
That song is horrible! Thank god for DJ Premier! Even though GURU sold out Boston, we forgive him.
Sound like a throwaway Juice Crew track from early on. RIP Guru
learning about the true origins of gang starr mad cool. i worked at wbrs 100.1fm in the 2000s and remember finding evidence of gangstarr posse in the archives from around 1988. i knew guru was from boston, but couldn’t figure out the connection between gsp and guru+premier. now i know, unfortunately, it wasn’t guru’s gangstarr that came by the studio in 1988, but still mad cool knowing hip hop history was at the little radio station at brandeis in waltham.
Wow, this is real history. I know because I was there, this is John Johnson. I recorded this demo at my mother’s house on Almost street in Mattapan on one of the first 4 track cassette recorders with one of the first Casio samplers lol. We sent this to Stu Fine st Wild pitch records and that started GangStarrs rap career. I never got due credit for Gangstarr but went on to produce for many major labels including songs for Marky Mark, New Kids, Antoinette, Snow, Terminator Fuji’s, Rick Ross, I could go on and on. But thanks my brother.