Features Hip Hop Artists Guru & Solar: The Epitome of Consistency
| Guru & Solar: The Epitome of Consistency |
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| Wednesday, 14 January 2009 20:49 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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OSHHS: How you guys doing today? Guru: We’re good; we’re good man, just finishing up the new joint.
OSHHS: Aight, so can you tell us a little bit about what you’re working on? Solar: The joint is called Guru 8.0, it’s due out late March 09, and it’s our fourth release on 7 Grand Records, and it’s my best work ever so I’m very excited about it!
OSHHS: So what can we expect on the album? Solar: From a production point of view this is not a Jazzmatazz record, this is a record that’s based on my roots and for the people out there, I’m not to be confused with Solar the rapper from Paris, this is Solar from New York, born and raised, thoroughbred New Yorker and being as such hip hop is in my veins, it’s in my blood! Nah mean, I came up on it so I love the position that I’m in to be able to produce a New York style of hip hop and at the same time keep the things that I love about hip hop alive while keeping it on the same competitive level as far as production goes, you know, we ain’t doing pop albums but I feel that now the world is acknowledging the quality of the production, this is world class production and on top of that Guru’s at his best, he’s really in a good place now mentally, spiritually, physically - You gonna see some of 7 Grand’s finest on this album, and for those who didn’t know your gonna be hearing me droppin my 16’s on their you know gettin my work in.
OSHHS: So Solar tell us how your relationship with Guru come about? Solar: Well it’s an interesting thing, at the point when he met me I had already been a professional producer and had become successful in other areas and I was giving back to the community working with homeless children here in New York and we were introduced by a mutual friend and we kind of just clicked as friends and we basically was out doing what dudes do, and at one point we started talking about music and he said he wanted to hear some of my music so I was like “Aight no problem,” so at some point he finally got to hear my beats and he was blown away straight up! He was like “This was fire what do we do with it?” And I was like “You tell me what to do with it daddy, you the man!”
OSHHS: As successful pioneers in the game does it sometimes get frustrating when you know you consistently put out quality music from the first verse to the last word of the last verse on every track and you look to the other side and see what has become popular and it’s just nowhere near the level of quality as what you put out? Guru: It’s not frustrating cause it’s similar to how it was back in the early years, it’s been that way for as long as I’ve known so it’s just a matter of us keeping in touch with our people, with the real heads, we’re ambassadors to this so we take real hip hop with us worldwide and we give our take on real hip hop to the people, so in that respect it just motivates me more.
OSHHS: Are there any artists out right now that you guys would like to work with? Guru: There’s a lot we just put out the first Jazzmatazz mixtape in February 08, we had a lot of underground artists on there that we like especially guys from our own camp (7 Grand) K-Born and High Power from Philly, Young Pablo from New Jersey, and there’s a lot of dudes, like out in the west coast I like Crooked I, I like Immortal Technique, Saigon, there’s plenty… Too many to mention. With me I like to work with anyone who has heat regardless if it’s commercial or not, you know, I’m not biased against commercial dudes, a good song is a good song!
OSHHS: So what other projects are you guys working on? Guru: We’re currently conducting an MC contest all over the world on our community site called www.7grandweshare.com . You basically go to the site, register and you get to spit your hot 16 and from there Solar and me go through them and we pick the best ones, so far we’ve had two rounds and we picked seven finalists from the two rounds so we got 14 finalist and then we’re gonna pick some more from round three and then we’ll narrow it down to the top one from each round.
OSHHS: So what does the winner get? Guru: They get to be on a remix to one of our songs and possibly a deal with 7 Grand.
OSHHS: Any last comments before we wrap it up, I know you guys are busy? Guru: Yeah for those that want to stay in touch with us you can hit us up on the MySpace, www.myspace.com/guru7grand or www.myspace.com/solar7grand. Again I wanna mention the name of the Album; Guru 8.0 Lost and Found, 17 bangers produced by NYCs hottest producer Solar and just know it’s gonna be keepin real hip hop alive and yours truly the icon, the legend, couldn’t be in a better place, we’re very happy and 7 Grand is the label of the future.
OSHHS: Thank you very much; we really appreciate you taking the time out to talk to us! Guru: Yo man keep the real hip hop alive man we appreciate you and support you and thank you for your time! Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites                  
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| Last Updated on Wednesday, 28 January 2009 10:35 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
With over 20 years in the rap game and almost as many albums, the Boston-bred hip hop icon, Guru is still making hit records. Partnered with superstar hip hop producer Solar to form their fresh new label 7 Grand Records, Guru continues to deliver hit after hit as he carries the torch for real hip hop into the New Year. We caught up with the duo as they prepare to launch their upcoming album Guru 8.0 as well as scout for new talent through their community website. Time and time again, Guru has adapted to the times never compromising his style and this time around it’s business as usual!