Hip hop legends Gang Starr are back with a brand-new single, “Bad Name”. The follow-up to “Family And Loyalty” is the second single taken from One Of The Best Yet, the group’s first studio album in sixteen years.
Even though Gang Starr never officially disbanded, fans had to wait over a decade for the follow up to their 2003 record The Ownerz to be announced. The band’s existence became even more uncertain after Guru, one half of the iconic duo, tragically passed away in 2010.
Surviving band member DJ Premier, however, never gave up hope. “I never lost faith, or wavered. I still felt it inside of me, it just happened to be nine years later [after Guru’s death]”, he said.“We all want the things we want right now, but I am a patient guy. I hung in there and I just kept believing”.
The Grammy-winning musician has under his belt a plethora of genre-spanning projects, including collaborations with Nas, Jay-Z, Drake, Kanye West and Miley Cyrus, to name a few. In 2017, he started working on One Of The Best Yet, the long-awaited seventh full-length from Gang Starr, slated for release on November 1.
Earlier this year, the cult hip-hop formation shared their collaboration with J. Cole, “Family And Loyalty”, alongside a music video to accompany. Now, DJ Premier is giving fans another taste of the upcoming album with vintage-sounding and yet surprisingly accurate “Bad Name”.
The track features vocals from the late Guru, including the meaningful lines “Word to God, if Big and Pac were still here/ Some of these weirdos wouldn’t act so cavalier/ We all know that the game has changed/ It’s crazy out here, rap’s got a bad name/ Think about it, what if bling never happened/ And the true artists were getting rich from rapping?”
Speaking about his upcoming project, DJ Premier said, “This album means everything to me. It’s a continuation of what I never wanted to end. It’s a very foreign place for me and very emotional. I get happy, sad, excited; my feelings are kind of all over the place. But predominantly, just very happy to be making music with Guru again”.
Listen to “Bad Name” here:
#Peace.Love.GangStarr
