My first encounter with Gangstarr came at the age of 14. I’d spent the summer in New York, on the Queens side of things and had returned to the UK with bag full of cassettes, feeling like Prometheus after stealing fire from Olympus. I was queuing up for lunch one day, when my boy Merkin (so named for his White boy afro which resembled a pubic wig) gave me back the TDK, I’d given him the previous day to record an album of his choosing onto.

“I did the new Gangstarr one for you, mate…”

And with this simple statement, so began my relationship with the rap duo from Brooklyn.

I was familiar with Primo’s work from Illmatic and the liner notes had given me a clue as to the identity of the man behind the sinister knock of ‘New York State Of Mind’ and the dreamy soundscape of ‘Memory Lane’, but I wasn’t ready for the other half of the combo – Guru. Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal. Keith Elam. Here’s a guy who touched on everything from Black on Black crime (Tonz O’ Gunz), to leaving his family home (The Planet), rocked the party (DWYCK) and still found time to lambast the wack (Suckas Need Bodyguards). To this day, despite the love routinely shown to ‘Daily Operation’ and ‘Step In The Arena’ – ‘Hard To Earn’ remains my favourite Gangstarr album. Primo was on rare form and Guru was showing all the confidence that having two acclaimed albums in your recent discography could grant a man.

Like many hip-hop heads, I was saddened that Gangstarr split after 2003′s ‘The Ownerz’ and I was kinda shocked that sequels to some of the duo’s classic joints started appearing on Guru’s own releases, but that’s an artist’s prerogative.

After a year long battle with cancer, Guru finally succumbed to the disease on the morning of April 19th, 2010 and hip-hop lost one of its most eloquent soldiers.

And so another MC joins the line-up on the Heavenly posse cut. He will be missed.

And yes, I still have that ‘Hard To Earn’ TDK.

R.I.P Keith ‘Guru’ Elam – July 17, 1966 – April 19, 2010