News On Guru's Last Years

UPDATE:
DJ Premier speaks to vibe magazine about Guru, Solar, Gang Starr, & more!

 
So here are some news on Guru. Premo made his salute mix in which he talks about having been in the hospital. Justin Elam Ruff, Guru's Nephew talks in there and Big Shug speaks out too. Listen to that! What really made me sad though is this interview with Tasha Denham who is the baby mother to Solar's child. I've been speculating myself and if Guru and Solar would have been a couple it all would make sense. But Guru wasn't gay as you can read there, it was worse! All of his positivity was sucked in by Solar and turned to negativity, it's a shame! As I said before, I met Guru twice beeing the promoter for a local concert here in Hannover and looking back I can co-sign a lot of stuff written on the hiphopdx.com interview. So all true HipHop Heads, remember Guru as who he was and not what Solar turned him to think in his lat years. Also check out this article on the Premier fanblog! And if you have some words for Solar, you can leave them here.

Bauchklang Live

This Band was presented to me by my friend Kai who i used to share an office with in 2001. In 2006 I finally had the chance to see them live because I booked them for a show. They are rarely seen in northern Germany, so i had to take the opportunity to promote them myself. Luckily it was my birthday as well and i must say that they are one of the best live acts I have seen so far. So this year they have been here again and for sure i was there. In the end I talked a little with them guys and hopefully you can soon check out some Bauchklang sounds on my productions! Enjoy the video and if you like them, please support their project by going to their concerts and buying their music! Bauchklang Homepage!

Old School HipHop Tapes

Bildschirmfoto_2010-04-27_um_1

Superdope blog here! Dedicated to old school HipHop and there is a lot of rare stuff to find here! Can you remember taping radio shows back in the 80ies? I loved to do that, but since i don't have a tapedeck anymore i can't even listen to all the stuff i have. But anyways i was in germany and so i didn't have the best stuff to tape anyways. Thanks to Marc Hype for pointing me at this one!

R.I.P. Guru Of Gang Starr

Guru

Another tragic episode for HipHop. Guru, one half of legendary crew Gang Starr and initiator of the Jazzmatazz project died yesterday due to cancer. After having a heart attack in the beginning of february  Guru went into a coma. He was stated to slowly recover but until yesterday no one knew that it was actually cancer. I've posted about this before and the whole story can be read here. I met Guru twice while working at Faust e.V.. Once with DJ DooWop and his producer Solar for the Jazzmatazz tour in 2008  from which the above picture originates and a year earlier for the Street Scriptures Tour. In 2007 it really was a hassle to deal with them, but a year later Guru remembered who i was and was really friendly. But Solar as self named "Superproducer" left behind a  foul taste in my mouth everytime i met him. The whole HipHop Community was behind guru and wishing hime the best for the last two month, which he had to spend in the hospital. In the end all the wishing well didn't help and Guru lost his fight against cancer. What he left us behind with, besides to several milestone Albums for HipHop, is a strange letter which can be read here. I hope that this will clear out and DJ Premier will take the position he deserves. My thoughts are with Guru's family right now. R.I.P. Guru! (Photo by Barbara Mürdter)

Ikea Built Beatmachine Desk

After acquiring an Emu SP-12 that i did not have after selling mine nearly ten years ago i had to rethink my setup here. My Ikea built DJ desk really got full and there was practically no place for more gear on it. Plus, the way i arranged it, i couldn't reach the mixer from all places that i worked at. The plan was to build another rollable desk to fit my SP-12, the mixer, my Akai S-950 it´s Zip-Drive, Soundcard, Compressor and of course my new patchbay. After all the hassle with the SP-12  i decided that it is probably not the best to always put plugs in and out of a machine that´s nearly 25 years old. So the patchbay was the thing to do. They are really cheap nowadays since everybody is using digital mixers and a lot of sidechain equipment is already built in in those mixers. As well multicores are nearly free (8x Stereo TRS - 14,75 €). So now i only have to change the jacks right under my workstation, which is fantastic. The desk itself once again was done with two Expedit Shelves (35 € each), attached to each other with flat steel bars. The only thing i did different this time was to not use the top dividers for the shelf, so it will fit 19" equipment. This works fantastic as you can the and the space remaining holds enough width to fit 9,5" stuff like my soundcard. As well those pieces are used as bottom part for my speakers since they rest on spikes with bases that would fall off moving them withou. The whole thing costed me 85 € which you can´t beat even with material from a hardware store. I as well made me some adapters and long cables, so i can move my active monitors to the desired place for optimal monitoring...

(download)

Fösseklub - That was it

Many thanx to everybody how was there, i really enjoyed myself a lot. Funk and Oldschool Rap Tunes was the theme, so i could go all out and play some nice HipHop tunes. Some rare guests from Berlin made it even more special to play there yesterday and yes, they had these beautiful anniversary shirts! Enjoy the few pictures and the video!

(download)

 

2 Years Team Dauerfeuer!

(download)
Yeah, 2 Yeah's actually or better 2 Years. Team Dauerfeuer (english for Rapidfire) celebrates their second anniversary. Dauerfeuer are Wörn and Vashco, two graphic designers from my hometown Hannover. Vascho by the way is the guy responsible for my awesome profile picture which was published as a part of his diploma work "4 - A Graphic Novel". Tomorrow they will be celebrating in hannover's Fössebad which actually is a public swimming pool. Not tomorrow night though because it will be transformed into a fully functional club with a pool attached. So if you are from hannover or near hannover, get your shorts, bikinis and of course your flip-flops and celebrate with us! More info here (in german).