Today in Hip-Hop: Gang Starr Drop ‘Daily Operation’ Album
On this day, May 5, in hip-hop history...
1992: On May 5, 1992, Brooklyn Gang Starr fortified their status as one of boom bap's defining acts by dropping off their third studio album, Daily Operation.
As the follow-up to 1991's Step Into the Arena, Daily Operation was an overtly political offering. Usually known for their underground sound, MC Guru rapped about Black oppression and American hypocrisy.
Checking in at 18 tracks, the LP was low on features and heavy on one of the rap game's premier duos. Guru spit his well-honed lyrical philosophy while DJ Premier married old jazz samples with East Coast style hip-hop beats. The societal critiques of everyday life are laced within almost every track from "Soliloquy of Chaos" to "Take It Personal" to "Conspiracy." Equal parts personal and political, this conscious rap album was the precursor to later hip-hop classics like Nas' Illmatic or The Notorious B.I.G's Ready to Die.
"And if you live in the cities where the streets reek warfare/People getting nowhere but you go for yours there/You'll find it doesn't pay to front or play the role/You could get stole or maybe beat with a pole," Guru spits on "Soliloquy of Chaos," a track that describes the chaos that can come from a stick up kid and gunshots.
Daily Operation was released under EMI Records and birthed the singles "Ex Girl to Next Girl," "2 Deep" and "Take It Personal." It wasn't Gang Starr's most commercially successful album, but it definitely played an important role in helping define a still developing pair of rap legends.
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