Gang Starr Hard To Earn on 2LP

Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) will continue its Respect the Classics tribute to many of hip-hop’s finest with the 20th anniversary vinyl reissue of Hard To Earn from the seminal rap duo Gang Star featuring MC Guru and DJ/producer DJ Premier. Originally released in 1994 as the follow-up to 1992's Daily Operation, Hard To Earn was Gang Starr's fourth full-length and it found the duo stripping things down and offering more of a straight up hip-hop record full of raw beats and attitude. Includes the singles "Mass Appeal," "DWYCK" and "Code of the Streets" plus guest appearances by Group Home, Jeru The Damaja and Big Shug. 

"“With Hard to Earn, one of the things that I was going through sonically was, it was right around the time that Guru started doing Jazzmatazz, and we kept getting categorized as ‘jazz rap.’ Which is why Guru did Jazzmatazz, because we wanted to protect Gang Starr from being categorized like that, because we felt like we were a hip-hop group from day one...Being that Guru was getting aggravated with us being labeled like that, I said, ‘I’m gonna strip this album down,’ just to show that I could use things other than jazz samples. We both wanted to show that anything I use is going to be a hip-hop beat. We said we were going to make it as raw as possible, and less musical, on purpose, just to show we’re good on any track, together." - DJ Premier

LP1

1. Intro (The First Step)

2. ALONGWAYTOGO

3. Code of the Streets

4. Brainstorm

5. Tonz 'o' Gunz

6. The Planet

7. Aiiight Chill...

8. Speak Ya Clout

9. DWYCK

LP2

1. Words From the Nutcracker

2. Mass Appeal

3. Blowin' up the Spot

4. Suckas Need Bodyguards

5. Now You're Mine

6. Mostly Tha Voice

7. F.A.L.A.

8. Comin' for Datazz