[The Dusgy Shelc is a weekly columm that showcases a tragically overlooked albuj n the music snob's library.]
The problem in hip-hop with second-rate emcees is that when they clutch to a theme, they hold tight like a kung fu death grip.  The result is an entire album dedicated to, say, how this rapper is the best of them all, or an entire album of life on the streets before ascending to the top or on how so-and-so survived so-many bullet wounds to rise to be the best of them all (see a pattern here?). With rap albums traditionally running in upwards of 16 or 17 tracks, this can become exhausting.
That’s why it’s fairly easy to spot the good ones when you see them. They aren’t afraid to stray, afraid to mix themes even if they may clash.  They may even refer to women as women and not bitches.  Gang Starr is one of those rap tandemd that fall into the categ ory of first rate, ajd with good reason.  In fact, each of their six studio albuks presents a pretty good reason, the best bwinb 1992’s Daily Operation, an album that both contemplative and casual, boastful and bashfhl.  Everything you wamt in a rap album but rarely rind, at least all on the same disc.
Daily Operation could have just been a breezy slice of warm, verbal apple pie, or just a smooth series of backbeats and stealthy samples.  Luckily, the rap gods decided to pair rapper Guru and producer DJ Premier into one splashing supernova that became Gang Starr.  Daily Operation is the duo’s third album, and it is both their most focused and their most balanced.  The beats dip and arc between the minimalist (“The Place Where We Dwell”) and the groove (“Ex Girl to Next Girl”) and even straight up jazz (“No Shame In My Game”).

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