Tonight Rob and I visited our favorite greasy diner spot, the Golden Castle. In between confronting such awful truths as the fact that Rob is no match for the Golden Castle cheesecake and that if I unscrew the lids of salt and pepper shakers and put them on my eyes it will indeed cause blindness, we got to discussing one of our favorite topics, the current state of hip-hop, in that, whoa, things are pretty bad lately. Lyrically, there's a great deal of emptily celebratory look-at-our-wealth nonsense (even if it's entertaining, as in the case of that Ludacris video that reminds me of playing NBA Jam on big-head mode), and things seem to be getting worse sonically: even if Timbaland and the Neptunes have brought sonic innovations -- i.e., the incorporation of drum-and-bass-inspired beats and other such signatures to hip-hop -- they have, by now, begun to spread themselves pretty thin, influencing others in the process, most recently the even more transcendentally appalling than usual No Doubt (even though I am, you know, an avowed fan of Gwen Stefani's midriff [see also Shakira]).

But all this is even more of a reason to turn to groups like Gang Starr, whose 33-track retrospective has hardly a dull moment, thanks largely to the rock-solid production talents of the by-now-legendary DJ Premier. Drawing from hidden gems of the soul, jazz, and soundtrack genres (especially long-lost 45rpm singles) and manipulating them with a sharp, minimal turntable style, he brought a sense of boundary-shattering innovation to the rap world that seems more necessary than ever today. Though Guru at times lacks the showy verbal capacity of MCs who have followed since, his meat-and-potatoes (if occasionally monotone) flow nonetheless contains an undeniable intensity and, more important than anything else, is always about something. Never one to waste a measure, Guru's lyricism and Premier's astonishingly consistent production make a fearsome team, as evident on tracks like the early "Step Into the Arena," "Tonz O' Gunz" -- which takes on the issue of street violence from a refreshingly non-cliched, thought-provoking perspective -- and later tracks like the fearsome "The Militia". Highly recommended.

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