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			<![CDATA[Gang Starr]]>
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				Stay current on the latest Gang Starr music videos, news and more on MTV - the leader in music news, video premieres and entertainment online.
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			(c) 2007 MTV Networks. (c) and TM MTV Networks. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. See http://www.mtv.com/sitewide/mtvinfo/terms.jhtml for terms and conditions.
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		<category>Music</category>
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		<ttl>15</ttl>
		
			
			
			
				
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						<![CDATA[
							Fat Joe Compares Mobb Deep To Gang Starr
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							<p type="articleSubhead">
								Both groups represent 'purest forms of hip-hop music,' Joe tells MTV News, commenting on recent Mobb Deep drama.
								
									<br/>By Rob Markman
								
							</p>
						
						
						
						
							<p type="articleText">
								&lt;P&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/mobb_deep/artist.jhtml&quot;&gt;Mobb Deep&lt;/a&gt;&apos;s musical legacy is cemented. There aren&apos;t many groups in rap who could match Havoc and Prodigy&apos;s reputation for crafting unfiltered street music, so when &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1682717/mobb-deep-breakup.jhtml&quot;&gt;Mobb Deep appeared to be in turmoil&lt;/a&gt; last week, fans feared the worst. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/fat_joe/artist.jhtml&quot;&gt;Fat Joe&lt;/a&gt;, for one, is thrilled that all the drama is behind the Queens, New York, duo.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Joe Crack actually likens the Mobb to another pivotal rap duo, Gang Starr. The group, which consisted of DJ Premier and late rapper Guru, was responsible for quite a few classic singles, including &quot;Step in the Arena&quot; and &quot;DWYCK.&quot; Mobb Deep, of course, also have favorites under their belt, like 1995&apos;s &quot;Shook Ones Pt. II&quot; and the Lil&apos; Kim-assisted &quot;Quiet Storm&quot; remix.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;CENTER&gt;&lt;embed src=&quot;http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:video:mtv.com:760056/cp~vid%3D760056%26uri%3Dmgid%3Auma%3Avideo%3Amtv.com%3A760056&quot; width=&quot;430&quot; height=&quot;242&quot; type=&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash&quot; allowFullScreen=&quot;true&quot; allowScriptAccess=&quot;always&quot; base=&quot;.&quot;&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/CENTER&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;Mobb Deep is equivalent to Gang Starr with being one of the purest forms of hip-hop music,&quot; Fat Joe told MTV News after a taping of MTV2&apos;s upcoming &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mtv.com/shows/hip_hop_squares/series.jhtml&quot;&gt;&quot;Hip Hop Squares.&quot;&lt;/a&gt; &quot;Whenever you want to go do an ill, hard-core hip-hop song that crosses over in the clubs, anybody who makes it is like, &apos;Yo, this is like &quot;Shook Ones,&quot; this is like &quot;Quiet Storm.&quot; &apos; They the kings of that.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;On April 9, some pretty vicious messages directed at Prodigy were sent from Havoc&apos;s now-defunct Twitter account. The messages threatened physical violence and questioned Prodigy&apos;s sexuality. Sources close to Mobb Deep initially confirmed to MTV News that Hav&apos;s account wasn&apos;t hacked, but later that evening &lt;a href=&quot;http://rapfix.mtv.com/2012/04/09/havoc-denies-mobb-deep-breakup-friction-with-prodigy/&quot;&gt;Havoc released a statement&lt;/a&gt; saying that he lost his phone and declaring his allegiance to the group and Prodigy. &quot;To all Mobb Deep fans: it&apos;s business as usual! It&apos;s Mobb Deep all day,&quot; the statement read.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;On Friday the group even attended a Knicks game together and &lt;a href=&quot;http://rapfix.mtv.com/2012/04/14/mobb-deep-attend-attend-new-york-knicks-game/&quot;&gt;released a photo&lt;/a&gt;, silencing speculation about a disconnect. Fat Joe is just glad to see the duo as a unified front. &quot;I really don&apos;t know none of the details,&quot; he said. &quot;If they were to break up, it would be a sad day for hip-hop because we love Mobb Deep as a group, as a fan.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;i&gt;What&apos;s your favorite Mobb Deep song? Tell us in the comments!&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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											<a type="relatedArtist" href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/fat_joe/artist.jhtml">Fat Joe</a>
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											<a type="relatedArtist" href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/mobb_deep/artist.jhtml">Mobb Deep</a>
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											<a type="relatedArtist" href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/gang_starr/artist.jhtml">Gang Starr</a>
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							http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1683325/mobb-deep-breakup-fat-joe.jhtml
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							http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1683325/mobb-deep-breakup-fat-joe.jhtml
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						<pubDate>
						
							17 Apr 2012 18:27:54 EDT 
						
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						<![CDATA[
							Guru's Sister 'Never Had The Right Feeling' About Solar
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						<![CDATA[
						
							<p type="articleSubhead">
								'My brother decided to trust him with his life, and we see where that ended up,' Patricia Elam tells MTV News.
								
									<br/>By Shaheem Reid
								
							</p>
						
						
						
						
							<p type="articleText">
								&lt;P&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637932/gurus-sister-talks-about-his-death-memorial-plans.jhtml&quot;&gt;Patricia Elam&lt;/a&gt;, older sister of &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637388/gang-starrs-guru-dead-at-48.jhtml&quot;&gt;late Gang Starr MC Keith &quot;Guru&quot; Elam&lt;/a&gt;, said she always thought her brother&apos;s friend Solar was suspect. She said she never trusted him and, therefore, was never on good terms with the producer.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;player-placeholder&quot; id=&quot;vid:510611&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;When [Guru] started working with Solar, even up until the time he was in the hospital and we learned Solar was the health care proxy, my father and my [older] brother were still sort of like, &apos;This is what your brother wanted. We&apos;re kinda gonna go along with it,&apos; &quot; Patricia recalled. &quot;They were pretty trusting of Solar. [Solar] was feeding them the information he wanted them to have. I was always hesitant and a little more cynical. I never had the right feeling about him. I think he knew that.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Solar has said in the past that if there was any &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637735/solar-his-relationship-with-gurus-family-got-weird-end.jhtml&quot;&gt;rift between himself and the Elam family&lt;/a&gt;, it was with Patricia and her son Justin, because they went public with the news that Guru was ill. Solar said that Guru and Patricia had been estranged for years.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;When you ask me why he blames me, he&apos;s a perceptive guy, and he knows if someone is with him or not,&quot; Patricia explained. &quot;I never was with [Solar] for various reason over the years. But now that my father and brother both see where this had gone, they are like, &apos;You were right.&apos; They can&apos;t get over it that someone would even behave in this manner. It&apos;s been a learning experience.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Patricia admitted that Solar had a heavy influence over her brother, and she&apos;s perplexed over their relationship to this day.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;I don&apos;t know what the influence was,&quot; she said. &quot;I don&apos;t know if it was drugs, brainwashing, whatever. I don&apos;t know if it was blackmail. For whatever reason, my brother decided to trust him with his life, and we see where that ended up. It&apos;s an American tragedy, as far as I&apos;m concerned.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Patricia revealed that the last time she talked to her brother was at the beginning of the year about three weeks before he went into the hospital for his terminal myeloma, and they talked about their family. The last time she saw him alive was mid-February, when he was in the hospital in a coma. She said when Guru was initially admitted, Solar told the family to not come and that the MC didn&apos;t want anybody to see him in his weakened condition. But when he slipped into a coma, they all went.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;When I went in there, I was so shocked at what he looked like,&quot; she said, when asked if she saw any signs of neglect. &quot;I didn&apos;t pay attention to a bunch of fine details. I did notice his hair. He always shaved his head. It was odd to see [hair] grown around the edges. I didn&apos;t get the feeling of he wasn&apos;t being taken care of. I didn&apos;t look at his nails, that kind of thing. I looked at how frail he was, how skeleton-like his head looked, how swollen his hands and feet were. I was shocked at his overall appearance.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Guru died April 19, succumbing to cancer. He has since been cremated, and a private memorial for the family is being planned with possibly a larger ceremony for his fans this summer on Guru&apos;s birthday, July 17.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Another point of contention for Patricia is the &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637417/guru-fans-react-his-death-question-farewell-letter.jhtml&quot;&gt;farewell letter Solar released&lt;/a&gt;, which he said Guru wrote. Patricia thinks the letter is a fake.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;Oh, God, my brother never regained consciousness,&quot; Patricia said. &quot;Understand this: He never regained consciousness from the time he went into a coma in freaking mid-February until he died. You tell me how someone writes a letter in that state. He tells my son when he got there, &apos;He&apos;s gonna look like he was in a coma.&apos; No, he &lt;i&gt;was&lt;/i&gt; in a coma. When [Guru] went into the hospital, he wasn&apos;t thinking he was gonna die; he was thinking he would get better. But if he did think he was gonna die, and he was on his deathbed because his son was so important to him, he would have been writing a letter to his son. He wouldn&apos;t have wrote a letter about &apos;Oh, my freaking career and this that and the other, and this person is in charge of my life.&apos; No. That letter was so self-serving. I&apos;m happy to see that most people say when they read it, &apos;It doesn&apos;t even sound like him.&apos; That&apos;s not how my brother wrote. That&apos;s not how my brother talked.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;If he was writing a letter on his deathbed, it would have been to his son, [to] my father, that kind of thing,&quot; she added. &quot;Or it would have been about wishes he has for his son, [how] he hopes he left a positive legacy. That&apos;s the kind of thing he would have written.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;i&gt;Share your memories of Guru and Gang Starr in the comments below.&lt;/i&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
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											<a type="relatedVideos" href="http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1637420">Gang Starr's Guru Passes Away</a>
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											<a type="relatedPhotos" href="http://www.mtv.com/photos/gang-starrs-guru-a-life-in-photos/1637389/4791509/photo.jhtml">Gang Starr's Guru: A Life In Photos</a>
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											<a type="relatedArtist" href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/guru/artist.jhtml">Guru</a>
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											<a type="relatedArtist" href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/gang_starr/artist.jhtml">Gang Starr</a>
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							http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1638001/gurus-sister-never-had-right-feeling-about-solar.jhtml
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							http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1638001/gurus-sister-never-had-right-feeling-about-solar.jhtml
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						<pubDate>
						
							28 Apr 2010 16:08:00 EDT 
						
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						<![CDATA[
							Gang Starr's DJ Premier Discusses Estranged Relationship With Guru
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						<![CDATA[
						
							<p type="articleSubhead">
								'We never disbanded the group,' Premier says of his late groupmate in a Vibe.com interview.
								
									<br/>By Jayson Rodriguez
								
							</p>
						
						
						
						
							<p type="articleText">
								&lt;P&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/music/artist/gang_starr/artist.jhtml&quot;&gt;Gang Starr&apos;s&lt;/a&gt; DJ Premier opened up about his estranged relationship with &lt;a href=&quot;/music/artist/guru/artist.jhtml&quot;&gt;Guru&lt;/a&gt; and much more in an intimate interview with &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.vibe.com/content/dj-premier-opens-about-gurus-death-solar-gang-starr-reunion-more&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Vibe.com&lt;/a&gt; that posted on Wednesday (April 28) morning. The legendary producer&apos;s comments are the latest in a series of remarks in which he&apos;s incrementally opened up about his late groupmate and the controversy surrounding &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637388/gang-starrs-guru-dead-at-48.jhtml&quot;&gt;his death last week&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Premier revealed that he hadn&apos;t spoken with Guru in six years, mainly due to his problems with alcohol. &quot;It was March 30, 2004,&quot; he told writer Keith Murphy. &quot;April 1 was the last email I received from him and I just found it in my computer. We were pretty much going at it about him straightening his life up with the drinking and everything ... just getting himself together. Because talent wise, drinking or sober, he was always on point in the lab. He could lay down his vocals with no problem and he always wrote his rhymes dope. When he wrote his rhymes on page they were so messy [Laughs]. I used to ask him, &apos;How can you even recite the verses and flow?&apos; He would be in the booth turning the paper upside down while he&apos;s still rhyming and without having to punch in.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left;&quot;&gt;
&lt;embed src=&quot;http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:videolist:mtv.com:1637420&quot; width=&quot;256&quot; height=&quot;223&quot; type=&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash&quot; flashVars=&quot;configParams=instance%3Dnews%26id%3D1637420&quot; wmode=&quot;transparent&quot; allowFullScreen=&quot;true&quot; allowScriptAccess=&quot;always&quot; base=&quot;.&quot;&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Despite his distance from Guru in recent years, which an associate of both men, &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637934/guru-associate-black-jesus-recalls-introducing-late-mc-solar.jhtml&quot;&gt;rapper Black Jesus&lt;/a&gt;, characterized as minor and noted Guru&apos;s vices as a detrimental influence, Premier said he maintained a regular relationship with the Gang Starr MC&apos;s family.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;I talk to them all the time,&quot; he explained. &quot;His father, his sister Patricia; the only one I haven&apos;t spoken to is his younger sister. But they all know me well. His brother Harry ... They all know me. And they know this is all some bullshit [the &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637485/solar-responds-skepticism-about-gurus-farewell-letter.jhtml&quot;&gt;controversy with Solar&lt;/a&gt;]. They been a little separated from Guru once he decided to move off of Gang Starr. He got distant from everybody. It had been six years since I talked to him. I was trying to get the truth about whether he was in the hospital after he had the cardiac arrest. I called his parents. Guru&apos;s mother and my mother were pen pals for a long time. I remember the day he had the cardiac arrest. I called the house and I heard Guru&apos;s father&apos;s voice like &apos;Chris ... Man, it&apos;s good to hear your voice.&apos; Now if he had some strange feeling about me he would have been like, &apos;Son, I can&apos;t talk to you right now.&apos; But that wasn&apos;t the case. It felt so good speaking to him. I was able to get the real deal of what was going on. They know me well enough to know that I&apos;m not some stranger that needs information to be held back from me. Why do I have to make it up? I don&apos;t have an agenda.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Much has been made about Guru&apos;s farewell letter, issued after his death by Solar, a producer he worked with in recent years while on hiatus from Gang Starr. In the letter, Guru allegedly referred to Premier simply as his &quot;former DJ&quot; and refused to mention his Gang Starr partner by name. Fans cried foul over the letter and asserted Solar misrepresented Guru by penning the message himself, a claim he denied to MTV News.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Premier took the high road, however, when he &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637561/gang-starrs-dj-premier-comments-on-gurus-death.jhtml&quot;&gt;issued a touching statement&lt;/a&gt; honoring his fallen friend. Last Friday, though, Premier spoke out against Solar during his Sirius XM radio show, where he put on a &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637780/gang-starrs-dj-premier-salutes-guru-during-two-hour-radio-show.jhtml&quot;&gt;&quot;salute&quot; to Guru&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;The DJ repeatedly assailed Solar throughout the two-hour set and refused to acknowledge him by name.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Preemo told Vibe.com he would &quot;love to see that letter&quot; and &quot;would love to see the handwriting. Because I know Guru&apos;s handwriting like the back of my hand with all the bills we had to pay together. I know it&apos;s not him.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;The DJ was noncommittal about Gang Starr&apos;s future. He said the men discussed a seventh album years ago, but nothing ever came to fruition. Premier hinted at a possible DVD project featuring vintage footage, but would only say his focus is to honor their combined legacy, which he said Guru would want since the MC never completely removed himself from the partnership.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;The main thing is we never dissolved our Gang Starr contract,&quot; Premier said. &quot;We are still signed to each other. We never disbanded the group. If Guru really wanted to super-dead it he would have said, &apos;Yo, I want out.&apos; And I still would have tried to convince him to stay. We are still Gang Starr.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;i&gt;Share your memories of Guru and Gang Starr in the comments below.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
							</p>
							
							
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						</description>
						<link>
							http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1637975/gang-starrs-dj-premier-discusses-estranged-relationship-with-guru.jhtml
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						<category>News Article</category>
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							http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1637975/gang-starrs-dj-premier-discusses-estranged-relationship-with-guru.jhtml
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						<pubDate>
						
							28 Apr 2010 13:14:00 EDT 
						
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						<![CDATA[
							Guru Associate Black Jesus Recalls Introducing Late MC To Solar
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						<![CDATA[
						
							<p type="articleSubhead">
								Rapper calls the producer an 'opportunist' who preyed on Guru's vulnerability.
								
									<br/>By Jayson Rodriguez, with reporting by Sway Calloway
								
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								&lt;P&gt;When it comes to Guru&apos;s musical legacy, critics and fans alike point to the rapper&apos;s work with DJ Premier in Gang Starr as evidence of his mark on hip-hop. &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637573/solar-defends-gurus-final-letter-those-his-words.jhtml&quot;&gt;The letter issued to the media&lt;/a&gt; after &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637388/gang-starrs-guru-dead-at-48.jhtml&quot;&gt;the MC&apos;s death&lt;/a&gt; last week, however, didn&apos;t even mention Preemo by name.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;In the alleged comments, Guru pronounced himself to be the sole founder of Gang Starr. Admirers of the group cried foul over the slight. Solar, Guru&apos;s new producer and spokesman, was accused of penning the letter, a claim &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637485/solar-responds-skepticism-about-gurus-farewell-letter.jhtml&quot;&gt;he denied to MTV News&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;player-placeholder&quot; id=&quot;vid:510226&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Fans wondered: Who is Solar? And how did he meet Guru?&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;It turns out Guru met Solar when he was introduced by a mutual acquaintance, an artist named Black Jesus, who was signed to the Gang Starr rapper&apos;s label. Now aligned with Wu-Tang Clan, Black Jesus told MTV News he first met Solar in the early 2000s. Both men are members of the Nation of Gods and Earths, a religious sect, and were introduced at a monthly rally in Harlem.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;According to Black Jesus, they discovered in one another a shared passion for music, and the rapper invited the budding producer to visit him in the studio. In the studio, working on a track titled &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncT8op65cqI&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&quot;I&apos;m Saying,&quot;&lt;/a&gt; Black Jesus said he found Solar to be &quot;arrogant&quot; and a &quot;control freak&quot; after clashing with another producer. The rapper said he chalked it up to Solar being &quot;starstruck&quot; over Guru.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Eventually, Solar started working with Guru, as the rapper was looking for beats for several projects outside of Gang Starr. Black Jesus recalled the time and emphatically denied Solar&apos;s claims that the producer and Guru had a dynamic creative chemistry.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;That&apos;s exaggerating the whole situation,&quot; Black Jesus told MTV News&apos; Sway. &quot;The chemistry, &apos;cause [Guru] is Gang Starr, that&apos;s his sound. ... He did his &lt;i&gt;Jazzmatazz&lt;/i&gt; thing and did different things, but the whole thing was, Guru was producing for me. At the time he was doing [Gang Starr&apos;s] &lt;i&gt;The Ownerz,&lt;/i&gt; he was working on my project. There was a chemistry we had. With the buzz, they kind of hated and didn&apos;t want to go with the chemistry. A lot of people thought that wasn&apos;t what he was supposed to be doing.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;As Solar also revealed, Black Jesus said Guru had a dark cloud hanging over him in his later years, battling problems with drinking and drugs. He also suggested the divide between Guru and Premier wasn&apos;t as deep as people speculated. Black Jesus said it was similar to what any longtime group experiences: personal jealousies and minor creative differences. Solar, he explained, was an &quot;opportunist&quot; who preyed on Guru&apos;s vulnerability.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;Guru complained to me a few times, &apos;Oh, Preemo this,&apos; &quot; Black Jesus said. &quot;I looked it at like, &apos;That&apos;s you and your crew. That&apos;s not really my business. You need to put aside your differences and put out a Gang Starr album,&apos; I told him. I think it was the fact, if you want me to be honest, it was the beats. &apos;Cause he told me a couple times: When Guru steps off and they&apos;re not doing Gang Starr, he does his &lt;i&gt;Jazzmatazz&lt;/i&gt; albums, and Preemo goes off and hits off Jadakiss, Nas and Hov. But I always felt [Guru and Premier] made their best music together.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;i&gt;Share your memories of Guru and Gang Starr in the comments below.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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											<a type="relatedArtist" href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/gang_starr/artist.jhtml">Gang Starr</a>
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							http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1637934/guru-associate-black-jesus-recalls-introducing-late-mc-solar.jhtml
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							27 Apr 2010 19:48:00 EDT 
						
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							Solar Hints At Guru's 'Frustration' With Gang Starr's DJ Premier
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								'Certain aspects of Gang Starr and that relationship seemed to keep hanging on to him,' Solar tells MTV News.
								
									<br/>By Jayson Rodriguez, with reporting by Sway Calloway
								
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								&lt;P&gt;The last album &lt;a href=&quot;/music/artist/guru/artist.jhtml&quot;&gt;Guru&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;/music/artist/dj_premier/artist.jhtml&quot;&gt;DJ Premier&lt;/a&gt; released as &lt;a href=&quot;/music/artist/gang_starr/artist.jhtml&quot;&gt;Gang Starr&lt;/a&gt; was 2003&apos;s &lt;i&gt;The Ownerz,&lt;/i&gt; and then rapper began recording with a new producer named Solar. As the years wore on, whispers of tension between Guru and Preemo grew louder until they were reportedly fully estranged from each other, both musically and as friends.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;player-placeholder&quot; id=&quot;vid:510131&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Premier, for his part, had kept mostly quiet about any conflict between himself and his &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637388/gang-starrs-guru-dead-at-48.jhtml&quot;&gt;former groupmate, who died &lt;/a&gt; last week. &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637573/solar-defends-gurus-final-letter-those-his-words.jhtml&quot;&gt;Solar, however, told MTV News&lt;/a&gt; that Guru might have felt frustrated by the public overlooking his contributions to Gang Starr, one of hip-hop&apos;s most revered acts.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Solar said he doesn&apos;t want to sound critical of Premier, though, because he hasn&apos;t spoken to the DJ in years and never knew his take on things between the pair.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;I haven&apos;t spoken to Premier, all the way back since they finished &lt;i&gt;The Ownerz,&lt;/i&gt;&quot; Solar told MTV News. &quot;We haven&apos;t spoken. He hasn&apos;t reached out to me, and I haven&apos;t had the opportunity to reach out to him. What it&apos;s been, more or less, with Guru, there&apos;s been a lot of frustration on his part for various reasons once 7 Grand [Records] was started, it became ... I don&apos;t know, just certain aspects of Gang Starr and that relationship seemed to keep hanging on to him, and he felt it was dragging him down or holding him from getting to where he wanted to get, and it was influences that he felt around the industry was contributing to that. And I know that was a source a frustration for him and a source of frustration for myself. I felt the tension too.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Solar added that he didn&apos;t want to be in the middle of any conflict between the longtime collaborators, during Guru&apos;s life or now in his death. He emphasized that although he was privy to Guru&apos;s feelings on the matter, it would be unfair for him to take the rapper&apos;s opinions as fact since he hasn&apos;t spoken to Premier.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Solar did reveal that Guru was &quot;definitely going through a crisis and having some trouble.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;Guru was frustrated, he really was,&quot; Solar said. &quot;And I think anybody around him at that time, Premier and all his people around him, might have saw the frustration around him. [Guru] was drinking, there was a lot of things going on with him that you could see, from anybody.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;In the meantime, Solar is in the early stages of planning a memorial concert for Guru, which is tentatively slated for the summer. He said he&apos;d like Premier and all the members of the original Gang Starr Foundation involved in the process.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;It remains unclear if Premier would be open to such a tribute.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;During his radio show on Sirius/XM last week, &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637780/gang-starrs-dj-premier-salutes-guru-during-two-hour-radio-show.jhtml&quot;&gt;Premier disparaged Solar&lt;/a&gt; numerous times on air, criticizing his handling of Guru&apos;s condition and refusing to acknowledge the producer by name.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637561/gang-starrs-dj-premier-comments-on-gurus-death.jhtml&quot;&gt;Premier issued a statement&lt;/a&gt; after Guru&apos;s passing and didn&apos;t directly address &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637485/solar-responds-skepticism-about-gurus-farewell-letter.jhtml&quot;&gt;Guru&apos;s controversial farewell letter&lt;/a&gt;, in which he allegedly had sour thoughts about his former DJ.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;i&gt;Share your memories of Guru and Gang Starr in the comments below.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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											<a type="relatedArtist" href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/guru/artist.jhtml">Guru</a>
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											<a type="relatedArtist" href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/dj_premier/artist.jhtml">DJ Premier</a>
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						</description>
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							http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1637913/solar-hints-at-gurus-frustration-with-gang-starrs-dj-premier.jhtml
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							27 Apr 2010 17:11:00 EDT 
						
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							Gang Starr's DJ Premier 'Salutes' Guru During Two-Hour Radio Show
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						<![CDATA[
						
							<p type="articleSubhead">
								DJ also questions Solar's claims about Guru's health during final weeks.
								
									<br/>By Jayson Rodriguez
								
							</p>
						
						
						
						
							<p type="articleText">
								&lt;P&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/music/artist/gang_starr/artist.jhtml&quot;&gt;Gang Starr&lt;/a&gt;&apos;s &lt;a href=&quot;/music/artist/dj_premier/artist.jhtml&quot;&gt;DJ Premier&lt;/a&gt; took to the SiriusXM satellite airwaves over the weekend to salute &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637388/gang-starrs-guru-dead-at-48.jhtml&quot;&gt;Guru, his late partner in Gang Starr&lt;/a&gt;, during a lively tribute show that featured calls from original members of the group and Guru&apos;s nephew, and plenty of memories of the late rap star.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Preemo, who released a &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637561/gang-starrs-dj-premier-comments-on-gurus-death.jhtml&quot;&gt;statement about Guru&apos;s passing&lt;/a&gt; late last week, was upbeat throughout his weekly two-hour radio show.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;The producer shared his experience of visiting Guru in the hospital, recalling how taken aback he was at the sight of his sick friend. The anecdote, like many of the statements throughout the night, was coated with underhanded shots at Solar, the controversial figure who worked with Guru in recent years and took care of him in the &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637631/solar-details-gurus-health-decline.jhtml&quot;&gt;rapper&apos;s last months&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;When I saw him, it really f---ed me up,&quot; Premier said during the show. &quot;When I saw him, it was so ill to see &amp;#8212; because from what I was hearing about him waking up and tweeting, there&apos;s no way [he could have done that]. He looked so gone.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;And on top of that, if you with him and you love him, why did his nails look longer than a ruler? And he had an afro. I&apos;ve taken care of people in the hospital: you can wash their hair, clean their nails off, or clean their feet. His feet were swollen, his toenails were really disgusting, so because of that it really f---ed me up. I went in there and took the logo of my shirt off, rubbed it against his whole body, and then I told him a message from me about how much I loved him. We were for life and we&apos;ll always be for life. Then I kissed him on the face to let him know that I&apos;m gonna miss him, because he looked like he was already gone.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Gang Starr, as a group, hadn&apos;t released a project together since 2003&apos;s &lt;i&gt;The Ownerz.&lt;/i&gt; Premier and Guru reportedly were estranged at the time of the rapper&apos;s death. In Guru&apos;s last testament, a &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637485/solar-responds-skepticism-about-gurus-farewell-letter.jhtml&quot;&gt;&quot;farewell&quot; letter released via Solar&lt;/a&gt; , the rapper allegedly directed some harsh words at his &quot;former DJ.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Premier, however, declined to address the comments in the statement he released last week, saying he would cherish his memories of their time together and &quot;never remove him from my heart and soul.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Premier praised Guru many times during the show, which he stressed was a &quot;salute&quot; to Guru&apos;s life and musical contributions and not a tribute to his untimely passing.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Premier also said that Guru&apos;s body had been cremated last week and the ashes returned to his father in Massachusetts.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Guru&apos;s nephew, Justin Elam Ruff, who first alerted fans to the divide between Solar and the Elam family via an emotional YouTube message, called in to thank fans for their support.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Big Suge, who appeared on Gang Starr records throughout the years, told the story about the group&apos;s formation. Originally, Suge wanted him and Guru, who then called himself &quot;Keithy E.,&quot; to go by the name Gangster. But Guru suggested the two, along with Suge&apos;s DJ  brother, tweak the name to have a positive slant &amp;#8212; and thus the Gang Starr Foundation was born.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;i&gt;What do you think about DJ Premier&apos;s tribute to Guru? Let us know in the comments!&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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							http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1637780/gang-starrs-dj-premier-salutes-guru-during-two-hour-radio-show.jhtml
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							26 Apr 2010 15:23:00 EDT 
						
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						<![CDATA[
							Solar Says His Relationship With Guru's Family 'Got Weird In The End'
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						<![CDATA[
						
							<p type="articleSubhead">
								'Up until that point, there was no tension between myself and the family at all,' he tells MTV News.
								
									<br/>By Shaheem Reid, with reporting by Sway Calloway
								
							</p>
						
						
						
						
							<p type="articleText">
								&lt;P&gt;The obvious divide between Keith &quot;Guru&quot; Elam&apos;s family and his friend and collaborator Solar is as large as the Grand Canyon.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Relatives of the &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637388/gang-starrs-guru-dead-at-48.jhtml&quot;&gt;late Gang Starr MC&lt;/a&gt; &amp;#8212; like his nephew Justin, who posted a YouTube video expressing his concerns about Solar after Guru was admitted to the hospital in February &amp;#8212; say he purposely kept them in the dark about their loved one&apos;s &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637631/solar-details-gurus-health-decline.jhtml&quot;&gt;deteriorating condition&lt;/a&gt;. They have alleged that Solar tried to keep family and friends from seeing the MC, who lost his battle with cancer on Monday.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left;&quot;&gt;
&lt;embed src=&quot;http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:video:mtv.com:507728&quot; width=&quot;256&quot; height=&quot;223&quot; type=&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash&quot; flashVars=&quot;configParams=instance%3Dnews%26id%3D1637567%26vid%3D507728&quot; wmode=&quot;transparent&quot; allowFullScreen=&quot;true&quot; allowScriptAccess=&quot;always&quot; base=&quot;.&quot;&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;The funny thing is, it hasn&apos;t been all this tension. It got weird in the end,&quot; Solar told Sway earlier this week. &quot;Up until the end, it didn&apos;t exist, quite honestly. I talked to his father every Father&apos;s Day; he came to this concert tribute in Boston. I visited his mother and father; they visited us. The tension really became evident in February. It became the public thing it is when Justin put the video out. It&apos;s just an untrue video, and it opened the door for a lot of other things. Up until that point, there was no tension between myself and the family at all. I didn&apos;t know [Justin&apos;s mother and Guru&apos;s sister] Trish at all.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;I have nothing but the utmost respect for his family,&quot; Solar added. &quot;It&apos;s unfortunate that the rift happened and Justin got caught into this divide in between.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;In the wake of Guru&apos;s death, a big point of contention was a foundation that Guru was quoted as announcing in &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637417/guru-fans-react-his-death-question-farewell-letter.jhtml&quot;&gt;his farewell letter&lt;/a&gt; released on Tuesday. &quot;I have a nonprofit organization called Each One Counts dedicated to carrying on my charitable work on behalf of abused and disadvantaged children from around the world and also to educate and research a cure for this terrible disease that took my life,&quot; the letter read. &quot;I write this with tears in my eyes, not of sorrow but of joy for what a wonderful life I have enjoyed and how many great people I have had the pleasure of meeting.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637512/gurus-family-releases-statement-about-his-death.jhtml&quot;&gt;Guru&apos;s family members&lt;/a&gt; said they had never heard of any such organization in a statement they released to the public on Wednesday.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;That&apos;s an organization started by Guru, myself and my people,&quot; Solar said. &quot;Hopefully it&apos;ll grow to be a huge worldwide charitable organization.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;There a lot of things that Guru has done in his business and life that they don&apos;t know,&quot; he added. &quot;He doesn&apos;t report to them. He never reported to them. Guru&apos;s a full-grown man. He didn&apos;t report to them everything he did. They&apos;re not his business mangers, and they didn&apos;t have that type of relationship.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Solar also said Guru&apos;s relatives are in full control of his funeral. &quot;Yeah, I&apos;m done with that,&quot; he said. &quot;That&apos;s it. I&apos;m done. Totally out of it. That&apos;s between him and his family.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;i&gt;Share your memories of Guru and Gang Starr in the comments below.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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						</description>
						<link>
							http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1637735/solar-his-relationship-with-gurus-family-got-weird-end.jhtml
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							23 Apr 2010 20:44:00 EDT 
						
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						<![CDATA[
							Solar Details Guru's Health Decline
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								Gang Starr MC's collaborator says he helped his friend 'preserve his dignity' during his last days.
								
									<br/>By Shaheem Reid, with reporting by Sway Calloway
								
							</p>
						
						
						
						
							<p type="articleText">
								&lt;P&gt;As questions about the sincerity of his relationship with &lt;a href=&quot;/music/artist/guru/artist.jhtml&quot;&gt;Guru&lt;/a&gt; continue to circulate throughout the hip-hop community and on the Internet, the &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637568/solar-opens-up-about-his-relationship-with-guru.jhtml&quot;&gt;Gang Starr MC&apos;s longtime collaborator&lt;/a&gt; Solar has opened up about the bond between the two men.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left;&quot;&gt;
&lt;embed src=&quot;http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:video:mtv.com:507739&quot; width=&quot;256&quot; height=&quot;223&quot; type=&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash&quot; flashVars=&quot;configParams=instance%3Dnews%26id%3D1637567%26vid%3D507739&quot; wmode=&quot;transparent&quot; allowFullScreen=&quot;true&quot; allowScriptAccess=&quot;always&quot; base=&quot;.&quot;&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;The friendship got close fairly rapidly,&quot; Solar told MTV&apos;s Sway of their meeting in 2002 through a mutual friend.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;When the trailblazing legend fell ill in early 2009, it was Solar who was appointed medical proxy. Guru died Monday at age 48, after succumbing to a cancer-related illness.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Solar said Guru&apos;s health started to drastically deteriorate beginning last summer. In May 2009, the rapper was diagnosed with a myeloma (a tumor), and by that July, he had undergone an unsuccessful operation to stop its spread from his back to other parts of his body.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;There were times where I&apos;d help him out,&quot; Solar said. &quot;Get his bathing together, get his self together. Help him with his clothes. Help him out with his food. I would help him get in and out [of the bathtub]. With the myeloma, it&apos;s very delicate. So I would help him get in and out, make sure he could stabilize himself so he could do what he had to do. It&apos;s one of the hardest things I had to do. But I loved him as a brother, and I believe he would have done the same for me. I did that to preserve his dignity, that&apos;s what it was even in those times.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;It was getting bad,&quot; Solar said of the months that followed the failed surgery. &quot;His mobility was starting to worsen. I was staying in his home with him to help him with his day-to-day. ... We did have people from outside come in as well to help out. Doctors and specialists that were treating him recommended he admit himself [to] the hospital for treatment. ... He checked himself in the hospital ... signed the appropriate documents that we would be his health proxy. He proceeded to undergo treatment, got to the point of chemotherapy. He was responding. At that point, we didn&apos;t think he wouldn&apos;t come out. We thought he would come back out the hospital and be actually able to get back to some independent life again. The doctors were fairly optimistic that the chemo would work and some other drugs they were giving would work. That&apos;s when the unfortunate event of the cardiac arrest happened. The lungs couldn&apos;t take it.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Guru agreed to go to the hospital last February and, tragically, never came out.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;In the days since his death, many journalists, fans, MCs and even family members have questioned the sincerity of &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637485/solar-responds-skepticism-about-gurus-farewell-letter.jhtml&quot;&gt;Guru&apos;s relationship with Solar&lt;/a&gt;. However, Solar has maintained that he always has done what was in Guru&apos;s best interest.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;i&gt;Share your memories of Guru and Gang Starr in the comments below.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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							http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1637631/solar-details-gurus-health-decline.jhtml
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						<pubDate>
						
							22 Apr 2010 17:03:00 EDT 
						
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						<![CDATA[
							Gang Starr's DJ Premier Comments On Guru's Death
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							<p type="articleSubhead">
								Premier does not comment on harsh statements directed at him in 'farewell' letter reportedly written by MC.
								
									<br/>By MTV News staff
								
							</p>
						
						
						
						
							<p type="articleText">
								&lt;P&gt;In the statement announcing the &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637388/gang-starrs-guru-dead-at-48.jhtml&quot;&gt;death of Gang Starr&apos;s Guru&lt;/a&gt; on Monday, a letter was included that found the MC directing some harsh words at his longtime partner in the group, DJ Premier. Some have &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637485/solar-responds-skepticism-about-gurus-farewell-letter.jhtml&quot;&gt;questioned the validity of the letter&lt;/a&gt; &amp;#8212; claims that Guru&apos;s recent partner, Solar, has refuted.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;I do not wish my ex-DJ to have anything to do with my name, likeness, events, tributes etc. connected in anyway to my situation including any use of my name or circumstance for any reason and I have instructed my lawyers to enforce this,&quot; the letter reads. &quot;I had nothing to do with him in life for over 7 years and want nothing to do with him in death. Solar has my life story and is well informed on my family situation, as well as the real reason for separating from my ex-DJ.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;In a statement issued Wednesday (April 21) on a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.djpremierblog.com/2010/04/21/official-statement-from-dj-premier-on-the-death-of-guru/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;DJ Premier fan blog&lt;/a&gt; that his manager had earlier told MTV News is legitimate, the Gang Starr DJ chose not to address the comments in the letter and instead remember his longtime collaborator.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;It was a sad day for me to get confirmation on the death of a man who I will continue to call my brother, Keith Elam, better known as Guru of the legendary Gang Starr,&quot; the statement reads. &quot;From 1988-2004, we experienced so much success together that we were able to expand our businesses independently and give each other what Guru called &apos;creative space,&apos; before planning to reunite for our seventh LP when the time was right.  Tragically, we will never reach that day.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;I&apos;ve been asked to comment on a letter speaking ill of me which was supposedly written by Guru in his dying days.  All I will say about it is that our time together was beautiful, we built a hip-hop legacy together, and no one can re-write history or take away my love for him. One thing I would never do is play around with the truth about his life.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&quot;I  will celebrate Guru&apos;s life ... I will honor his memory ... I will grieve with the &lt;a href=&quot;/news/articles/1637512/gurus-family-releases-statement-about-his-death.jhtml&quot;&gt;Elam family&lt;/a&gt; over his untimely death ... I will remember the Gang Starr foundation and all of the original members of Gang Starr who came before me &amp;#8212; we all know each other ... mostly, I will cherish everything we created together as Gang Starr, forever.  I&apos;m gonna miss hearing his signature monotone voice when he walks in the room, but the songs will always bring it back to me ... His rhyme flows were insane, and I will never remove him from my heart and soul. Rest in peace to the man who felt &apos;satisfaction from the street crowd reaction.&apos; I love you Goo ... DJ Premier.&quot;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;i&gt;Share your memories of Guru and Gang Starr in the comments below.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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						]]>
						</description>
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							http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1637561/gang-starrs-dj-premier-comments-on-gurus-death.jhtml
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							21 Apr 2010 18:58:00 EDT 
						
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							Gang Starr's Guru Passes Away
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						<![CDATA[
						
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								The Gang Starr MC died on Monday at age 48, following complications from cancer.
								
									<br/>By  
								
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								&lt;P&gt; &lt;/p&gt;
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							<![CDATA[ 
								Photos | Gang Starr's Guru: A Life In Photos
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						<pubDate>
						
							20 Apr 2010 00:00:00 EDT 
						
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