Having long lain virtually dormant in the long shadows cast by his larger than life friends and former business partners; Jay-Z and Dame Dash, producer and engineer Young Guru is now ready to emerge into the limelight.
With a massive background crammed to overflowing with banging beats and having lent his considerable talents to the mixing of global monster hits such as Jay-Z’s “H To The Izzo” and Freeway’s “What We Do” amongst many others, the mixing desk maestro is raring to unleash his multiple talents on an unsuspecting world. This is why he is extremely keen to finish work on the sure to be huge collaborative album between Jay-Z and Kanye West.
“Right now, I’m really trying to get Jay and Kanye to hurry up and finish this Watch The Throne album because the world needs to hear it,” Guru told reporters during a break at the recent SXSW festival. “It just needs little tweaks and things like that. But the core of the album is finished.”
Guru is now focused on pushing his own production and performing at DJ gigs across the globe. He says he hasn’t personally contributed any beats to Watch The Throne, but confirms that along with Kanye West; No I.D., Q-Tip and Pete Rock have all submitted music.
“Kanye takes what they do and adds on to it and I think that’s his genius. I say this all the time ‘Kanye records are never the same twice, while he’s making them because they always grow.’
There was also a thinly veiled hint of an upcoming Jay-Z project that the king of the sound teased, but refused to provide any substantial details on.
“Jay’s a consummate thinker, so sometimes he’ll call and be like ‘yo what do you think about this.’ And he said this idea to me that I wish I could tell the world about. Some ideas are so simple and in-your-face, that they’re so incredibly smart,” Guru continues. “So this next idea— when you hear this title — the world is going to say ‘why didn’t Jay think of that for the first album.’ The title and concept just fits in perfectly. It’s so simple, but yet so elegant at the same time. [Jay] can’t stop, it’s in his blood.
Rapireland will obviously keep you bang up-to date with release dates as and when they become available.
