Young Guru is without a doubt one of the most influential people within Hip Hop in the past two decades. Being one of the most talented and trusted audio engineers in the music industry, he has worked with a slew of artists but he is most known for his work with Jay Z and many of the Roc-A-Fella Records artists. With that said, Young Guru still finds time to work with some of the new promising young acts in Hip Hop.
In a recent interview with Fast Company, he speaks on a multitude of topics, and in the process, shares how he constantly keeps Hov up to date with what is happening on the underground circuit of rap.
“With Jay [Z], it’s like, how do we continue to grow and not f*ck up the legacy? But it’s very hard to sit in a room after that many albums and be like, ‘What haven’t we talked about? I tell Jay sometimes, ‘You’re so up in the clouds that sometimes you miss ground-level sh*t or you can’t start messing with it until it gets to a certain level because of who you are and your reputation.”
Heralded as one of Hip Hop’s most intelligent minds, and rightfully so, Guru is definitely a fan of super lyrical intricate rap, which doesn’t always translate well to a mainstream audience. Jay Z shows his brilliance by being able to appease both worlds.
“I’m the super-underground hip-hop guy—I want to hear intricate sh*t. Jay’s like, ‘Gu, I can rhyme for you all day—that’s not going to sell albums. I have to make this interesting enough for the people who don’t care about that as well as for you.’ That’s our challenge—it’s a balance. The audience doesn’t buy pure art, so I got to throw some McDonald’s in it. There’s a reason McDonald’s sells billions.”
Respect: HipHopWired
Fun Fact: Young Guru is the man that has ALL of Jay Z’s unreleased music on his hard drive. Let’s hope the world gets to hear the tunes one of these days.
