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Gang Starr

Full Clip

Full Clip is the lead single and first new song of Gang Starr's 1999 retrospective: Guru as hip-hop's stern elder against fake rappers, DJ Premier on the beat, and a shouted tribute to Big L that DJs have cut up ever since.

By korczis 3 min read
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Review

Genre and Mood

Gang Starr’s Full Clip is hip-hop of the old New York kind, rap as a duo of one MC and one DJ-producer. The mood is defiant and confident: Metro Silicon Valley called it “an angry newborn” that slanders sellouts, and MTV heard Guru playing the role of hip-hop’s wise man.

Song Summary

Full Clip was one of the new songs recorded at D&D Studios in Manhattan in 1999 for the double compilation that took its name, released as its lead single on 8 June 1999. Guru condemns those who rap “childish nonsense” and lie about who they really are, without naming names. DJ Premier and Guru produced it. The memorable detail comes before the first verse: Premier shouting “Big L, rest in peace” for the Harlem rapper shot dead that February.

Musical Breakdown

The sources describe the song’s opening, its words and one element of its beat; this breakdown keeps to those.

Intro

On the album, an excerpt from a March 1999 tribute concert for Big L leads in, with the audience chanting in call and response. MTV placed Premier’s shout in the seconds before Full Clip; Premier says he put it at the start.

Verse 1

Guru takes the stand as an elder of the form, aiming at rappers who fake their lives and their moves.

Main Section

Under him, MTV heard DJ Premier offer a jazz-inflected guitar strum. No source we could find names the record behind it or describes the arrangement further, so listen for what repeats and what is cut in.

Concepts in Focus

Premier’s dedication is a lesson in turntablism. He told Music Week that when they got the news of Big L’s death he decided to say “Big L rest in peace” at the start, because every DJ would cut that part up and play it. A phrase written for scratching becomes part of every DJ set that uses it; The Vinyl Factory calls that intro a DJ favourite and its writer’s double copies worn out.

Premier’s craft is also built on sampling. Exclaim!, reviewing the compilation, charted his growth from early jazzy sounds to arguably hip-hop’s best sonic auteur, “consistently underscored by his precise scratching and obscure sampling”. Which records lie under Full Clip, none of our sources says.

Artistic Context

Guru, born Keith Elam in Boston, and DJ Premier, born Christopher Martin and raised in Texas, came together as Gang Starr in New York in 1988. Full Clip: A Decade of Gang Starr, out on Virgin on 13 July 1999, gathered their singles from 1989 to 1998 with three new songs; Premier said they made Full Clip the day after Big L died, a friend they had just been hanging out with.

Impact and Reception

The compilation reached number 33 on the Billboard 200 and went gold within weeks. The Vinyl Factory calls Full Clip still a party starter and probably the group’s best-known song, and Premier says it always drives the crowd crazy live. Turn it up from the first second: the dedication is part of the song.

Learn from this track

Introductory

What you will learn

  • Explain why a shouted phrase at the start of a record is written for DJs to cut up, and what that has to do with turntablism.
  • Describe the roles in a rap duo made of an MC and a DJ-producer, using Guru and DJ Premier.
  • Place Full Clip in the story of Gang Starr's 1999 compilation and in the memory of Big L.

Listening guide

  1. the opening seconds DJ Premier's shout of "Big L, rest in peace", which he put at the start so that every DJ would cut it up and play it.
  2. the verses Guru as hip-hop's wise man, condemning rappers who spout childish nonsense and lie about who they really are.
  3. the beat What MTV heard as DJ Premier's jazz-inflected guitar strum under Guru's voice.

Concepts in this track

turntablism

4 tracks

Playing the turntable as an instrument: scratching, cutting and juggling records by hand to make new rhythms and phrases rather than simply playing songs in sequence. It grew out of hip-hop DJing and has its own competitions, such as the DMC World DJ Championships.

sampling

63 tracks

Taking a fragment of an existing recording and reusing it in a new one, as a loop, a chop or a texture. Sampling is central to hip-hop and dance music and raises questions of credit and copyright.

Listen next, and why

Questions for discussion

  1. DJ Premier wrote a dedication into the record itself. How is a tribute in a song different from a tribute in an interview?
  2. Guru attacks rappers who fake who they are. What does authenticity mean in rap, and who gets to judge it?
  3. Full Clip was new music on a greatest-hits album. Why might a group put its newest song first on a look back at ten years?

References

  1. Wikipedia. Full Clip: A Decade of Gang Starr. Encyclopedia
  2. Music Week. 50 Years Of Hip-Hop: DJ Premier on Jay-Z, Nas, Notorious B.I.G. & more (2023). Interview
  3. Hip-Hop Nostalgia (quoting MTV). Gang Starr "Full Clip: A Decade of Gang Starr" (7/13/99) (2020). Article
  4. Metro Silicon Valley. Gang Starr: Full Clip (1999). Review
  5. Exclaim!. Gang Starr: Full Clip: A Decade of Gang Starr (1999). Review
  6. The Vinyl Factory. Moment Of Truth: 20 essential Gang Starr tracks. Article
  7. MusicBrainz. Full Clip (recording). Database

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