Gang Starr's fourth LP falls almost directly in the middle of their not-so prolific output. Quite far removed from their first album, No More Mr. Nice Guy, Hard to Earn is a solid, but not completely memorable record. After the popularity of their previous two albums, Daily Operation and Step in the Arena, the duo's fourth album is just kind of there.
A somewhat bitter-sounding album, MC Guru's sternly low-key delivery and DJ Premier's signature, sparse beats (see the 2006 Christina Aquilera single "Ain't No Other Man") are once again beautifully complimentary of one another, but the overall tone of the record is one of being burnt out. Seeing as how both members pursued solo material (Guru with the second volume of his Jazzmatazz series, and Premier's production appearing on just a few classic LP's, including The Notorious BIG's first album Ready to Die, Jay-Z's debut Reasonable Doubt, and Jeru the Damaja's first effort The Sun Rises in the East), this seems like a fair assessment.
Though is suffers from the widespread hip-hop disease of over-filling your album (17 tracks with no skits), all of the songs on Hard to Earn are good, and it includes some of the duo's greatest cuts: "Code of the Streets" and "Tons 'O' Gunz" to name two. Although the track count is in the upper teens, it's nothing compared to the album they released four years later, Moment of Truth, that clocks in at 20 songs over three LP's.
Gang Starr's tough tales of the streets are much more thought out than your G-Unit's of today, inspiring people to think ahead to the consequences of their actions before they act hard for little reward. This sense of empowerment resonates through all of Gang Starr's albums, but is worth mentioning for those who may not be as familiar. See the abovementioned Tons 'O' Gunz for an example: "Kids pulling triggers / niggas killing niggaz / five-o they sit and wait and tally death-toll figures / it's crazy there ain't no time to really chill / jealous motherfuckers always want to act ill." Basically, life in the streets is fucked up, son.
Fun fact: the back cover to the CD is different than the LP! The CD just shows a zoomed-in photo of Rakim's hands from the front cover, while the back cover of the LP is the Gang Starr family portrait (most likely taken somewhere in New York City), which features—naturally—Guru and Premier, as well as Big Shug, Lil Dap, Melachi the Nutcracker, and Jeru the Damaja—the only one out of the latter four to have any sort of solo career.
Gang Starr Partial Discography:
No More Mr. Nice Guy (1989)
Step in the Arena (1991)
Daily Operation (1992)
Hard to Earn (1994)
Moment of Truth (1998)
Full Clip: A Decade of Gang Starr (1999)
The Ownerz (2003)
