Longevity in the music business is the goal for every artist. If you make a huge first album and your follow-up is less than superior, you are thrown to the side like many artists before you. But if you are consistent time after time and people have no choice but to praise your work, then you have succeeded. Gang Starr has done just that. Since their introduction into the music scene more than 10 years ago, they have put out album after album with more success each time around.

With that in mind, and the completion of five stellar albums, Gang Starr took the next logical step and cataloged their greatest hits on one mammoth double album. Full Clip is an in-depth view of what makes a group stay relevant for so long. It can be looked at by many as an amazing accomplishment or as guidance down the path of success. Either way, Gang Starr has achieved an almost unattainable goal and made it look easy in the middle of what is sure to be an even longer career in the music "biz."

JC: So whose idea was it to do Full Clip, the actual greatest hits?

Primo: Both of us.

Guru: Yeah the label and us. It was interesting because we all drafted up lists and Premier's list and my list was almost identical except for maybe three songs. Really it's to tide the supporters and the listeners over until the next Gang Starr album in 2000.

JC: After the success of that last one, do you guys feel it was about time or you had enough support already?
Primo: It was more like both. It was about time and support was already there. We feel like we know where we stand even with the public that buys Hip-Hop. Even though we are not platinum and all that type of stuff. But we always felt like we had that status as far as the respect. And as long as we had that, we was cool. We are going to still keep puttin' it down the same exact way because that's the way we love to hear it. So we can't let anything sway us. The label, radio, or even with selling the most records because we feel like we are one of the best judges of a good Hip-Hop record and a wack one.

JC: Now was it a shock when you went Gold?

Primo: Nope. It was more like, "Oh word. OK." I was actually asleep and my manager called excited like if we just won lotto. Believe me if it was years ago like in '91 or even '92 for that matter, I would have probably gotten more excited.

JC: Now on the actual state of Hip-Hop right now, do you feel it's at a good point, at a bad point, or do you see change coming?
Primo: All three. And the bad point, there is always going to be garbage that the radio's going to push either getting paid to play joints or it's because anything that's powerful there is always somebody that tries to soften it up. You know when something strong. And then the good way is people like us, is still doing it to keep all the bulls**t from dominating because we are a force to be reckoned with so we gotta break up the monotony or what you hearing. As far as a change coming, I feel like independent and underground is about to finally get its just due. I think it's going to be to the point where underground and all that is about to start finally shining to where that's what you are going to have to turn to, to be up on it.

JC: Now you have been in the game for 10 years, do you still find yourself being influenced by people coming up in the game?

Guru: Sure. A lot of young cats are tight. A lot of young groups and new groups are tight. I listen to everything. We are like fans of the music, even though we do the music, we are like fans. So that keeps us going. Anytime someone comes with something tight, that's an inspiration for us to go back in the lab and come with some more hot s**t.

JC: When you guys find people, or people come up to you, what do you look for in an artist if you are going to actually help them out?

Guru: The people that we have been working with is like our camp. It's like cats that we have known since we started out, since the "Manifest" days. So we just wanted to give everybody the opportunity. That's why on the last album you heard new people. But they have been around almost as long as Jeru and all them. They have all been down us for a while.

JC: There has been many rumors floating around about Jeru and there was a falling out, is there any truth to that?
Guru: Nah. See we have known each other since we were young in this business. Now it's like 10, 11 years later, we are grown. Everybody is grown, so when you become a man you start to make decisions for yourself and stuff. So he made a decision for himself that he wanted to supervise and do his own production. That's all it is. We are still boys. I still smoke with him and hang out with him. He comes by my house about every couple of weeks. If it was some beef you can guarantee we would be on the same side and not opposite side.

Primo: He was just at my birthday party.

JC: Now I noticed you did the track for Limp Bizkit, how did that come about?

Primo: Lethal, formerly of House Of Pain, did the original track of the song and Meth and Fred laid their vocals down already and they didn't like the way the track was. They didn't feel like it was sufficient enough to put it on their album like it was. So Fred I think suggested that I remix it because he said he like my mixtapes and stuff. And he's in to Gang Starr. I've seen their live footage and the "Faith" video and I like just their energy to where I can feel their vibe. When they played me the track, I basically just took Lethal's loop and chopped it back up my way and put my own bassline and my own drums and kicks and just gave it a Premier bounce.

JC: Did you like the experience of working with a style outside of the Hip-Hop genre?
Primo: It depends on how you do it.

Guru: He studies a lot of rock. All those magazines, he knows a lot about that s**t from working in the retail end before he got with me. He was working in retail.

Primo: We had to have knowledge of everything we sold. I mean seriously, if you weren't music oriented, you couldn't even get the job.

JC: As far as sampling and all that, on the last few records you have come out and talked about how people have been coming back to you for little bites of music here and there, what are your feelings on people sampling your work and music?
Primo: We never mind. Some people clear it through our publishers, so if you do that they are going to charge you, even though they will clear it because they know that we are cool on it. But if they come to us directly and let us know, we will call our publishers and let them know and let it slide. It just depends on the situation. But I'm not into charging nobody, unless it's R&B because R&B makes a lot more money than the Hip-Hop budgets. Being if that's they case and they can afford to go there and a lot of them don't appreciate our music as art, it's like OK that's a charge.

JC: On your MCing and when you come up with songs, do you go through a ritual to write lyrics or do they just come to you?
Guru: It's definitely a ritual. I usually get the titles first, even when I do stuff on my own. Cause I look at it like an outline. Like a composition, you have to have the beginning, the middle and the end. So I get the titles first, then Premier breaks the titles down. I let him just pick the ones he wants out of like maybe 35 or something like that. From there, then we get the tracks together. Then he gives me the tracks and then I write to the tracks. But I always like to freestyle to the track for a while just to get what type of flow I want to use because my style is really my voice, it's not really my flow. My flow, I adapt to the beat. Whatever type of beat it is. Once I freestyle to it, then I write. I call it freestyle writin' because I'll tell Premier that I got the lyrics done but I come to the studio and be like, 'just let that play for about a hour and a half and I'll be ready.' He'll be like, "all right, I'm gonna be back and I don't want to be here all night." With the pressure on me and all that, it comes because I already know what I want to talk about.

JC: As far as inspiration goes, where do you get your inspiration now when you write your lyrics?

Guru: From life and stuff that goes on that I see and that I feel and from my dogs. Stuff like that. The realness has to come through. Even if it's something like a mistake you made or something that really hurt you, you could turn it into a positive by just expressing it in a way where it could be helpful to someone else. They could avoid going through that. Like lessons and philosophies, there is a lot involved in my lyrics.

JC: What determines that a song is a hit and that it will make the album?
Guru: See we don't really make filler tracks and extra tracks. Usually we just say we're doing these tracks and we do 'em. And all of those, once they are mixed down and we are happy, they always all go on there. If we have too many tracks, than one of them will become a B-Side or something like that. We don't waste tracks.

JC: With Hip-Hop finally taking over the Billboard, do you guys feel it's about time? What are feelings on that right now?
Guru: I mean they always thought Rap and Hip-Hop was going to die out and all of that. Now it's a billion-dollar industry and now it's like going to Blockbuster, you get whatever category you want. There's something for everybody in there. There's ultra-Pop. There's thriller's, drama's, parental guidance. So it's relative to the listener and it's kind of dope because the Hip-Hop audience now has broadened from age 9 to age 49. There's something for everybody and I think that's dope.

If you had everybody in Hip-Hop listening to you, what would you want to tell them?

Primo: Keep making dope s**t that we can listen too because a lot of people ain't coming with hot records right now. That's what fed me to want to do Hip-Hop is that everybody was coming with hot, real fresh, new records. So just keep coming with that hot s**t, no matter who you are. Especially all the pioneers from the old school, all the way up to Slick Rick and everybody else. Just come with that s**t.

Guru: Gang Starr represents three things: Street knowledge, intellect, spirituality. That's like a survival package that you gotta have nowadays. We appreciate the people that supported us putting it down for 10 years. Because without them it wouldn't have worked, so we are just giving the love back through the music. The Full Clip album is really dedicated to y'all.

SDU