The radio-friendly track which was probably forced upon Guru and Premier to justify an actual album release. There's a strange “remix” of this song floating around on the Interweb featuring Big L: I put that word between quotation marks because I highly doubt it was an official mix. Guru's goofy observation “Your bitch don't really got no ass/She just poked it out” still makes me laugh today. It comes off like a Hard To Earn leftover in both its slightly dated sound and feel. I first heard this on the soundtrack to Caught Up.
This probably will never bang in your ride, but it's still pretty good. He takes on society's ills with incredible clarity. The intro is contrived as hell, but this simple-sounding track helps to elevate Guru's lyrics to another level. The only misstep with this track was the THX-1138-inspired video, which was a little much. The drum hits will rock your car into oncoming traffic, which doesn't make this the safest song to listen to, but whatever. Moment of Truth immediately launches into its first single, which was a fucking monster back in 1998, and it still sounds refreshing today. Anybody want to know if this disc still holds up today? I've always regarded Moment of Truth as the one Gang Starr album which I could listen to from start to finish (sort of) without losing interest. Moment of Truth ended up being the duo's most commercially successful to date, selling more than five hundred thousand copies and actually getting them some MTV airplay (thanks to a radio-friendly single, which I'll get to in a bit).
#MOMENT OF TRUTH GANG STARR ZIP SERIES#
Keith Elam, otherwise known as Guru, also found himself exploring Gang Starr's jazzy roots in an even deeper manner, releasing a second volume of his Jazzmatazz series to general critical acclaim, although most of his fans only knew him from his work with Premier and wanted to hear him in that fashion exclusively, a trait that continues to haunt Guru today. Chris Martin (DJ Premier) had kept himself busy, producing for as many rap artists who would have him, and in doing so, he carved himself a niche as hip hop's go-to guy for New York boom bap complete with scratches, hard drums, and no horns (as compared to Pete Rock, the other hip hop go-to guy, albeit one that loves horns as if they were his own children). They found themselves awakening in a hip hop world that was much different than what they had left behind. Guru and DJ Premier, recording as the duo Gang Starr, released their fifth album, Moment of Truth, four years after their well-received Hard To Earn.