Three years after the horrible allegations that followed veteran emcee Guru of the legendary Gangstarr Foundation to his grave, 7 Grand Records CEO Solar speaks out.
In the third and final installment of TheSource.com exclusive interview with Solar, Guru’s last business and creative partner talks about his invested interest in the Guru/Gangstarr catalog, his current lack of communication with Guru’s family, and why he considers himself a part of the Gangstarr legacy.
Solar continues from part 2, saying:
The allegations were outlandish and so ridiculous to that extent that I figured after I finish mourning Guru…somebody had to mourn the God. It couldn’t be that. In all of that, I lost somebody very dear to myself, somebody that I loved like a brother, you know? At the end of the day, Karma is a real thing. What goes around comes around and as you do unto others, it will be done unto you. There are a lot lessons here for people who want to look and see. There’s certainly repercussions on different levels that comes with something so hideous that happens to such a great and kind guy.
How much more has the sales of the projects in the catalog increased over the past three years?
The sales have went up a large amount. There’s definitely a larger interest…it’s not a decline. It’s definitely went up. Not as much as I would’ve liked. When looking at other and other situations, I think that the slander and the defamation definitely hurt the growth of the catalog. Not just Jazzamatazz, but I think that as a whole, the catalog would’ve done a lot better without all of that. Certainly, around the world there’s been a lot of interest in the catalog through social media and so on.
As the proprietor of his music, you do get paid off of what’s sold, correct?
True indeed.
What type of relationship do you have with Guru’s family and in particular, his son?
The reality of the situation is its only his son. He was never married. That is a seed that he had by somebody he was involved with at some point. To put it nicely as I can, I’m really not trying to use this interview as a platform to address certain situations. That was it really. Guru comes from a very small family. I was very close with his mom and dad…and his son. His son is like my son. When all of the slander and innuendo was going down, there was lies and posturing were offered, where people were making roles in Guru’s life that they didn’t occupy to try to intercede in areas of business where they didn’t belong and had no interest in. My main concern was, is and will always be to look after his son and half of his wishes have not been seen forth. His son’s mother and elements of people that are calling themselves close to Guru, Guru really didn’t have anything to do with. They have basically stepped in and taken control of the situation, alleging Guru’s wishes and what’s been normal. Me and Guru’s son, that’s my godson. We were together all the time doing things together…me, Guru, his son, my children. We were always tight and always doing things together. After Guru passed and they brought all of this slander and craziness into the mix, they isolated him from me. My course of action is very limited, so I’m working on it as feverishly as I can through my attorneys to argue that they would at least adhere to Guru’s wishes and what this kid has known his whole life as his extended family. Those same people would’ve had Guru laid out in a church somewhere. Not to be offensive to anybody and their practices of burying their dead, but Guru didn’t want to be laid out in a church. He wanted to be cremated. They was going to try to do that, so I had to intercede and keep that from happening. Then they wanted to go into the media and criticize that saying I was a “body snatcher”. I’m just making sure Guru’s last wishes are carried out.
People have to understand that the slander and lies are just that. Nothing has been proven on any level. Guru is a great dude. He was never a homosexual. I’ve seen that dude knock out dudes twice his size. Guru was nobody’s punk, pussy, and he could hold his own. Motherfuckers in Gangstarr, if they keep it 100, they’ll tell you Guru was always fighting until he sobered up and wised up and said that he wanted to move on with his life. Anybody that knows Guru knows that he is nowhere near that type. Anybody that knows me or has known me understands that I live the straight 100 life and I deal with the science of mathematics. I’m in the Hip Hop game. I can’t stop people from talking. Soldiers are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan just so people can talk flagrantly out the side of their face and argue about who’s wearing dresses. That’s what Hip Hop has become. It is what it is and I’m not here to change that.
What do you think about that? Men wearing dresses?
I see it all in the same light. The Hip Hop machine is sensationalism. It’s not about the music. It’s become about other things. Because there wasn’t anything real for them to latch on to, they had to latch onto fake things. We saw signs of it in other areas, so Hip Hop has become so sensationalized and so gossipy, it’s become feminine. Everybody’s always gossiping about something. Hip Hop is devolving and the situation with Guru, I’m going to keep it 100 with you. My people that I roll with just look at that shit as a part of Hip Hop. People flagrantly running their mouths until somebody puts a bullet in somebody’s head or start shooting or somebody ends up in jail. That’s just the way it goes. I’m not the first one you’ve heard crazy shit about and I’m not going to be the last one. I can handle it. Don’t get me wrong. When you start doing it against Guru, a man that can’t defend himself, that’s when it becomes disgusting. The story of two brothers is boring compared to they’re homosexual lovers and all of this crazy shit. Its actually exciting, bit me and him going on hospital visits and fighting cancer and hoping that we’re going to have a positive outcome to tell the world, that’s boring. In the case of Guru, I can say that lines have been crossed that should’ve never been crossed. I can only be positive for my brother who’s not here and speak the way I know Guru would see it. If he was here looking at Hip Hop, he would say the same thing I’m saying.
Do you consider yourself a part of the Gangstarr legacy?
No. It’s hard to say. I was there for some of the Gangstarr years, so I knew everybody and I knew everything. It was like a family that I’d been adopted into to some degree. It was a dysfunctional family when I got to it, but it wasn’t over. I don’t know. I guess so because they say my name and Guru is Gangstarr. He’s the founder of Gangstarr and the creator of Gangstarr and the fact that he passed and they made so much of a situation out of it, they tied everything together by doing that. To that degree, whether I consider myself or not, it just seems now that all of our fates have been conjoined. When you think of Guru’s legacy and you think of Jazzamatazz and Gangstarr, Solar not coming into the picture would be odd. I think that’s the reality now. Now, would that have been without all of this? I don’t think so.
Check out parts 1 & 2 of this exclusive interview at TheSource.com.
-Sha Be Allah(@KingPenStatus)
