Yesterday  hip-hop icon Keith Elam, aka the emcee Guru, died at age 43 reportedly succumbing to cancer following a heart attack last month. Guru, whose name stood for Gifts Unlimited Rhymes Universal, will always be remembered for having been one half (the emcee part) of legendary hip-hop duo Gang Starr along with DJ Premier. Together this emcee and this producer created some of the finest, most memorable hip-hop during the genre's golden era. And despite all of the work over the years Guru did apart from Premier, including the ambitious Jazzmatazz series with Branford Marsalis, Donald Byrd, Roy Ayers and Ronny Jordan, it is the Gang Starr recordings that will forever remain in hip-hop consciousness.

Proof of the power and influence of Gang Starr's music lies in the sheer volume of later hip-hop songs that have sampled or paraphrased Guru's words. Over the years and up to this day Gang Starr song titles and Guru lyrics such as the classic "Just To Get A Rep" or "Mass Appeal" (video above) continue to lend themselves to club night names and mixtape titles. Expect to hear a lot of Gang Starr, songs like "Code of the Streets" (below), on the radio for the next week. Rest in peace, Guru.