On July 24th, Big Shug is releasing I.M. 4-Eva. He is also dropping a hard back, 36 page book chronicling The True History of Gang Starr as told by Big Shug, plus anecdotes from his 20+ year career. Excerpts and album leak below:

BIG SHUG ON THE ORIGINS OF GANGSTARR

“We had the group and then we needed the name. We came up with Gang Starr. Guru came up with it. What it meant was that we part of a gang. I was part of the gang Mattapan Connection, better known as MPC, and Guru was like a star student, Rhodes Scholar type shit and all that. So therefore, we figure let’s just connect it and make it Gang Starr. I wanted to be called Gangstas first, but we figured Gang Starr would be safer. That’s why if anyone ever caught us in the early days, Guru was real fashionable in his approach and his appearance and my shit was always more gangster. We used to bring fake guns on stage before Onyx and all that. So that was the element.”

BIG SHUG ON THE END OF HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH GURU

“I remember telling Guru I thought Solaar was a sucker. I asked him to get some water, and we were performing on stage, and he said OK but he didn’t do it. I was like ‘Yo, does your boy think he’s part of the clique?’ And then he started being out with Guru but not us. We were in Utah and Guru actually left with that dude, he left the tour. We had two shows to do. Guru left and we ended up doing the show without him, a Gang Starr show. We did mad songs, Premier DJed and did a lot of the joints, we had the crowd singing along or whatever. It was crazy. Guru called me afterwards and said he and Solaar wanted to tour but that he wanted to bring me too. He wanted me to speak to his boy Solaar. This was when Solaar was still new with him. I said, ‘Yea I’ll speak to the boy.’ He put him on, and he said something, and because of the way I was talking to him, Guru said ‘Yo, I don’t feel how you talking to my man,’ shit like that. Then he said ‘We ain’t even gonna take you.’ Then I started screaming on them, both of em. I never heard from them again after that shit. Next thing you know I was speaking at the memorial.”

Download: Big Shug-For The Real (ft. Slaine, Termanology, Reks, & Singapore Kane)