Guru of hip-hop veterans Gang Starr was pistol-whipped and robbed of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry outside a Queens, N.Y., recording studio in the early morning hours Friday, police said.

Guru (born Keith Elam) allegedly was attacked as he exited a recording studio at 87-47B 78th St. in the Queens neighborhood of Richmond Hill at 2:20 a.m. He was retrieving some compact discs from his 1999 Mercedes Benz, according to Officer Valarie St. Rose of New York City Police Department's office of public information.

Once outside the studio, Guru was approached by three men, one of whom displayed a handgun and then began to pistol whip the rapper, St. Rose added.

The men then took a diamond encrusted Rolex watch valued at $6,000 and a gold chain said to be worth $1,700, she said. The alleged attackers were frightened off when an unidentified male approached the scene, St. Rose explained, adding that the suspects let off one shot before disappearing.

Guru, 37, was taken to Jamaica Hospital and was treated and released with cuts and bruises.

Guru's attorney, Owen Lamb, said Monday (Jan. 11) that the rapper is doing well. "He's fine," Lamb said Monday afternoon. "He's dealing with a lot of stress right now."

According to St. Rose, police haven't made any arrests and currently have no suspects.

Reached Monday afternoon through his lawyer, Guru vented his frustration and anger following the alleged robbery and assault.

"What the f--- do you want?" he said. "What the f--- do you want to know? Do you want to know how f---ed up sh-- is here in the ghetto?"

"I don't make a lot of money," he continued, "I've never gone platinum."

Gang Starr, which also includes producer DJ Premier (born Chris Martin), were formed in 1988 in New York. Their first album, No More Mr. Nice Guy, came out on WildPitch in 1989 and featured such songs as "Jazz Music" and "Positivity" -- two songs that indicated the thoughtful rap underscored by jazz samples that the group would use in the future. Its major label debut, Step In The Arena, came out in 1991. It was followed in 1992 by Daily Operation, which featured such songs as "Ex Girl To The Next Girl" and "Conspiracy."

Guru's first solo project, Guru's Jazzmatazz Vol. 1, came out a year later; it was a jazz/hip-hop collaboration that included appearances by jazz musicians Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd and Lonnie Liston, among others. The next year found Guru back with DJ Premier for Hard To Earn, followed in 1995 with another Jazzmatazz album.

Last year, the Gang Starr earned a gold album (500,000 copies sold) for the first time with Moment of Truth. The album scored a hit with "You Know My Steez" (RealAudio excerpt) and also contained such songs as "Above The Clouds" (RealAudio excerpt) and "The Militia."

Gang Starr celebrated their success by joining last year's Smokin' Grooves tour, a hip-hop-centric festival tour that also included fellow hip-hop vets Public Enemy and Cypress Hill, chart-toppers Busta Rhymes and Wyclef Jean and newcomers Black Eyed Peas and M.O.P., who shared the stage with Gang Starr during their set.

The group currently is scheduled to release a greatest hits collection, Full Clip: A Decade of Gang Starr, in March.

The assault and robbery of Guru is the latest in a number of violent incidents involving hip-hop artists. It is third attack in less than a year on a hip-hop star.

On June 30 Wu-Tang Clan rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard (born Russell Jones) was shot in the back during a push-in robbery at a Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment, police said. Rapper Foxy Brown (born Inga Marchand) was the victim of a similar robbery attempt July 8 at her mother's brownstone in Brooklyn. No one was injured in the incident and the suspects were scared off before anything was stolen.

Police have no suspects in any of these cases and do not suspect they are related, according to St. Rose.

But the increasing reports of violence in the hip-hop community have not been limited to artists. Blaze editor Jesse Washington claimed last year that rapper Wyclef Jean pulled a gun on him over a review the magazine was going to run about Canibus' Can-I-Bus, an album Wyclef produced. Washington also allegedly was beaten in November by hip-hop producer Deric "D-dot" Angelettie and three other men in Blaze's offices.

The suspects, who have pleaded not guilty to charges of second degree assault and fourth degree possession of a weapon, allegedly assaulted Washington because his magazine ran a picture identifying Angelettie as "The Mad Rapper," a character whose real identity had been unknown to all but a handful of insiders.

An anonymous employee of the studio that Guru was said to be leaving at the time of the crime claimed that it is believed the assailants were tipped off that Guru was there, according a New York Daily News story on the attack.

"This is the first time something like this has happened," the employee told the Daily News. "Somehow it must have leaked out he was here. It doesn't appear to have been a random act."