Reviews & Recommendations: De La Soul - The TRUE Leaders of the so-called “New School”



Ok. Believe it or not-i’m not one of those guys who thinks you should care about “the first” simply because it’s the first... i mean, ok- maybe in the case of remakes- but here it only adds to my admiration…

If you’re a dumb ass(lol)- you’ve probably said by now “but sah..i thought busta was in LOTNS” and well…yes- he was…but the title of this post is no less true and a closer examination of who it discusses reveals why…

I’m only half sure of when i first “got on” De La Soul, but it must have been fate cuz it was one of 3 ways… as for which came first? I have no idea, but i’m compelled to start with an elder church member…

When i was in highschool, and i’m guessing around junior year (before than i stuck with radio’s direction), an older acquaintance of mine gave me a mix CD he made of the Native Tongue collective- Tribe, Jungle Bros, Black Sheep, Latifah, Monie Luv, LOTNS and De La. i only remember responding to “Buddy” (you prob know of Musiq’s recent song- same name), but many songs from the CD would later become favorites. My second introduction to De La, was by way of my older brother who gave me his Stakes Is High CD (who’s 1996 cover* you might recognize if you’ve scanned my myspace/facebook pages ) and at this point it should’ve been clear that De La was the group for me (i’ll explain why later) but it wasn’t until a redman hook and a discount bootleg that i would really discover who De La Soul were…

Somewhere between 02 and 03, i was fingering through discount bootleg CD’s (no, seriously) and i came across a copy of De La Soul’s Bionix. i can’t remember exactly why i decided to take it home with me (prob the $2 “price tag”) but i did…and before i knew it- i found my way to a certain song at the end of the CD entitled: Trying people

…now “real talk” doesnt quite capture what that song sounded like to me. i mean, by this point i was highly versed in the writings of D. Smith, T. Trotter, R. Lynn, and T. Kweli (you got lucky on that last one *smirk*)- but whereas these men were still visibly chasing the lime light (or at least respect) in their prose…Dove and Pos spoke as if they’d had their fill of all this. As far as i could tell, they wanted nothing more but health and peace of mind….it was:

vulnerable,

strong,

honest,

inspiring,

and mature in a way i’d never heard before…

..and after that, the more and more i looked into these guys, i found it was nothing new about them… i mean sure, they were silly at moments (and you dont even have to be a semi-serious fan to note that), but even in their younger years there was a wisdom deep within De La’s words that was hard to find elsewhere (for me at least)..

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ALBUM #1:

3 Feet High and Rising (1989) is a tad bit more than just “the Me, Myself & I album” ( and i’m sure many would seek to argue what i’m about to say, simply because of the name “dropped” but..) 3 Feet High is to Hip Hop, what Sgt. Pepper was to Rock.

let me tell you why…

There is only ONE other album that provided such an colorful backdrop before the commercial boom of post-80’s hip hop, and that album (Paul’s Boutique- Beastie Boys) was released one month later, but even the Beasties didn’t flex as hard vocally/lyrically as did Trugoy and Pos...