I'll start it off- copped it on this past Fri. and have been listening to it over the last few days. Not a bad album and I'm impressed with the experimental concept of the record- I've always respected De La for taking musical and Hip Hop risks and, more often than not, I've loved the results.

There are some good joints on this album and some are starting to grow on me. My 2 biggest beefs with this album is that 1.) it gets too experimental at times for a 40+ year old true hip hop and Day 1 De La fan and that leads me to my 2nd gripe- .2) I know that they experimented with a versatile group of real musicians both for the tracks and additional contributions but I buy a De La record to hear De La- not 3 or 4 minutes of some other singers and/or musicians doing something that's not hip hop.

Still, it's definately worth checking out. The effort is more than respectable.

Saved the album to my offline content on tidal, but havent listened to it quite yet. Ive heard that when the album is good, its GREAT. But when its bad, its REALLY bad. Would you agree? Nevertheless, De La Soul have always been forward-thinkers, a real rarity especially in hip-hop. The genre has really gotten severely damaged due to some of these newer rappers stinkin' up the place, so its a breath of fresh air that there's still mc's out there that give enough of a shit to experiment and appreciate the genre enough to push it's envelope.

Just not feeling their new stuf! I'm a big fan of their old stuff. Its too bad...maybe they need to get back with old producers or smoke more weed.

The rockier stuff is super corny. It's their worst album, but still has a few great tracks.

Property of spitkicker.com is fucking dope on so many levels. But yeah I agree, the rockier stuff is no good. Not even David Byrne could save his track, and this is the man behind Talking Heads we're talking about here! They could have used an editor though, an outside ear to tell them the shit is good or bad. But hey whatever, props to them for trying new things, even if they fell flat on their face.

It's more conceptual and musical than any of their prior albums. Definitely a different direction from The Grind Date, which was loaded with great beats from the late J Dilla. But aTAN is enjoyable enough. Like kygermo, I am happy to follow them in new directions regardless of whether they hit or miss, because they're one of the greatest groups in hip-hop history.

Congratulations to De La Soul on their #1 Rap Album Billboard debut.

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Okayplayer reports the album "has also landed at No. 2 on Billboard’s Independent Albums chart and No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 200 chart."

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http://www.okayplayer.com/news/de-la-souls-first-album-in-12-years-debuts-at-no-1-on-billboard-rap-albums-chart.html

Hey - is this the album that was Kickstarter funded?

namepeace said:

It's more conceptual and musical than any of their prior albums. Definitely a different direction from The Grind Date, which was loaded with great beats from the late J Dilla. But aTAN is enjoyable enough. Like kygermo, I am happy to follow them in new directions regardless of whether they hit or miss, because they're one of the greatest groups in hip-hop history.

I expect it to be different because, well, Dilla's been GONE for ten years, and they were working with him TWENTY years ago (Stakes Is High).

Their approach is definitely intriguing, even if I'm not super into all of the results (not unlike the spirit of Prince's experiments)

Cinny said:

namepeace said:

It's more conceptual and musical than any of their prior albums. Definitely a different direction from The Grind Date, which was loaded with great beats from the late J Dilla. But aTAN is enjoyable enough. Like kygermo, I am happy to follow them in new directions regardless of whether they hit or miss, because they're one of the greatest groups in hip-hop history.

I expect it to be different because, well, Dilla's been GONE for ten years, and they were working with him TWENTY years ago (Stakes Is High).

Their approach is definitely intriguing, even if I'm not super into all of the results (not unlike the spirit of Prince's experiments)

Agreed on all fronts. I was really referring to a prior poster who complained about the different sound and who wanted them to get back to their boom bap style.

[Edited 9/11/16 17:16pm]

So since my original post about this, I've given the album several more listens and it's grown on me. I'm still not too big on the rock tracks in the middle of the album but there are several songs that I'm starting to feel. That said- this album will be getting steady replay from me for the next several weeks unless something better comes out.

Far from my favorite De La album but this one keeps the they've-never-made-a-wack-album streak in tact.