Down with tha De La

I began listening to De La Soul in 1989 with the release of their hip hop classic 3 Feet High and Rising. I bought it on cassette and later upgraded to CD because let's face it, what's a cassette? On a side note, it's kind of sad when you think about it. Sony doesn't even make the Walkman cassette player anymore. Any way I digress.

De La Soul are in my top five hip hop groups of all time. I think what sets them apart is their quirkiness, complex style, and what I like to call 'jazz hop'. This power trio from Long Island broke through in the early 90's when rap wars were becoming more apparent and they served (to me) as a breath of fresh air. On a similar note, De La Soul could also be considered pioneers in the hip hop game. I like to separate rap from hip hop because to me, rap is mainly flaunting money, cars, and girls whereas hip hop actually has a message; whether it be political, philosophical, or insightful. The three band mates, Plug One, Two, and Three as they liked to be known, brought something fresh in and I latched onto to it without a doubt. So without further ado, I present 1996's Stakes is High.

What sets this record apart from other De La Soul releases is that it was the first time the band did not collaborate with Prince Paul, their previous producer. So to me, it gave it a bit more of an edge and lost some of the D.A.I.S.Y. (da inner soul, ya'll) Age, as they'd like to call it, persona. This was also the platform for one of the best hip hop artists today; Mos Def. It also features another current hot rhyme master, Common. Both Mos and Common rank high in my catalog as do De La Soul.

Now I'm not going to go through every track like previous posts because it's hard to explain in words what these guys are all about. Here are a few samples; complete with Maury Povich:

All in all, I like this album. It's by no means my favorite, but I'm going to keep this one on hard copy. I picked this CD up in 2000 I think. This is one that going back and listening to makes me appreciate it even more. I do pull this one off the shelf at least 3-4 times a year just break things up. A good one to own.

Well it's silly of me To think that I Would never get a chance to see A piece of this pie I sat dead in front of speakers Thinkin' that could be me Anticipatin' open microphones So I could emcee

- From "The Breaks"