De La Soul Is Dead

by

De La Soul

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Here it is- the album that got me into hip hop, summer of '94. This album has it all- thematic flow, classic rhymes, unbelievable (as in you will not believe it) production (damn it's dense, almost Paul's Boutique dense), smart-ass silly skits, and an unerring ear for samples and references... It Showcases Prince Paul at the height of his abilities. This is one of those albums that knocks you over.

My second semester in college I even used the "Hey, How ya doin, sorry ya can't get through" line as my answering machine message... yeah, well, it seemed clever at the time...

As an angry little punk rock kid from the early nineties, I possessed an deep-seated knee-jerk twinge of 'uhg.' to hip hop in general- This album changed that. I still have the tape that I *aherm* 'borrowed' from my girlfriend that summer. Before I was into KRS-ONE, before I could tell the 'funky drummer' beat from the 'Sing a Simple Song' beat, before Paul's Boutique, before ATCQ, before Wu-Tang and Digable Planets and all my indie hip hop faves from the college years, before all of them there is De La Soul is Dead.

I'm sure that one day I'll be old and senile, unable to recall my grandchildren's names correctly, and under my breath I'll be wheezing the back and forth insults/rhymes from "Biddies," and the "Here in frogland, we always eat our porridge cuz it keeps us frogs real peaceful like," from "Peas Porridge."

Classic golden age hip hop. But it remains to be said that De La (unlike everyone else) have not put out one lame album. Not ONE. Damn.

Easily one of my favorite albums (not just hip hop) of all time. Along with "3 Feet High and Rising", "De La Soul is Dead" is masterfully crafted, sampling music history and mixing in a concept album with lyrics that are literally out of this world and when read and comprehended, rival any of the best hip hop lyrics ever written. I dare you to play "Schwingalokate" as loud as you can, and if you aren't moving every joint in your body, then you have no soul. The album is a joy to listen to from a creative standpoint, but it's also fun and funky, the way hip hop should've always been.

Now, the reason for the 3 star review is because the VINYL LP reissue cuts out 2 classic songs. "My brother's a basehead" and "Afro connections..." were cut out along with "Kicked out the house" to make everything fit onto 1 LP. For me, this is unacceptable! The label clearly wanted to save money and make everything fit onto 1 LP and buy doing so are robbing people who want a high quality vinyl the experience of the whole album. I'm sure De La would not approve. Be wary of buying the reissued LP because it's not the complete album.