De La Soul is Dead

De La Soul

Released on 13/05/1991 by AOI Records
Main artists: De La Soul
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap

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3 Feet High and Rising was almost universally acclaimed, but De La Soul still felt a bit misunderstood—and even a bit defensive about it. So while the title De La Soul is Dead is just as much a hyperbolic "wouldn't this be a funny title for a second album" gag as it is an actual mission statement, it's also a way of reining in the debut's we-can-do-anything sprawl to focus a bit more on some of the things people didn't necessarily expect of them. De La Soul is Dead refines the known quantities of their style: Pos and Dave are still every bit the kind of MCs who will sound approachably conversational and unpredictably complex in their flows, Maseo and Prince Paul's DJ/production flourishes are still hilariously tongue-in-cheek and filled with inspired post-genre juxtapositions (the first bassline on the album, in "Oodles of O's," comes from an early Tom Waits song), and the humor is still frenetic and idiosyncratic and crammed with elaborate inside jokes. But the mood's soured noticeably, and in ways that add a quickly-earned cynicism to the mix. That's clear from the framing skits where a bunch of teens roast the album for not being "hardcore" enough, the fame-fatigued stories of getting into fistfights on tour ("Pease Porridge") and dealing with people fiending for a co-sign foot in the door ("Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)"), and a handful of highlights that draw on the bleaker moments of their real-world experience—molestation victim revenge story "Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa" chief amongst them. But that these moments are expertly mixed in with some of their most upbeat material—the comedic dozens in "Bitties in the BK Lounge," the euphoric roller-disco nostalgia of "A Roller Skating Jam Named 'Saturdays,'" a three-song run at the end ("Shwingalokate," "Fanatic of the B Word," and "Keepin' the Faith") which leaves an outwardly bitter album on a glorious high note of funky boom-bap party jams—that leave an unspoken long live De La Soul lingering at the end of that title. De La Soul is Dead might've cast a pall on the day-glo rep burnished by their debut but another facet to the group was revealed that would not only sustain them but gave them even more freedom to be who they wanted. © Nate Patrin/Qobuz

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De La Soul is Dead

De La Soul

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Intro Explicit

00:02:14

David Jolicoeur, Composer - Kelvin Mercer, Composer - Prince Paul, Producer - Michael Fossenkemper, MasteringEngineer - De La Soul, Producer, MainArtist - Paul Huston, Composer - Vincent Mason, Composer - Scotty Hard, MixingEngineer - Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Co/Daisy Age Music, MusicPublisher - Prinse Pawl Musick Inc (BMI), MusicPublisher