Well, De La Soul are probably one of the most well known and respected hip hop groups around, consisting of the three emcees Posdnuos, Maseo and Dave. They’ve been around since back in ’89 with their first album ‘Three Feet High and Rising’, which included the old time classic tune ‘Me, Myself and I’. There have been few groups that have reached the legendary status of De La, and so the return of the trio has been welcomed by all. They’ve been away for like 4 years, after their last album ‘Stakes Is High’ dropped less smooth beats reminiscent of ‘Three Feet…’ but more hard beats like their second album ‘De La Soul Is Dead’. They seemed to have gone through a transition over time. ‘Three Feet’ and their third album, ‘Buhloone Mind State’, dropped nice smooth, groovy beats. ‘De La Soul is Dead’ and ‘Stakes Is High’, however, showed a versatile De La in that they dropped harder beats, stayin’ true to themselves in that they weren’t gonna slide along with the rapidly commercialising gangsta rap. 1989 – ‘Three Feet and Rising’ brought us the first De La Soul album. ‘Me, Myself and I’ may be one of the most well known tracks of all time.
1991 – ‘De La Soul is Dead” brought a bit of a harder side to De La. Still tight, and still Soulful though.
Whilst not exactly bringing us the more ‘giggly’ beats and lyrics of ‘Three Feet’, De La are still representin’ a more subtle style of rap. They’re not talkin’ about guns and women, they’re just talkin’ about situations, experiences, and lyrical style. This is a fresh break from all the commercial rap that’s out at the moment. There’s not a bad song on the album, it’s the kind you’d just want to put on and listen to all the way through. This can be turned around though, to say that there’s not a stand out track on the album. But this whole album stands out, so it’s ok. There’s been a couple of chart tracks on this album, namely ‘All Good?’ and ‘OOOH’. The two tracks here feature Chaka Khan and Redman respectively, but the album as a whole features such peeps as Busta Rhymes, Xzibit and a couple of the Beastie Boys (to name a few). As such, there’s nothing about this album I can complain about, and the ‘ghostweed’ skits are some of the funniest and most lyrically sound freestyles I’ve heard in quite a while. 1993 – ‘Buhloone Mind State’ brought us back to the more groovy side of De La. It was definetely more mature, but it was still the same kind of style.
1996 – ‘Stakes is High’ brought us a style reminiscent of ‘De La is Dead’ in that its beats were harder (take the title track for example).
So what’s wrong with AOI: Mosaic Thump? Well… not a lot really. De La has always been able to bring fresh beats, and tight lyrics. It’s definetely something different to what we’ve been forced to listen to recently here at HHN, and I definetely can’t winge about how they’re talkin too commercial, cuz they’re pretty much the opposite. All the tracks are good, but the fact that there aren’t any that really just pop out at me and say ‘this is an amazing tune’ (cuz they all do) either suggests to me that this is one of the best albums of 2000, or that there should have been one such tune. Damn good, and definetely nothing wrong with it. Good job by the De La Soul trio! 2000 – De La Soul have now matured into classic hip hoppers, who drop an album worthy of all godly praise (ok, well maybe not godly). Damn….. it’s All Good!
Reviewed By Hip Hop Network for HipHopHotSpot.Com
