This week, we're talking about one of our favorite records ever, "De La Soul is Dead"! It was De La Soul's second album, after their first album's single "Me Myself and I" was a huge hit. We talk about the frame stories, the hilarious comedy interludes, the fantastic sampling, and the general amazingness of this big deal album.
NOTES / DON'T @ US:
- We know that diss tracks weren’t invented in 1995 or whatever. For instance, here's an awesome one from 1981 where Kool Moe Dee destroys Busy Bee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86XG7gw4RIA
- We know we did some broad brush characterization of 80s and 90s rap. There were a ton of MCs who weren't arrogant and a ton of DJs who had creative samples. We were talking about the Top 40 and MTV stuff that we (and the general public) were aware of.
- There’s a whole epic legal story of samples and record companies and catalogs being bought and sold surrounding the lack of De La Soul’s online availability. We kind of gave both sides of the argument in our sloppy way, but, as we said, we don’t know enough of the details to have a good opinion on it. Google it.
- It should be noted that though this is my (Dan's) favorite DLS album, their next one, "Buhloone Mindstate", was probably their strongest. And the one Trugoy and Posdnuos did with French DJs Chokolate and Khalid in 2012, "Plug 1 & Plug 2 Present... First Serve" is their funkiest. "First Serve" is their rap opera of a duo's rise to fame and it freaking bangs. It's slamming.
- The clips are from "Afro Connections at a Hi 5 (In the Eye of the Hoodlum)", "Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa", "A Roller Skating Jam Named 'Saturdays' ", "Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)", "Bitties in the BK Lounge", "Skit 2", and "My Brother's a Basehead", all from "De La Soul is Dead" and with legally complicated copyright attribution. (Again, Google it.) Clips used under Fair Use for criticism purposes. Please buy De La's albums because they rule.
