De La Soul is one of the greatest rap groups in the history of the music. That's not hyperbole. In a world where there are few rap groups left standing, De La's been together, performing, recording for almost 30 years now, a feat matched only by Public Enemy. And they are not just a relic from the past. Last year, they released their own crowd-sourced classic and the Anonymous Nobody…, perhaps the only album ever to feature both David Byrne and 2 Chainz. Even more recently they've been grabbing headlines for their scene-stealing appearance on Gorillaz's acclaimed new album Humanz , and this summer sees the trio poised for yet another year as a summer music festival staple at events like Osheaga and Sónar.
De La Soul, from the soul, consists of: Posdnous, Trugoy (Dave), and the DJ Mase, all hailing from Amityville, Long Island—30 miles from Manhattan but a world away from the hustle and bustle of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. They burst on the scene at a time when dookie gold chains were getting dookier, James Brown sampling was en vogue, and ghettos throughout the US were being littered with the hubris from crack cocaine.De La and the collective that they belonged to, The Native Tongues, influenced a generation of rap, and their presence is still felt in present day music. They wore leather medallions and dashikis, and they had "strange" haircuts. De La Soul were the second group from the collective to emphasize love, peace, unity, and having fun. They repped an acronym, Da. Inner. Sound. Ya'll, which the media loved, taking that D.AI.S.Y. designation and dubbing De La hippies. That image was the source of their early popularity, but De La Soul has often been pigeonholed by their debut album 3 Feet High and Rising and their sophomore album De La Soul is Dead. It's as if their catalog dies there for most people. There's also a catch-22 because, given the group's sample-heavy approach, only their most recent albums are available through digital streaming services, which means that newcomers might not check out those classic works, either.Continue reading on Noisey.
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