the best of download Download De La Soul's entire back catalogue for free. In a Valentine’s gesture to their fans, hip-hop trio De La Soul are making their entire back catalogue available for free online. For 25 hours, listeners can download the band’s music to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their debut album, , released in 1989. "Check back on Valentine's Day at 11am EST for some de la love," a message on the official De La Soul website read. Much of De La Soul’s seven album repertoire is not usually available online (or at least, not legally), as the many samples used on their tracks are difficult to license. As a result, most of the group’s music is not for sale on digital retail stores such as iTunes. “It’s about allowing our fans who have been looking and trying to get a hold of our music to have access to it,” MC Posdnuos told . “It’s been too long where our fans haven’t had access to everything. This is our way of showing them how much we love them.” Some brand new tunes are expected to appear on De La Soul’s website later this year in the form of their first LP in ten years, You're Welcome . “We’re just getting in the mode of constantly giving people new music,” said Posdnuos. “We’ve sat a long time without releasing an album. It’s high time we start releasing a bunch of stuff because it’s there.” Join our new commenting forum. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. De La Soul – 10 of the best. They weren’t, as they proclaimed, Transmitting Live from Mars, but Long Island MCs Posdnuos and Trugoy the Dove, and their DJ Maseo (AKA Plugs One, Two and Three respectively), might as well have been. Hitting record racks already stuffed with classic by Public Enemy, BDP, EPMD, Big Daddy Kane and Stetsasonic, De La Soul’s 1989 debut 3 Feet High and Rising brought the Daisy Age (da inner sound, y’all) to hip-hop at a time when the culture was hitting full bloom. De La – who were members of the collective alongside the , Queen Latifah and – allied an Afrocentric, boho bent with a nerdy, recording room exuberance that was all their own, linking with free-spirited producer and Stetsasonic DJ for an album packed with kaleidoscopic samples and silly skits. Powered by an infectious central sample of Funkadelic’s (Not Just) Knee Deep, first single Me, Myself and I lit the fuse for 3 Feet’s mainstream explosion, and while the Plugs would grow increasingly weary of performing the song to pop crowds unhip to their oeuvre, the tune’s individualist ethos, if not its aesthetic, would remain central to everything that followed. 2. Say No Go. A classic case of hip-hop flipping a pop record correctly, 3 Feet’s anti-crack track – in the lineage of hard-hitting fare such as Melle Mel’s White Lines and Public Enemy’s Night of the Living Baseheads – nabs its bassline, drums and titular vocal sample from Hall & Oates’ 1981 smash I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do). A less personal precursor to My Brother’s a Basehead (1991), Say No Go showcases the group’s impressive ability to sugar a lyrical pill. Backed by that infectious, blue-eyed soul backdrop, Pos wastes zero time in painting a picture of chemically caused despair: “Now let’s get right on down to the skit / A baby is brought into a world of pits / And if it could’ve talked that soon / In the delivery room / It would’ve asked the nurse for a hit.” There’s also a reverent reference to an old-school hip-hop crew (the Funky Four Plus One) and, of course, an eye for humorous detail: a predilection for stonewash denim is a symptom of drug addiction that’s seldom been chronicled elsewhere. 3. Afro Connections at a Hi-5 (In the Eyes of the Hoodlum) Any possible confusion over their second album’s title − − was ended with its cover art, a simple, sombre illustration of wilted daisies spilling from a cracked, overturned flowerpot. Calling time on the Daisy Age before their sound became pigeonholed, the Plugs unveiled a set that was both astoundingly self-assured and endearingly self-deprecating. While the French-language records and raps about squirrels were jettisoned, the humour remained, albeit drier, a few shades darker and aimed at the increasingly cynical hip-hop world. Here, over a sparse, snapping beat that teams samples of Chuck Jackson, James Brown and, resourcefully, old muckers Stetsasonic, the guys puff blunts and sport multiple beepers as they indulge, ahead of their time, in the type of gangsta parody around which Masta Ace would build his second album, 1993’s Slaughtahouse. Indeed, De La themselves would return to the concept with Ego Trippin’ (Part 2), which riled Tupac Shakur with its allusions to his 1992 hit I Get Around. Their tongue-in-cheek rhymes still land easily on the ear – witness rapper Kurious sampling Posdnuos’ “Now I hold my crotch ’cos I’m top notch” line to great effect on his antisocial, pro-sexual 1991 single Top Notch. 4. Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa. It may be built around an instantly recognisable Funkadelic loop, but the similarities to Me, Myself and I end there. Over the sombre psych-soul of I’ll Stay (and the drums from Melvin Bliss’ 1974 track, Synthetic Substitution), Plugs One and Two relate a haunting, heartbreaking tale of a teenage schoolmate being sexually molested by her father. The MCs’ displaced narration, chronicling Millie’s nightmare but instantly dismissing her claims out of affection for her father, is a masterstroke, making them complicit in a narrative that ends with Millie shooting her father while he works his shift as a department store Santa. From the seemingly seductive spoken-word intro (“If you will suck my soul, I will lick your funky emotions”) to the father’s abrupt death (“Millie bucked him and with the quickness it was over”), the listener can’t help feeling queasily complicit. De La might not get the heavy rotation of Slade and Wizzard in the Card Factory each yuletide, but this song, for different reasons, lodges just as well in the memory. 5. . De La exhaled with 1993’s Buhloone Mind State, dispensing with their trademark skits and narrative arcs for a groove-oriented aesthetic that, in keeping with the times, was relaxed and inflected with soul and . Nowhere is this vibe more evident than on the album’s twinkly first single, which finds Pos and Dove – now, in fact, just plain old Dave – scattering their humble, gem-studded rhymes (not to mention Star Trek, REM and Phil Collins references) over a blissful backdrop that combines samples of ’s I Can’t Help It and ’s Quiet Storm. Somewhat lost in the shuffle of one of hip-hop’s greatest years (it’s mind-boggling that De La’s buddies A Tribe Called Quest released Midnight Marauders on the same day the Wu-Tang Clan dropped their debut), has since gained a reputation as the connoisseur’s choice. Tracks like Breakadawn are the reason why. De La Soul’s 10 of the Best – a YouTube playlist. 6. I Am I Be. Just as Tribe convinced jazz great Ron Carter to lug his bass into the studio for 1991’s The Low End Theory, so De La recruited Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley and Pee Wee Ellis – all from James Brown’s legendary horn section the JBs – to let loose their lips and lungs on Buhloone Mindstate. If their live blowing, co-existing with samples from Lou Rawls’ You’ve Made Me So Very Happy and Jimmy Ponder’s While My Guitar Gently Weeps, brings a level of rawness and maturity to I Am I Be, it’s more than matched by Posdnuos as he delivers rhymes more personal than at any time before. Many MCs boast about dropping jewels, but Pos’s brilliance as an MC lies is his tendency to tuck them within the verses, leaving listeners to peel back layers of metaphor and abstraction. It’s a style that makes his foray into naked autobiography here all the more arresting: “Product of a North Carolina cat / Who scratched the back of a pretty woman named Hattie / Who departed life just a little too soon / And didn’t see me grab the Plug Tune fame / As we go a little somethin’ like this / Look, Ma, no protection / Now I got a daughter called Ayana Monet / Play the cowboy to rustle in the dough / So the scenery is healthy where her eyes lay.” In an era when many a stone-faced MC was mumbling “Keep it real” to champion a grim, steely detachment from their surroundings, De La scored with a different interpretation. 7. . The testy title track from De La’s 1996 fourth album, Stakes Is High remains one of hip-hop’s great State of the Union addresses, a bristling broadside against what the trio saw as the culture’s money-mad artistic unravelling. While the outlook may be jaded, the result is anything but. Plugs One and Two’s sound invigorated over a beat by soon-to-blow producer Jay Dee AKA that riles up an already irate horn sample from Ahmad Jamal’s Swahililand and augments it with a vocal sample from Brown’s Mind Power. With gems such as “gun control means using both hands in my land”, Pos reinforces his own case that “every word of mine should be a hip-hop quotable”, before Dave attacks the industry: “I’m sick of bitches shakin’ asses / I’m sick of talkin’ ’bout blunts, sick of Versace glasses / Sick of slang, sick of half-ass awards shows / Sick of name brand clothes / Sick of R&B bitches over bullshit tracks / Cocaine and crack, which brings sickness to blacks.” While the war may have ultimately been lost (Puffy’s pleather-and-Rolex rap exploded shortly after), De La’s ideals would be upheld by the burgeoning indie movement that would take root in rap’s underground for the rest of the decade. 8. The Hustle. Masters of double meaning and slow-release wordplay, De La could never be charged with lyrical heavy-handedness. That said, their contribution to America Is Dying Slowly, a 1996 Aids awareness record masterminded by the Red Hot organisation, is arguably a little too subtle in conveying the album’s central message. Pos touches on promiscuity in the crew’s line of work (“The mission of many to be lickin’ honey vixens”), but it’s not until the song’s dying bars that Dave gets on message and, having finished paying tribute to Caddyshack actor Ted Knight, tosses out the line: “Ima strap it when Hon wants to tap it.” Of course, none of this matters in the slightest, as The Hustle is basically 3 minutes and 53 seconds of Pos and Trugoy rocking the mic over production by New York stalwarts the Beatminerz. It’s a tougher sound for the Plugs, and it suits them. 9. Oooh. Ably assisted by Redman, the Plugs commandeer the dancefloor with this ebullient lead single from Mosaic Thump (their fifth album and the first in a mooted trilogy that stalled with the following year’s sequel, Bionix). While the gloriously silly, cameo-crammed video riffs on The Wizard of Oz and its black remake The Wiz, the track itself has a back-in-the-fold Prince Paul getting similarly cinematic in his sampling. Giving The Night Before Christmas a hip-hop makeover, Dave laments how burglars “took all the goodies out from under the tree, except the CDs / of shiny-suit rappers and flossin’ MCs”. 10. Rock Co. Kane Flow. “They say the good die young, so I added some badass flavour to prolong my life over the drums,” relates Pos on this single from 2004’s . With Dave and Pos puffing out their chests and going toe to toe with the metal-faced supervillain MF Doom, it’s no idle boast. It’s not hard to see why the De La boys might feel a kinship with their guest: as Zev Love X, Doom had been one third of KMD, whose skit-centric, playful debut, Mr Hood, preceded an altogether darker encore: 1993’s Black Bastards, shelved by Elektra because of Doom’s provocative cover illustration of the group’s ironic “sambo” mascot hanging from a noose. Certainly, the chemistry between the Plugs and their guest is impeccable as they careen but never collide over a tempo-changing beat by Seattle’s , wreaking havoc with a murderously chopped sample of Deliverance by French electro pioneers Space. With the MCs serving up a masterclass in mic technique (check out their breathlessly accelerated flows over the beat’s shuddering, stimulating breakdowns), you can’t blame Pos for giving his crew a glowing career appraisal: “Everyone cools off from being hot / It’s about if you can handle being cold or not / And we was told to hop on no one’s dick by Prince Paul / We stayed original ever since, y’all / First to do a lot in the rap game but the last to say it, no need to put it on the scales to weigh it.” Here’s to their continued longevity. Humanizing The Vacuum. Alfred Soto's blog about movies, music, books, and politics. Ranking albums. When And the Anonymous Nobody proved a distended, rambling comeback in 2016, I was devastated. Learning about the drying up of their income made, to quote one of their lyrics, the stakes high (“We’re in the Library of Congress, but we’re not on iTunes,” aka Posdnuos said at the time). One of the most unimpeachable run of albums in the last thirty remains unknown to millennials, and there’s been no redress. I fiddled with the order of the following albums more than usual. Aware that I still haven’t head 2002’s AOI: Bionix , I debated addressing 1996’s monochromatic Stakes is High , then said fuck it, it’s my list. Thank you, Posdnuos, Trugoy the Dove, and Maseo, for helping me learn to love the . 1. Timeless: The Singles Collection (2003) To insist that this is the only album the casual fan need own, especially when the availability of their catalog remains a consummate disgrace, is to decide that only this chapter of De La Soul’s story deserves telling. So shrewd was the trio whom Arsenio Hall, offering a compliment, called the of hip-hop that they bait this comp with 12″ mixes of their snappiest 3 Feet High and Rising singles, including the Native Tongue version of “Buddy.” The choices from Stakes is High make a case for that bone-dry album. In the final stretch Chaka Khan gives this essential album-yes- album a finger-kissed send-off. 2. Buhloone Mindstate (1993) “It might blow up, but it won’t go pop,” Mase boasts with a hint of defensiveness on “Pattie Dooke,” and for a third of Buhloone Mindstate I’m inclined to agree. Upon its release De La Soul found themselves in a most perplexing position. It was no longer a question of being too different; Digable Planets and A Tribe Called Quest scored their biggest hits integrating jazz samples like the ones that give Buhloone Mindstate their definition. Yet it’s De La’s finest album anyway, a standout for its buoyancy and the finesse with which the raps and samples syncopate. Compare souffle to cake. “Eye Patch and “En Focus” are charming if unmemorable warm-ups for the trio of jazz-education numbers which follow. The album doesn’t really get going until “Ego Trippin’,” on which Posdonus does his ego trippin’ on terra firma, where it belongs. But when he declares, “I’m the greatest MC in the world!” it’s his giddiness talking, not his ego. The rest of Buhloone Mindstate is superfly. “In the Woods” features Shorty, a female rapper whose talents are as prodigious as Digable Planets’ Ladybug); she’s like Roxanne Shante sired by Dr. Seuss, especially when she confides, “I got much soul on the down-low tip.” Elevating the joy of rhyming for its own sake into a world-historic truth, I once wrote, is perhaps De La Soul’s greatest contribution to music. 3. 3 Feet High and Rising (1989) If not Buhloone Mindstate , then this artifact of the Daisy Age would rule. Despite topping 1989’s Pazz and Jop poll, support remained in flux; it is forgotten that listeners over thirty unable to deny its pleasures balked at what we appreciate now. “Three-to-four-minute song lengths looked like pop moves and sounded like deconstruction, a title that evokes the music’s childlike growing pains turned into a dick joke, the beat didn’t go on, and oldsters who don’t tumesce at the drop of a sample found themselves enjoying the group at a distance,” wrote in the poll’s accompanying essay about this cohort of greybeards, and he was a fan! Afloat but not weightless, the tracks force listeners to accommodate to them, and the approach still woos younger fans like Noname. The Hall and Oates and samples strip them of their white rock underpinnings, recontextualizing their choruses as chants and boasts recognizable to a young hip-hop crowd. Maybe that’s why “Me Myself and I” took off: George Clinton’s sensibilities allowed for snugger mind-meld. “De La Orgee” is the only mistake. If we greybeards can dis De La Soul for one development, it’s this: here’s the birthplace of the interludes. 4. Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump (2001) Sitting out the Puff era, whether intentionally or because of financial considerations, proved wise. This 2000 album shows a recharged Posdnous and Dove (mostly) producing themselves, shaping beats that thump and have the density of mosaics. “Thru Ya City” and “My Writes” Their talented friends help: Chaka Khan sings the hook on “All Good?,” Mike D and Ad-Rock add hopped-up verses to “Squat!” and Busta gives “I.C. Y’all” its goofball esprit de corps. 5. The Grind Date (2004) For the only time in their careers the mix smells like a million bucks. They wanted a hit, perhaps needed one. J. Dilla and lavished time on these beats; The Grind Date was never going to compete with 50 Cent and Ludacris, so this crew populate a proximate reality. “We don’t hunger for beats/Not that we not hungry, just picky in what we eat,” Posdonus asserts on “Verbal Clap.” The aural spritz allows them to comment implicitly on trends in hip-hop their careers have abjured: on “Shopping Bags” they praise a free-spending girlfriend, “the avenue her runway”; they humanize Bill Cosby’s scolding of the black community on “Church.” Ghostface and give splendid cameos. As of this afternoon The Grind Date is the only De La album available on Spotify. Do them and you a favor and stream, or, better, buy it. 6. De La Soul is Dead (1991) In which they repudiate the good times promised by their debut, often with a scowl: “Bittie’s in the BK Lounge” calls shit on a Burger King cashier who gives them a second look only when they play the star card. Frustrated by the backlash to 3 Feet High & Rising, unaware that PM Dawn were going to get worse in a few months, Prince Paul sticks to what they know, going manic on the sampling — the rap equivalent of Sandy Pearlman’s mixing up the guitars and drums on The Clash’s Give’em Enough Rope . The re-introduction “Pease Porridge” is a stiletto wrapped in velvet; when Mase wonders, “Why do people think just because we speak peace/We can’t blow no joints?” Adducing their imagination and empathy, often synonymous, as well as their prescience, “Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa” takes the side of a child abuse victim whom no one believes. A shaft of light: “A Roller Skating Jam Named ‘Saturdays,'” best appreciated in its Ladies Night Decision Mix. The best of de la soul album download. Ranking De La Soul’s Albums : There can never be enough praise for De La Soul. Their status in Hip Hop is virtually unparalleled – no other group (with the possible exception of Public Enemy and The Roots) can boast the same longevity, never wavering authenticity, and consistent A+ quality output. Ranking De La Soul’s albums is not an easy task, as the first four are all absolute Hip Hop classics and the rest is way above average too – there’s not a bad record or any real misstep in their whole catalog. With that said, let’s get into it! 9. Plug 1 & Plug 2 Present. First Serve (2012) Technically not a De La Soul album (because officially Maseo was not involved) I decided to include it on this list anyway because in spirit it really is a De La Soul album, and two-thirds of the group being involved is enough for me. On this concept album, Pos and Dave adopt the persona of “First Serve”, a Hip Hop band trying to make it in the music industry in the late 1990s. It details the rise, breakup, and reunion of First Serve. Concept albums are always tricky to pull off and while there certainly are a bunch of better ones in Hip Hop (artists like Prince Paul, Masta Ace, Del and Kool Keith are renowned masters of that particular art), First Serve is easily up there with the better albums of 2012. Regrettably, the album went largely unnoticed, mainly because of lack of promotion. First Serve is a dope album nevertheless and even if there are no real stand-out tracks and they overdid this time with the skits, the album showcases De La’s innovative style and dope lyrical skills as always. If you love the De La Soul’s other work and you somehow slept on this album, you could do worse than to go check this one out. 8. Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump (2000) After 4 straight creative masterpieces ( 3ft High & Rising , De La Soul Is Dead , Buhloone Mindstate , and Stakes Is High ), it was almost inevitable that De La Soul would one day release an album that is not an absolute classic. Even though Art Official Intelli gence: Mosaic Thump may not be their most memorable or greatest effort, it still is heads and shoulders above most other Hip Hop released at the turn of the century. Everybody knows the singles “Oooh” (with Redman) and “All Good” (with Chaka Khan), but for me the standout track here is “Set The Mood”, with a crazy beat and dope bars from Pos and guest emcee Indeed. There are a few tracks and beats that do not really work, but overall AOI: Mosaic Thump is a good, if not great, De La Soul album. 7. AOI: Bionix (2001) I always considered AOI: Bionix to be the most underappreciated album in De La Soul’s catalog. But even if it is somewhat better than AOI: Mosaic Thump (the first part of what was intended to be a trilogy), it is not perfect as De La’s first four were. Unlike on their first albums, the skits on this one distract a little, which takes away some enjoyment – but the majority of the songs hit the spot. Some great and very clever tracks on here – “Baby Phat” and “Held Down” come to mind – some great guest spots (Slick Rick, B-Real and Cee- Lo Green in particular), and some great variety on the production side make this one another De La Soul keeper. 6. and the Anonymous Nobody. (2016) Twelve years after the excellent The Grind Date , and the Anonymous Nobody… seamlessly continues what De La Soul has always done: putting out quality music, this time pushing boundaries with genre-bending compositions and some very surprising guests. If there’s a drawback it may be that there are a little too many guests on the album, and consequently not enough De La Soul. But that’s a minor quibble, as the guests mostly bring the goods to complement De La’s vibe, resulting in some unexpected and intriguing tracks. Not for everybody, and the Anonymous Nobody… nevertheless is a more than solid piece of music, that may be a slow burn but without a doubt will be recognized as special album in the future. 5. The Grind Date (2004) Everybody will recognize the fact that De La Soul dropped more than one classic album, but strangely enough De La’s 2004 release The Grind Date (their 7th album) is rarely mentioned when discussing their best records. It should be, though. The Grind Date is tighter and leaner than other De La releases (no skits, which is something a lot of people can appreciate, I know I do) and it boasts production of Madlib, J Dilla, 9th Wonder, with guest spots of MF DOOM (with an epic verse on “Rock Co.Kane Flow”), Common, and others. If you somehow missed The Grind Date – now’s the time to check it out. This is an outstanding album, and easily one of 2004’s best. 4. Buhloone Mindstate (1993) De La Soul‘s third album, De La Soul’s third masterpiece. Buhloone Mind State may just be the most underappreciated album of De La Soul’s first four. The reason for that probably is that it has less commercial appeal than the others (“It might blow-up but it won’t go ‘pop'”). Artistically it is every bit as strong, though – cohesive and consistent throughout – another artistic peak for both De La Soul and producer Prince Paul. “Area”, “I Am I Be”, “Eyepatch”, “Breakadawn”, “Ego Trippin’ Pt 2” and more – there’s no shortage of super dope tracks on this one. De La Soul’s first four albums are all classics, this one is definitely up there with the others. 3. Stakes Is High (1996) Yet another De La Soul masterpiece. All of their first four albums are classics in their own right, this one was their most mature and confident effort up till then. No gimmicks, no frills, just straight up Hip Hop. “Big Brother Beat” with Mos Def, “The Bizness” with Common, “Supa Emcees” and the prophetic and important “Stakes Is High” title track are just four of the seventeen outstanding tracks on this album. Almost a decade in the game at this point, De La Soul was still fresh and far from going stale. 2. De La Soul Is Dead (1991) De La Soul Is Dead is a long album, but packed with brilliance, musically and lyrically. “A Roller Skating Jam Named ‘Saturdays'”, “Bitties In The BK Lounge”, “Afro Connections At A Hi 5”, “Keepin’ The Faith”, “My Brother’s A Basehead”, “Ring Ring Ring” and the monumental “Millie Pulled A Pistol On Santa”, the album is literally packed with awesome songs. A marked change in style and feel to their equally brilliant debut 3 Feet High & Rising , De La Soul Is Dead showed a darker and more contemplative side of De La Soul. Gone is the happy-go-lucky positivity of their debut, instead we get De La’s disillusioned vision on the state of Hip Hop, which would turn out to be highly prophetic. This album was so ahead of its time, Hip Hop still hasn’t caught up yet. 1. 3 Feet High & Rising (1989) Innovative and hugely influential – this cooperation between De La Soul and producer Prince Paul is truly a landmark album in Hip Hop (and music in general). This album introduced the skit to Hip Hop albums; and although skits more often irritate than add value, on this album they work. De La Soul more or less invented the rap-skit and they remain one of the very few acts who know how to use it (although on some of their later albums they misfired sometimes on the skits front). Where in 95% of the cases skits do not add anything, except annoying breaks in the flow of albums, De La actually knew how to use skits in the right way – to give a thematic and coherent feel to an album. The whole album is consistent and all the songs are awesome – no filler tracks here. Clever wordplay, deft rhymes, playful production, positivity, and fun: 3 Feet High And Rising represented a new direction for Hip Hop, clearly a reaction to cliches already emerging in Hip Hop, even in its early years. De La Soul’s debut is a must-have for anyone who loves Hip Hop and an all-time classic. Why You Can't Find Early De La Soul Albums on iTunes. Most people are familiar with the sad state of affairs that ' catalog is not available on iTunes, but there's another missing swath of music from the store: a lot of early hip hop. Hip hop historian Jeff Chang and Guardian journalist Angus Batey posted a great email exchange in which they discuss the reasons that old hip hop is being left out of the digital music transition. Jeff : I find it infuriating that right now it is impossible to find De La Soul's first 6 albums for legal download on iTunes in the U.S. The last one came out in 2001! Yet major labels would never let a Jackson Browne album or an obscure new wave band with primarily local appeal, like Translator, go out of print. That's not to diss Jackson Browne or Translator, both of whom I've liked, it's to make the provocative argument that major labels place a low value on Black music not currently on the pop charts. Angus : Why, do you think, hip hop history has been so neglected by the same music business institutions that are so very alive to the commercial up-side of exploiting their catalogues in other genres? Jeff : What we are left with is not quite a racist conspiracy. But the accumulated devaluing of Black music works like institutional racism-all of the little things add up to a vast and widening hole in the American memory about the cultural legacy of Black artists.