De La might have the best beats in Hip-Hop

5.3.23 Rocks (Prod. Mike Keyz)

The 2nd verse was a true build & the first was a true story.. I had to turn in sumthin new to the label for some reason.. and that was what was goin on in my life at the moment, a change of scenery. So i chose to write about that feeling of jumpin out there to take a risk, just like my fam & I did by moving 2 hours away from where we've lived most of our lives. 

Prod by Slimkat78

I Gotta Move by the1978ers ft. Mr HU

3 Feet High and Rising

Intro

Buhloone Mindstate

Breakadawn

Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump

With Me

AOI: Bionix

What We Do (For Love) [feat. Slick Rick]

Stakes Is High

Long Island Degrees

On and On (Q-Tip & Phife Dawg)

Roll Another One by smokethatdank

Phife Dawg - Nutshell produced by J.Dilla

It Ain't Hard To Tell

Life Outside The Frame

Rise Above

It's A Love Thing

It's A Love Thing (feat. CL Smooth & Denosh)

We Do It Remixes

We Do It (Jazz Spastiks Remix)

Welcome 2 Detroit

Come Get It

Music Lover. Interested in Jazz, Funk, Soul, Elektronic Music, Songwriting, Old Stuff, New Stuff, Hip-Hop.

https://linktr.ee/wearedelasoul

De La Soul is back—but did they ever really leave? After delivering their seminal debut 3 Feet High and Rising in 1989 with the production genius of Prince Paul, the New York City-bred trio of Posdnuos (Pos), Dave and Maseo went on to further impact Hip Hop culture with five more groundbreaking albums: De La Soul Is Dead (1991), Buhloone Mindstate (1993), Stakes Is High (1996), Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump (2000) and AOI: Bionix (2001). But once the digital age exploded in the late ‘90s, De La Soul’s celebrated catalog was unavailable to stream. As the decades passed, the tight-knit group forged ahead anyway—touring the world, connecting with their adoring fanbase and making music on their own terms. Following 2004’s The Grind Date, De La Soul took a hiatus from making albums, but joined The Gorillaz on the track “Feel Good Inc” which won them a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Collaboration.  In 2015, the group raised over $600,000 on Kickstarter from fans to independently release their album and the Anonymous Nobody, which was their first #1 on the Rap Albums chart, and was also nominated for a Best Rap Album Grammy.   

However, the demand for unreleased De La Soul music was palpable and the cry for access to the first six albums grew louder. Unfortunately, De La Soul was stuck riding a roller coaster of stalled negotiations, dashed hopes and dead-end conversations with their old label, and the group nearly gave up. 

"We have lived without the music up for long, these six albums haven’t been up—ever,” Pos says. “We got used to knowing they weren’t up.” In June of 2021, Tommy Boy Music was acquired by Reservoir, giving De La Soul’s catalog a new home.  In March of 2023, the six missing albums were finally available to stream.  But sadly, right before the catalog release, Dave, the beloved member of De La Soul, passed away. Though bittersweet, De La Soul preserves his legacy and the ongoing impact of their music. 

As iconic songs such as “The Magic Number”, found new life in the film Spiderman: No Way Home in 2021, De La Soul continues to resonate with a diverse population of people. 

As Pos notes, “We’ve noticed over the past several years of tour like, ‘Wow, there’s a father here with his child who also is here with their child. ‘We’re generational. To me, there’s nothing more gratifying than that. That means something. That’s telling about a group. What we were doing wasn’t just stuck to that time.”

“We really naturally been that group for everyone,” Pos says. “It was never about we’re just here for this community, that community, this set of people or these certain fans of Hip Hop culture. We see music as music. We’ve been very resilient, even being a group that didn’t have our music up [on streaming platforms]. We still had these beautiful opportunities through young people finding out about us through a commercial or Spider-Man. Now that it can all be there for people to gravitate to, I’m really happy about that.” 

De La Soul's impact on the musical landscape is immeasurable, with 3 Feet High and Rising widely regarded as one of the most influential albums of its era. Pioneering inventive sampling, playful lyrics, and eclectic beats, the album broke new ground and set a standard for creativity in the genre. Recognizing its cultural significance, the album was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress.

Long Island Degrees

De La Soul

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Raihan Aditya

Q.Rock639//Canhead Records

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