The hip hop group De La Soul is a trio made up of rappers Kelvin "Posdnous" Mercer and David "Trugoy" Jolicoeur (whose names make sense if you turn them backwards) and Vincent "DJ Maseo" Mason. This group is formed in Amityville, Long Island, New York in 1988.
De La Soul stands out from the rest of the game for its positive vision brought within their debut album, through which the smoothness bars spit by the duo are filtered: they're elementary lyricists, their themes aren't revolutionary, if not in their most extravagant traits, but Posdnous and Trugoy the Dove are creative artists and although they lack an exceptional lyricism, they deal with various topics from Afrocentrism to more carefree, light and frivolous themes managing to have fun and entertain the listener. They focus especially on girls ("Jenifa Taught Me", "Eye Know", "Buddy"), bringing out self-deprecating, humorous, ignorant and experimental, even socio-conscious ("Say No Go") lyrics, performed with intelligent word games intricate in different types of metric patterns.
Their relaxed, fresh and velvet flow helps the overall cohesion of the entire project, which would be a simply good album, if it weren't for the production entirely made by the external beatmaker Prince Paul: he invents a series of rhythms defined later as innovative and avant-garde for his wise and rich use of samples taken from every genre (and not) — which is the big problem that still forces their Tommy Boy label today not to be able to release this project on digital platforms without having to pay out a vast patrimony to the original authors, if they recognize their samples, and this isn't an easy task as it would seem to a passing reader —, providing a funky and fresh soundscape, influenced above all by jazz and soul.
The musical constitution of the project attracts immediate comparisons with the Beastie Boys album built with layered samples and with a positive and energetic atmosphere, this record instead breathes a positive but relaxed, playful, cheerful atmosphere, more accessible with festive melodies, danceable and captivating that manage to attract the average pop listener: universally acclaimed as a classic, it's one of the best experimental concept of the genre (focused on the game show), among the most creative records (credited for introducing the skit in hip hop, included the sexual one, here excessive and out of place as in the vast majority of hip hop records) and coherent, its pure, naive and youthful nature have made it a must-have for generations, influencing different hip hop sub-genres despite not having an immediate banger. For once, hip hop is neither misogynist nor homophobic, 9.5/10.
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