Third studio album for a hip-hop group that has resurrected, De La Soul. The trio stands out for being one of the hip-hop acts to have the worst covers in the history of the genre, this one is no exception. While other artists are moving on, following the rap trends or trying to innovate, this group looks to the past to copy production and lyrics from their previous records.
The production is credited to De La Soul and to close collaborator Prince Paul, who makes his last appearance on a group's album, before leaving due to artistic differences. In addition to the beats made behind the keyboards, the trio is aided by a live band consisting of Fred Wesley, Larry Goldings, Pee Wee Ellis, Rodney Jones and Maceo Parker. The beats made by the producers feature a slow hard and pounding drum machine, with a few decent-good samples, sometimes replaced by a sublime live jazz instrumentation. Maceo Parker receives many well-deserved credits for his magnificent work within the project, albeit limited to three tracks, the only ones worth listening to in the whole project, not surprisingly: among others, "I Be Blowin'" stands out as one of the best tracks, if not the best one probably, in the history of the group, it's an instrumental in which Maceo Parker stands out with his sax and everything is fine for about a minute, when the group randomly inserts a useless and annoying snare drum out of nowhere that kills all the good vibes the song had. But that first minute is excellent.
Collaborating as guests are affiliates Native Tongues Dres of Black Sheep, Chip-Fu of Fu-Schnickens, Busta Rhymes of Leaders of the New School, and external artists Guru of Gang Starr, Biz Markie of Juice Crew, Japanese rappers SDP and Takagi Kan, May May Ali, and singer Shortie No Mass. These guests all do well, and some do even better than the main rappers: among others, the performance of the unknown Shortie No Mass, singer from Philadelphia discovered by a member of the Roots, here at the debut, whose performance ("En Focus", "In the Woods" and, uncredited, in the intro and background on "I Am I Be") are above average, and it has not yet been established whether it was just a far-fetched case that a talented artist came to perform on a De La Soul album, or is the relative of someone in the group.
Rapping is mainly provided by Posdnuos and Trugoy, while Maseo's contribution is very limited. The lyricism brought by these two rappers is generic, casual and average, stupid and funny most of the time, braggadocio, light-hearted, humorous, meaningless. Bringing out these battle raps, they prove to be mediocre lyricists with no ideas: the group starts mumbling what he has already expressed on his previous records, also muttering something against hardcore rap and gangsta. Worse than the lyrics there's only the execution of the lyrics themselves: in an attempt to make the atmosphere calmer and more relaxed than usual, these dudes bring out their lines in a completely listless, effortless, lazy, sleepy way, with a light-hearted, ridiculous and embarrassing delivery. Only the solo song of the Japanese rappers ("Long Island Wildin'", on a deeply annoying rhythm) manages to wake up the record in the opening, and even the King of Monotone is livelier than these dudes with a hook spoken in "Patti Dooke", one of the rare highlights in this mortuary.
Distributed by Tommy Boy, it's one of the label's most relevant commercial failures: De La Soul comes from a sophomore who has found good international success, it ran better in Austria than in the US rap chart, with his third album, instead, it doesn't go beyond the top 40 among pop albums and the top 10 among rap ones. It sells few copies for being a top-mainstream record and continues to disappoint, saved exclusively by the insiders, who critically welcome the release of the project, and by die-hard enthusiasts who can't help but have a couple of flower pots on their windowsill, washed down with this tasteless mumble braggadocio.
Of the mainstream hip-hop releases, it's the worst of the year and the most disappointing. The album deserves more spins to be more appreciated or not completely despised: initially, the rhythms seem extravagant, poor, and cheap that annihilate the performers, with a listless, messy, uncoordinated and noisy drum machine, ridiculous hooks and easy samples. They look just like a parody of the East Coast beats that were dominating the scene at the time, and the guy who made them looks like a complete clueless and incompetent who should be tried. Nonetheless, more listening reveal that Prince Paul's production saves the entire bandwagon from a mile-wide ravine and that the record is sunk by the complete lack of inspiration of people whose talent was stolen by Space Jam aliens.
The record stops at 50 minutes with 15 songs, keeps its hip-hop positive and thoughtless style, with the addition of some lines that try to be mature and the insertion of a smaller number of skits than the previous discs, but still excessive, useless and annoying: in fifty minutes of listening, only one quotable from this album goes down in history, these dudes are trying to do positive hip-hop, but they can't stop themselves from performing random curse words to express their dissent against the music industry that is crushing them, like their much-hated gangsta rappers. In the end, this record is coherent and generic in its random and boring mediocrity: these kids dance on the DAISY Age grave with a wack pop rap flop record.
Highlights: "Patti Dooke", "I Be Blowin'", "I Am I Be".
Rating: 7/10.
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