De La Soul has been around for over 20 years now. Their start, out of high school in New York, was from producer DJ "Prince Paul" after hearing their smashing debut song "Plug Tunin". The three rappers go by multiple stage names, but in most of their songs refer to themselves by "Plug One," "Plug Two," and "Plug Three." These stage names are in reference to the order of the plugs their microphones were plugged into. "Plug One," Kelvin Mercer; "Plug Two," David Jude Jolicoeur; and "Plug Three," Vincent Mason; were great innovators of rap back in the 80's, showing that an upbeat attitude, clever lyricism, and quite innovative backgrounds to their raps could be as popular as other genres of rap.
Rap at the time was hitting its start of the Gangsta/Hardcore Rap phase. Ice T , Schoolly D, and N.W.A., the best known pioneers of this hardcore rap, were making in-your-face statements about the world, "F**k the police" and drug use being some of the messages thrown through their lyrics. De La Soul had a different idea. They were the start of alternative lyricism, having a more upbeat and thoughtful message, keeping a laid-back old-school style.
With DJ "Prince Paul" producing for them, their first album, 3 Feet High & Rising, was a pinnacle piece of hip-hop, and one of the all-time best rap albums made. De La Soul rapped about peace and harmony, about the community coming together; a stark contrast to hardcore rap at the time. The album took in funk, psychedelic, jazz, and old-school hip-hop styles. It exploded the rap community in a new direction entirely. I think most of you know already know quite a few of the songs on this album, but here was the most famous of them.
De La Soul's - "Me, Myself, and I"
The group was a smashing success. This new alternative rap style out of New York caught on, gaining popularity and sparking many new groups: Black Sheep, A Tribe Called Quest, and even Queen Latifah (Collectively the Native Tongues Posse). This new alternative rap seemed to be almost bypassing hardcore in popularity with the start of the 90's.
De La Soul stayed with their alternative style. Their career saw rather a slow decline after 3 Feet High & Rising. Granted, they stayed with their genre, but they did quite a few new things trying to push their sound all around. They experimented with a three part series called Art Of Intelligence: but only released 2 albums in that series. For me, one of the greatest tracks from them came out of the second release AOI: Bionix; "Trying People"
De La Soul's - "Trying People"
Sadly to say, they have stayed pretty under the radar more recently (the exception of collaborating with The Gorillaz for the songs "Superfast Jellyfish" and "Feel Good Inc."). However, they are still a great band to fall back on. They are very original, different, and quite a good remedy for the soul, from the soul.
-Minimal FoX
Songs About My Cats by Venetian Snares. For it's time of release, 2001 so not THAT long ago but you have to consider IDM is really close to dying as is the fast paced monster that electronic music is, it was pure genius. I do agree, this album is NOT for everybody. The scattered, glitched, fast past mind and almost random sounding melodies and beats will more than likely turn off most of those who listen to it. However, for those of us who are quite into glitch sounds, fast paced, and dirty synth music, I would equate this to running into a Van Gogh in your local art gallery; something extremely huge and magnificent and you're not quite sure why it's here. "Neptalactone" is a great track, slowly building something, and you're not quite sure where it's going, but it's not in your face aggressive, but more of a tour guide saying "Look here, and now over here, and now here, and aren't you seeing the pattern yet?" For me this is where the album starts to take off. The following tracks "Poor Kakarooke," "Fluff Master," "Pouncelcoit," and "Cleaning Each Other" are good highlights from the album. The other tracks take a bit of work to get into, but when you do find you can let them in, they do a great job bolstering the overall feel, which strangely never shies away from... cats. The album ends on a rather weird note with the white washed white noise of "Look" heavily contrasting the opening track. Again, if you can give it time, and a place to stay, you might find yourself suddenly taking a quite warm heart to this album, given it's very unique times such as "For Bertha Rand," and come out on the end wanting to hit repeat to take that kitten filled trip all over again. ![Guns Don't Kill People...Lazers Do [Explicit]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vQyKdnjSpSqCIoFT_d16IgfQvjT8gJ9SBFg4wJbo925OOdkKa5GJFu40GGofKs6agMy3hp8DEfR0HGQnPO_obt1So7o9msu-s1wnXfW6mutaQJGMwz-JG_YCFFbPzh_WWIa3c2ARSBeLxTXXgNPcFa1JZzaifaBExoabwdswiJ9JshtVC5gskrhv_CtotnLnSKtdM5kGLy2E5VYCBwg-1BpNLhVSpxKI8=s0-d)
Major Lazer. Now, before just blindly clicking the link, let me give you the down-low about this album. If you remember awhile back, progressive DJ Diplo was mentioned. Major Lazer is a collaboration of Diplo with DJ Switch. Switch has made his name with Dub-House music; Diplo with reggae/pop DJ work, especially with Santogold. Now, the creation here, Major Lazer, is a fictional character, know to have "...faught in the secret zombie wars..." and is a big fan of the music coming out of Jamacia. This album Guns don't kill people... Lazers do, is an exploration of both artists into modern Jamacian music, poppy island feel mixed with reggae.
