While the mainstream and television continually down grade the essence of music, there are groups like De La Soul that keep the “real” part of it all alive. As one of THE frontiers of hip-hop, they’ve managed to ride the storm around the Escalades, releasing The Grind Date, a debut on a joint business venture between Sanctuary Urban Records Group and their own label, AOI Records.
Their message reminds us of the reason why they’ve succeeded for over twenty years, and why hip-hop has affected the entire world. They’ve also recruited some of their friends in the business, including Spike Lee’s intro to “Church,” along with MF Doom, Ghostface, and Sean Paul.
They seem to speak to the MTV stars on “It’s Like” that brings to light something more than the monetary benefits of hip-hop, “Rap’s outsold Crack. Rap, or hip-hop culture, however you want to dice it, is the most powerful drug there is. It’s changed corporate America, it’s changed the way you feel about me, it’s changed the way I do my thing now. Busta is the one who came out on the awards show and said that hip-hop is the only thing that provides jobs for people that don’t even like the shit. I mean come on now, what else is there to say?”
They take the Soul Train back to he ‘70s with some classic R&B, rolling down the Commodors / Earth, Wind and Fire rail. As a fitting piece of the three-part pie to their Art Official Intelligence trilogy, they’ve once again proven that raw, old school sounds never get old or go out of style.
De La Soul plays Monday, November 8 at Fox Theatre in Boulder, and Tuesday, November 9 at 32 Bleu in Colorado Springs.
