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De La Soul

De La Soul

photo: Mo Daoud/Tommy Boy Music

43 articles

Audio interviews

De La Soul (1991)

Interview by Steven Daly, Rock's Backpages audio, Spring 1991

De La Soul on their second album De La Soul Is Dead: the move away from the Daisy Age; Mase on recording and sampling; making tracks like 'Pease Porridge' (Pos), ‘Afro Connections’, and ‘Kicked Out the House’ (Trugoy); getting grief from hardcore fans thinking they've gone "soft"; how life changed after hit debut album 3 Feet High and Rising; the pressures on hip hop; parenthood (Trugoy and Mase); commercial rappers like Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer, and the difference between rap and hip hop (Pos)... and what they're into now.

File format: mp3; file size: 37.4mb, interview length: 38' 58" sound quality: ***; File format: mp3; file size: 50.7mb, interview length: 52' 46" sound quality: ***

List of articles in the library

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De La Soul: 3 Feet High And Rising (Tommy Boy/Big Life)

Review by Push, Melody Maker, 18 March 1989

THE DAISY AGE    ...

De La Soul: Three Feet High And Rising (Big Life LP/Cassette/CD)

Review by Sean O'Hagan, New Musical Express, 18 March 1989

ARE YOU ready for Martian hip-hop? Can you handle the new nutty boys of rap, the maddest, baddest bunch on the block? Can you imagine ...

De La Soul: High Risers

Interview by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 21 March 1989

  EVERY NOW and again a certain buzz explodes onto the streets, evoking an excited aura that ignites and spreads from the specialist shops to the ...

De La Soul: 3 Feet High and Rising (Tommy Boy)

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 23 March 1989

DE LA SOUL HAS already mastered the three Js of postmodernism: juxtapose, juxtapose, juxtapose. Welcome to the first psychedelic hip-hop record. ...

De La Soul: Three Feet High and Rising (Tommy Boy)

Review by Eric Weisbard, SF Weekly, 29 March 1989

WELCOME TO the Daisy Age. Do you like daisies? Do you like to buddy? Well, Jimmy and Jenny, buddy up, take a luuden, and try ...

De La Soul: Soul Deep High and Rising

Interview by Paolo Hewitt, New Musical Express, 1 April 1989

They're Public Enemy's favourite band and their debut LP 3 Feet High And Rising is the world's first psychedelic Rap album mixing Day-Glo, Disney, dance ...

De La Soul: Space Cadets

Interview by Push, Melody Maker, 8 April 1989

PUSH TALKS TO THE BIGGEST RAP SENSATION SINCE PUBLIC ENEMY AND DISCOVERS WHAT LIFE'S LIKE ON PLANET SCREWBALL. ...

De La Soul: Venus de Milo, Boston MA

Live Review by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, May 1989

De La Soul's humor fizzles out in concert ...

De La Soul's Hippie-hop: Psychedelic Rappers Introduce the DA.I.S.Y. Age

Profile and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 4 May 1989

"HELLO, YOU'VE reached Mars. What can I do for you?" Trugoy the Dove is on the telephone in the tidy basement of his parents' house ...

De La Soul's Mind-Bending Rap

Report and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 18 May 1989

DE LA SOUL'S 3 Feet High and Rising is art-rap, a wild and woolly concept album that takes its title from a Johnny Cash song, ...

Big Daddy Kane, De La Soul, Rodney-O & Joe Cooley: Celebrity Theatre, Anaheim CA

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 31 May 1989

Dislocated Metaphysics of De La Soul ...

De La Soul: The D.A.I.S.Y. Chain Gang

Interview by David Stubbs, Melody Maker, 10 June 1989

DAVID STUBBS FLEW TO NEW YORK TO MEET THE TRIO WHO'RE RADICALLY CHANGING THE IMAGE OF THE RAPPER AND WHOSE DEBUT ALBUM, 3 FEET HIGH ...

De La Soul: The Daisy Chain Gang

Interview by Damon Wise, Sounds, 5 August 1989

De La Soul say it with flowers — and they're demonstrating the joys of rap to people who didn't even know they liked it. Damon ...

John Zorn, Scott Johnson, De La Soul, Negativland, The Beatnigs: The Decomposers

Overview by Mark Dery, Elle, September 1989

MAYBE IT all began in 1917 with the harmless-looking urinal "R. Mutt" entered in the Society of Independent Artists New York show. ...

De La Soul: Brothers From Another Planet

Interview by Sean O'Hagan, New Musical Express, 21 October 1989

HIPPIES!?! Never! No sirree! Ignore the paisley, the peace signs, the flowers, the speccy Lennonisms, DE LA SOUL are truly brothers from another planet, extra ...

Sampling: Bite This

Report by Frank Owen, Spin, November 1989

When De La Soul sampled a Turtles oldie, the Turtles weren't flattered. So they sued. Does their legal action threaten the existence of hip hop? Is ...

De La Soul: "Chicken sandwich! Hyaphehehe hyupaheehee who ha ha!"

Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 1 November 1989

Geddit? Neither do we actually, but then it seems we're not supposed to. That's De La Soul for you. Chris Heath wrestles with the grumpiest ...

Jazzy Jeff And Fresh Prince/De La Soul: Superstars Nightclub, Toronto

Live Review by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 24 March 1990

IT'S LIKE stumbling back in time. As yet another rap package rolls across the land of the Mounties, De La Soul find themselves in the ...

Digital Underground, Coldcut and De La Soul Jam The Beat

Interview by Mark Dery, Keyboard, March 1991

DIGITAL UNDERGROUND, De La Soul, and Coldcut make musique concrete for boomboxes. These three bands, all on the Tommy Boy label, have achieved, perhaps unwittingly, ...

Cool Hip Hop: De La Soul De-flowered

Interview by Steven Daly, Spin, May 1991

Declaring that De La Soul Is Dead, the beat-box beatniks turn ornery. Have they lost the plot? Or are they writing it? STEVEN DALY explains. ...

De La Soul: De La Soul Is Dead (Big Life BLR LP8)

Review by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 14 May 1991

'Intro'; 'Oldies Of O's'; 'Talkin' Bout Hey Love'; 'Pease Porridge'; 'Skit 1'; 'Johnny's Dead AKA Vincent Mason (Live From The BK Lounge)'; 'A Roller Skating ...

De La Soul: Malice In Wonderland

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 25 May 1991

With their new album, De La Soul Is Dead, the founders of the hippy hop movement have turned their back on peace, love and positivity. ...

De La Soul: Pushing Up Daisies

Interview by Steven Daly, Blitz, June 1991

De La Soul are back, but rap's original hip-hop hippies are no longer wearing flowers in their hair. De La Soul Is Dead, the long-awaited ...

De La Soul: De La Soul Is Dead (Tommy Boy)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1991

De La Soul's Serious Fun ...

De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, PM Dawn: Wembley Hall, London

Live Review by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 5 October 1991

DIRE STRAITS fans are huddled in masses in the near vicinity, oblivious to the fact that the real revolution is being televised in this makeshift ...

De La Soul: Buhloone Mindstate (Big Life BLRCD 25 CD/MC/LP)

Review by Kodwo Eshun, The Wire, November 1993

ALTERED STATES ...

De La Soul: Subterania, Ladbroke Grove, London

Live Review by Andy Crysell, New Musical Express, 22 June 1996

SUMMERTIME AND inside west London's Subterania, at least, the living is far from easy. There is no air, no space, no escape; just raging heat ...

De La Soul

Profile and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Sunday Times, July 1996

IN 1989, DE LA Soul's debut album Three Feet High And Rising was hailed by New York's Village Voice as "the Sergeant Pepper of hip ...

De La Soul: Stakes Is High (Tommy Boy); A Tribe Called Quest: Beats, Rhyme and Life (Jive)

Review by Amy Linden, Fi, September 1996

TWO ALBUMS. Two groups. Two release dates. But for all intents and purposes De La Soul's Stakes Is High and A Tribe Called Quest's Beats, ...

De La Soul: The Forum, London

Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 7 March 1997

THE WORLD outside this venue thought De La Soul was dead. Ever since their follow-up to the 1989's landmark 3 Feet High and Rising announced ...

De La Soul: Kentish Town Forum, London

Live Review by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 8 March 1997

LIZA MINNELLI and Liberace don't even come into it. Once a long-serving band become a parody of themselves and start trawling around in ever-decreasing circles, ...

De La Soul: Bar Cuba, Macclesfield

Live Review by Rob Chapman, MOJO, 1998

As part of a British mini-tour ahead of an album set for September, America’s most innovative hip hop outfit came to a small, friendly club ...

All About the Benjamins

Essay by Miles Marshall Lewis, L.A. Weekly, 2 April 1998

Hip-hop: The need, not the greed ...

Hip Hop Don't Stop

Overview by David Bennun, Hot Air, 1999

A LITTLE over two minutes into The Fugees' 1996 hit 'Ready Or Not', the voice of Lauryn Hill is thrown into relief by a brief ...

Spotlight: De La Soul

Report and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 21 July 2000

"WE REALLY don't have a fear of that 'out of sight, out of mind' thing," insists De La Soul's Dave (David Joliceur). ...

De La Soul: "You may not know this but a long time ago we made an album called 3 Feet High And Rising…"

Interview by Andy Crysell, New Musical Express, 29 July 2000

Sit down, De La Soul want to tell you the greatest hip-hop story ever told… ...

De La Soul: Art Official Intelligence (Mosaic Thump)

Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, September 2000

NO ONE who saw the packed, mostly young, black crowd reveling in the house party atmosphere of De La Soul's last UK gig in 1997 ...

De La Soul: Reissues

Review and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, July 2003

How New York's hippie hoppers ushered in the philosophical D.A.I.S.Y. Age. And then pronounced themselves Dead. ...

Rhymin' And Stealin'

Retrospective and Interview by Angus Batey, MOJO, September 2003

Back in 1986 hip hop entered a golden age — lyrical revolution, sonic innovation, and individuality — that gave rise to such rap legends as ...

Clash's top ten hip-hop albums, EVER...

Guide by Mike Diver, Clash, 6 April 2009

WITH RADIO 1 presently celebrating 30 years of all things hip-hop – check out Trevor Nelson's page for more – we at Clash figured: why ...

De La Soul Is (Not) Dead: Inside the Anonymous Nobody

Retrospective and Interview by Michael A. Gonzales, Ebony, 7 September 2016

30 years after the release of its groundbreaking first album, 3 Feet High and Rising, we catch up with this legendary crew. ...

Gods of Rap: Manchester Arena, May 11

Live Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, August 2019

Believe the hype: Public Enemy, Wu-Tang Clan and De La Soul deliver a hip-hop masterclass ...

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