What started off as a casual end of summer Sunday afternoon of imported beers enjoyed on the steps of a Brooklyn townhouse became a heated discussion with more platitudes and invectives than you would find in a presidential debate. If opinions are similar to assholes in that they are possessed buy one and all then I would have to rate my opinion to be greater than Combat Jack’s for virtue that my ass is more substantial [ll]. Nonetheless, the argument raged on…
“Which is De La Soul’s greatest album?”
‘3 Ft. High And Rising’
I choose this album because it had a profound effect on Hip-Hop and rap music. This album shatters the myth that only someone in a B-boy stance can produce rap music. The soundscape that Prince Paul crafts in 3ft was as futuristic and otherworldly as what the Bomb Squad was doing for Public Enemy.
Rap music is about lyrics too and De La Soul were unlike any rap group you have heard since them. Simile meets metaphor which is followed by obscure or arcane reference. De La Soul’s first album showed them to be pop culture deconstructionists on the level of rap music’s Jacques Derrida. Excuse my hyperbole, but that is how fucking good 3ft is to listen to. Plus philosophy might have been the only college class that I passed.
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‘Buhloone Mindstate’
Combat Jack submits B.M. as De La’s best album because of Prince Paul’s maturity on this disk. We don’t find nearly as many skits or interludes on this CD. This, says Combat Jack, is a complete album.
The quirkiness in De La Soul’s lyrics is removed for a more serious tone which decries the music industry’s modus operandi as well as the the fickle tastes of our consumer culture. De La Soul has never been afraid to speak to us as adults when the situation calls for such, ugh, real talk. Is this why they are still playing in college gymnasiums? Maybe. It’s also why they are being given their due for Vh-1’s Hip-Hop Honors this year.
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Like fellow Native Tonguer DRES would say, “The choice is yours.”
1 of my Top 20 fav albums PERIOD alltime allgenre, & my fave De La album is
2000 Art Official Intelligence Mosaic Thump
great beats with a mix of diff sounds, & dope rhymes from De La
definitely a slept-on classic
*nods head while listening to Copa Cabanga*
The answer to your question is “Stakes Is High”. For some odd reason Dave of De La Soul doesn’t like “Buhloone Mind State” (why I don’t know). Their greatest and tightest album from front to back is hands down “Stakes Is High” even though “3 Feet High And Rising”, “De La Soul Is Dead” and “Buhloone Mind State” are all classics as well.
One.
3ft for me. If you smoke weed, you’ll probly agree.
I’d have to go with Buhloone for being the more complete album, there is not a weak song on there. 3 Ft. was definitely more ambitious sonically and just plain fun. The skits, samples of Hall & Oates, Steely Dan, their rhyme style and content were unheard of at the time and 88-89 was when we were having our wigs peeled back every other week when another classic dropped. I usually go with the fast forward test when making up my mind but I’m not hitting that button on either of these. Forget it, De La=GOAT. There isn’t another crew/mc from that era that’s still dropping quality music like De La. The Grind Date is that shit and I can’t wait for their next release.[II]?
Dart – Respectfully, “Stakes Is High” over “3 Feet”? Are you serious?!? Take a second and think of the impact each one had on hip hop, then tell me again you think “Stakes” is their shining hour.
I prefer “De La Soul Is Dead” myself, but I realize I’m swimming against a tidal wave on that one.
Word Is Bawn! DP, ya’ know I love this type sh*t! I’m gonna have to go with Buhloone Mindstate on this one, tho. De La changed the game with 3 ft. High & Rising, they got 5 mics for De La is Dead, back when 5 mics really meant something, but I felt like it wasnt their best, to me it was like them trying to prove to the true hip hop heads that they were really not just some commercial success.
But Buhloone Mindstate was a straight solid CD, you can listen to the entire CD, skits and all, no fast forward. It was De La’s “f*ck you, it is what it is” album and the one that should’ve recieved 5 mics.
I like De La Soul Is Dead the best. I will now go re-explore Buhloone though. Good post.
If we’re talking about their best album musically, then I’m with Dart – I think it is no doubt ‘Stakes is High.’
However, I can’t speak nearly as much to the albums’ impacts on Hip-hop at the time (at least through personal experience – Stakes Is High was the first album I picked up when I was 11 or so).
Listen to “Itsoweezee,” “Dog Eat Dog,” “Wonce Again Long Island,” and “The Bizness” and tell me that’s not De La at its best.
The funny thing is that De La improves on things with each subsequent album and the main thing is that they don’t stay in that same place. Thats why we as fans don’t always follow them because we aren’t as courageous as the kids we used to be.
‘3ft’ is a sublime masterpiece because of everything that it was in 1988 and it still is today. Take it from me, the Black Peter Pan (sans tights and genie booties). ‘3ft’ already comes programmed on the spaceship’s console along with the heated seats and dual climate control.
That song, “I Am, I Be”, is just one of those songs thats just perfection. If youre not moved in some way after listening to that, your soul is shot. And the Japanese cat spazzing on “Long Island Wildin'”!?!? that dude stays winning!
I say BIONIX
De La Soul is Dead, kid.
Uhmm . . . I don’t know.
BUT THEIR LAST CD WAS TIGHT. Grind
I’m going for De La is Dead or Buhloon Mind State. Doesn’t really matter because I think this guys provide quality music every time they have a new project out.
Outside of Outkast, I can’t really think a modern hip hop group that has really put together a number of quality CD’s consistently and still performing together . . . oh wait Dre 3000 doesn’t like hitting the road. I have one more group for your thoughts. The group that the hip hop media largely ignored for whatever reason but they still drop tight music . . . Cypress Hill!!
^Jerz, I Am, I Be!!
All the above-referenced jernts are fiyah, no doubt. 3 Ft. mos def makes the most impactful of their catalog, but on some grown and sexy shit, when I’m having hors deueves and Ballantine ale, and wanna play some hip hop for guests that don’t really eff with hip hop, Buhloon is that ish. Most playable, most cohesive, most complete. They use guests on that joint like melodies to a song, aint nunna that “I’ma out rap these nigs ish” u tend to hear on almost every other collaboe know to man. Plus, that piece on “where were u when u first heard criminal minded” is perfecto. No haterade, but now as a father of four and a monthly mortgage on the reg during this economic bs, I can only listen to 3 Ft in doses, maybe I’m grown like that. Stakes is High is on when I’m that purist feenin for that boom bap lyrical high. “Is Dead” is when I wanna hear De La move from experimental juvenile to next level progression. Buhloon is what I play when I want to educate my kids as to what a classic lp is, contrary to that Carter 3 jernt they friends be bumping.
Btw, on one of our upcoming debate posts, can’t even comment on the Wu unless u listen to that new GZA/ Genius “Pro Tools”. A certified Wu banger classic!!!
^ Did CJ just go spoiler alert up in this piece?
nah, just stylin on ’em
Stakes is High for me…….Altho’ ALL De La Albums except for Mosaic Thump are Classic to me. Not debating impact on the game and just BEST OVERALL DE LA Album, it has to be Stakes is High…………I still feel the impact of this album to this very day, matter fact this album is still in my car…………..Quality wise,completeness song structure and the fact that they were going against “Versace Glasses” in the Big and Puff era and nobody could front on it,well except for Treach, but hearing the joint wit Common on Top Ten charts on the radio and the song “Stakes is High” was not something I was mad at…………….Then again “Potholes in my Lawn” changed my life, but just arguing best complete Album, it would be Stakes is High with De La Soul is dead as a close second to me.
I remember reading somewhere that Prince Paul’s fav De La album was Stakes Is High, which is kinda funny. Personally I can’t decide between De La Soul Is Dead and Buhloone Mindstate.
Buhloone Mindstate is a “complete album”..
Completely agree.
stakes….but i had to think again.
yeah definitely Stakes, but I do think Buhloone thanks to Breakadawn slightly edges out is dead by a hair
For journalistic purposes, I’m about to re-visit “Stakes Is High”, since a lotta ya’ll keep referencing it. Get back to you laters.
Buhloone Mind State, for sure. It was the first album of theirs that I bought, so maybe I’m biased. Went back and bought 3ft and Dead after that.
3ft is dope, and the forefather to a million styles, but still, it’s not perfectly perfect. Is Dead came a little harder, but still….
Stakes is High is great and all, but it felt a little dismal, no? Like they (and we) realized that not only ‘fun’ hip-hop, but ‘fun’ De La was GONE forever.
Combat Jacks got it
PS. As a kid, I HATED Me Myself and I, now I love it AND Not just Knee Deep. Kids are fucking stupid.
De La is Dead for the time period. Just got into college, and wanted to change the world and goof off with my new friends.
But Stakes is High is next. But I still bug when Potholes comes on.
3ft changed my life as well. That was the album that I defended in high school against everybody else that listened to nothing but 3XDope.
I wanna thank ya’ll for having me revisit my old jernts. Just listened and forgot how DOPE “Stakes Is High” is. Still, in my opinion, not as cohesive as “Buhloon”. Common does drop some of his best ish evah. Now, bout to lissen to “De La Is Dead” right before the debate.
I’ll get back at ya.
True story is that Dove co-signed my assessment of 3ft. High and Rising
Video soon come…
“De La Soul Is Dead” is the only right answer.
DLSID>3FT>Stakes Is High>Buhloone