Back to the Future

Hip Hop trio De La Soul have announced a new album except this album will not be a studio release. No, De La Soul have asked their fans to help fund the project and their fans have responded in the most poignant way possible, as De La Soul achieved their goal, astoundingly, in less than a day.

The excitement and promise of a new album from the Native Tongues trio has seen them surpass their intended Kickstarter goal and the fund is still growing. With four days to go De La Soul have raised almost five times the amount they initally asked for.

The group consists of three memebers, Posdnuos (Kevin Macer), Trugoy  (Dave Jude Joliceour) and Vincent Mason (Maseo).  The three met in high school and formed the group , catching the attention of producer/DJ Prince Paul with their demo song ‘Plug Tunin It’,  which featured great word play,  innovative sampling and witty skits.

For all those who aren’t aware of  De La Soul they were a prominent Hip-Hop group of the late eighties and early nineties. Their style was focused on the D.A.I.S.Y age (Da Inner Soul Y’all).  In their first album 3 Feet High and Rising their songs mostly promoted peace and harmony, encouraging the group to be branded as hippies. This annoyed the group as they didn’t want to be labeled in just one way as they envisioned their career as continuously changing and adopting new styles as they matured.

This maturity is displayed in their later albums, and you can clearly see  how the trio developed across the ages as a group. From the song 3 is the Magic Number to a song like Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa, which talks about a little girl who was sexually abused by her father and who then went to kill him,  to Stakes is High in which the group talk about the decline of Hip-Hop.  “I’m sick of bitches shakin’ asses / I’m sick of talkin’ about blunts / Sick of Versace glasses / Sick of slang / Sick of half-ass awards shows / Sick of name brand clothes” is a key line from that track which could be applied to today’s Hip-Hop scene.  This line is still relevant today but exceptions would be people like Childish Gambino, Kendrick Lamar, Joey Bada$$ and Hopsin, .

With today’s music being called ‘trash and unoriginal’ the new De La soul album will hopefully be a breath of fresh air on the music industry just like theier debut album back  in 1989. With people complaining  about how the music industry is losing it’s magic and with the majority of rappers today  talking about sex, drugs, hoes and whatever crap is going in their lives, it’s as Prince Paul once said “You get three glasses of water and you add food colouring to them, you have many colours of water but its’s still water, the same old water.”