{"id":4966,"date":"2023-07-07T19:07:36","date_gmt":"2023-07-08T00:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/read.streamapse.com\/?p=4966"},"modified":"2026-04-13T16:58:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T21:58:22","slug":"it-all-started-in-1989-de-la-soul-essentials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/?p=4966","title":{"rendered":"It All Started In 1989 \u2014 De La Soul Essentials"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 1989, rap was in the thick of its vaunted golden age, with groups like EPMD, Boogie Down Productions, and Beastie Boys dropping classic after classic. That\u2019s when three bugged-out young men from Amityville, Long Island, (<i>record scratch<\/i>) appeared at the door. De La Soul, along with mentor\/producer Prince Paul, quickly joined the ranks\u2014not by aping their contemporaries, but simply by being themselves. And there was a lot to decipher: They strung together code words, bizarre samples, in-jokes, and skits, creating a vibrant language\u2014hell, a cosmos even\u2014to explore.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4967\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4967\" style=\"width: 700px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/4856\/de-la-soul-de-la-soul-essentials\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4967\" src=\"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/De-La-Soul-Essentials.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"700\" srcset=\"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/De-La-Soul-Essentials.jpg 700w, http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/De-La-Soul-Essentials-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/De-La-Soul-Essentials-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4967\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Stream De La Soul Essentials<\/strong><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>De La crafted surreal masterpieces on early songs like \u201cPotholes in My Lawn\u201d and \u201cPlug Tunin\u2019,\u201d gleefully painting outside of hip-hop\u2019s then somewhat rigid lines. \u201cMe Myself and I,\u201d a joyous declaration of independence set to Funkadelic\u2019s \u201c(Not Just) Knee Deep,\u201d jet-propelled their popularity but quickly became an albatross. The 1989 hit\u2014and its D.A.I.S.Y. Age hippie motifs\u2014grated on them so bad, they literally wrote their own epitaph on their second album, <i>De La Soul Is Dead<\/i>. It would not be their first self-immolation, however\u2014De La seem to reinvent themselves with every album.<\/p>\n<p>They wield their elder-spokesmen scepter, striking down hip-hop\u2019s obsession with material wealth on <i>Stakes Is High<\/i> and \u201cEgo Trippin\u2019 (Part Two).\u201d As the culture continues to evolve, De La Soul remain engaged and inquisitive, shooting spitballs at the status quo when warranted. As Posdnuos raps on \u201cSupa Emcees,\u201d \u201cWhile others represent, I present my rep.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1989, rap was in the thick of its vaunted golden age, with groups like EPMD, Boogie Down Productions, and Beastie Boys dropping classic after classic. That\u2019s when three bugged-out young men from Amityville, Long Island, (record scratch) appeared at the door. De La Soul, along with mentor\/producer Prince Paul, quickly joined the ranks\u2014not by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-streamapse-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4966"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6551,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4966\/revisions\/6551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}