In 1989 De La Soul's classic debut album 3 Feet High and Rising set
them up with a persona built around cryptic lyrics, psuedonyms, and a
super-creative, eclectic approach to music. The two albums after it -- 1991's
De La Soul Is Dead and 1993's Bulhoone Mindstate -- saw them
vocally pushing against the "alternative hip-hop" and "psychedelic hip-hop"
tags that were hung on them, due to the first album's day-glo cover art and
their perceived bohemian-ism. But at the same time both of those albums'
lyrics were on the whole even more enigmatic than those on 3 Feet High and Rising<,
filled with in-jokes and their own slanguage. In the middle of Bulhoone
Mindstate, however, was a song that broke through the mystery in an
almost startling way. "I Am I Be" still stands as one of the most
introspective hip-hop songs; its emotional bluntness paved the way for De La
Soul to push their sound in a more direct, starker direction. No De La Soul
song since that one has been quite as open-hearted, yet it stands as the
beginning of the second phase of De La's career.
Stakes Is High (1996) was the full-length statement that followed --
here the trio displayed their skills as strongly as ever, yet they used them
for different purposes. They tried to make an album anyone could understand,
one that would sound good blaring out of jeeps everywhere, and they
succeeded. While they were pushing for a broader audience, they did their
best to tell the people what was in their hearts. The album wasn't maybe as
emotional as "I Am I Be", but it was just as open and honest, and contained
many pointed criticisms of hip-hop and society. The album was derided by
many who couldn't take the new style as too preachy, which perhaps is why
the two albums after it -- Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic
Thump (2000) and AOI: Bionix (2001) -- were less socially aware overall,
and polished up their newly straightforward style with more R&B hooks and
popular guest stars. Both albums seemed to be in part a stab at commercial
success. De La's newest album, The Grind Date, is overall in much the
same vein as both AOI albums, but where it fits in the world of
hip-hop is different. Here De La Soul seem less concerned with playing with
their sound to see if it'll make them more money, more into shining a
spotlight on what they've doing since 1989, in the most basic terms: rhyming
over beats.
The title The Grind Date refers to the fact that De La Soul now see
themselves as hip-hop laborers, working all year long at recording and
touring. The album's cover art is a calendar filled with appointments and
plans, a reminder that De La Soul are working hard at what they do. The
Grind Date is a celebration of the labor involved in making music -- its
songs have a let's-get-down-to-basics stance that mimics that attitude. Or
as they put it on the title track, "When it comes to putting in work/ Once
again it's on." Both Posdnous and Dave (the artist formerly known as Trugoy)
ocassionally rhyme autobiographically or throw in social and political
messages, but they mostly focus on showing off how well they can write and
perform their rhymes. Stakes Is High and the albums after it have
especially showcased Posdnous' ability to write carefully crafted rhymes,
and this album is no exception. He's always one step ahead of you, throwing
in phrases and references that you'll get a few listens later. And Dave is
no slouch as an MC either; his voice seems a bit rougher here, but he still
exudes a casual charm and hidden fierceness. On The Grind Date more
often than not they're doing what MCs historically have done -- bragging and
boasting while showing off the magic you can achieve with words if you
phrase them right. They don't sound like out to deliver big messages or make
a big statement, just to show you what they can do.
The Grind Date has an economy to it that suits De La Soul's new
workmanlike perspective; at 12 songs it's the most concise album they've
made yet. Every song seems carefully put together, both by De La and their
impressive collection of producers and guest MCs. If The Grind Date
is meant as a showcase of the tools De La have at their disposal, it's also
a similar showcase for a handful of today's stars. The trio is boosted
greatly by how solid the musical tracks are, due to the hard work and
creativity of the album's five producers: Supa Dave West, J. Dilla, Madlib,
9th Wonder and Jake One. Hip-hop today is a producer's world, and De La Soul
knows it. They've selected some of the hottest producers around, and each
came up with tracks that suit De La well, keeping things simple while using
sweet soul sounds to hook the ear and fresh beats to move heads and feet.
This is the first De La Soul album where an instrumental version would be
something worth listening to for non-DJs.
The last five songs on the album complete the album's celebration of hip-hop
craftmanship by focusing even further on the art of MCing, by featuring
talented guests. With the possible exception of "No", featuring the
component but not showstopping newcomer Butta Verses, these MC
collaborations are dynamite. Ghostface is a lively presence on "He Comes",
Flava Flav shows he hasn't run out of energy by hyping up "Come on Down",
Common brings out De La's introspective side on "Days of Our Lives", and the
album closes with perhaps its highlight, "Rock Co.Kane Flow" featuring MF
Doom. This last track is both a fine showcase for all the skills involved in
hip-hop music and an experiment, as De La and Doom play a game of "who can
keep up with the beat" as Jake One varies the tempo of the piano-laden track
in exciting ways. "Rock Co.Kane Flow" takes The Grind Date out on an
adventurous note, but the dominant descriptive word for the album is
"solid". That's no criticism, as De La Soul's intent seems to be to show
that they're still creating rock-solid music over a decade after their
supposed heyday. Besides... sometimes a solid 12-track album, with no real
lulls, is just what you need. These days De La Soul view themselves as a
reliable force, consistently rocking audiences at home and in clubs; the
quality level of The Grind Date shows they are that, and they have
what it takes to continue at it.
— 1 November 2004
