isbell@athena.mit.edu (Charles L Isbell) (06/20/91)
What up, homecondo?
This time: _De La Soul is Dead_ by De La Soul
Next time: _Breaking Atoms_ by Main Source
_OG Original Gangster_ by Ice-T
_The Valley of the Jeep Beets_ by Terminator X
and...
_To The Extreme_ by Vanilla Ice (no, really)
Catch Ups: _Seminar_ by Sir MixALot
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Distinctiveness: Well, this is De La Soul. They are nothing if not
distinctive
Dopeness Rating: I had to listen to it more than once before I could decide.
It gets a DopeDope.
Rap Part: Dope+. They put words together in the most intersting ways.
Sounds: Dope+. De La originality. All samples are listed in the
liner notes.
Message: None, really. I'll say this, tho': these are some
depressed brothers. And they are extremely wierd.
This makes for an interesting combination.
Tracks: 27 tracks at 74 minutes.
Profanity: A few f*cks. Can you believe it? De La cursin'?
Is this a sign of the End(tm)? Naaah, you can still
let mom listen to it.
De La Soul is Trugouy The Dove, Posdnuos and P.A. Pasemaster Mase.
They became well-known with their first album _3 Feet High And Rising_
and fans have been waiting forever for a second album full of Daisies.
Well, it's here.
All is not well in De La Land. Someone has planted weeds among the De
La Daisies. They have had to deal with De La lawyers, as well as De La
fans and De La haters. This transformation reminds me of the transformation
that Tracy Chapman went thru after her first album. _Tracy Chapman_ was
an incredibly well-written and well-executed album. The songs were original
and she seemed so into what she was doing. Then she became famous.
_Crossroads_ was an almost bitter response. In some ways, she seemed
to be actually attacking her audience. Unfortunately, her lyrics
(although not her music) suffered.
_De La Soul Is Dead_ is a likewise claustrophobic, almost bitter album.
Luckily, De La took their time and their creativity has not seemed to suffer.
In fact, they are better in some ways. I'm not sure which album I
like best, but I am really looking forward to their third; hopefully,
they will continue to mature as artists and won't let this almost
unfocused irritation and paranoia get in the way of making good music.
De La is not for everyone, but if you liked the first album, you'll
like the second.
And just like the first album, there is a running skit througout this one.
Instead of a De La gameshow, we are treated to a De La readalong storybook.
The pictures are inside the liner notes and the skits ask you to read
along (complete with tones).
And so we open with "Intro." We see a lot of kids, all girls as far
as I can tell, talking about rappers. They're cooing over Vanilla Ice
and going on about dancers and cute rappers. Suddenly Jeff (those
in the know will recognize him right away) appears, announcing
that he has found a copy of the new De La Soul tape in the garbage.
Thugs appear and take it away from him, going off to listen to it.
We hear their comments througout the album. You can see where this
is going.
"'Listen, you Arsenio Hall gum havin'.punk...'
'Oooooh! You let him call you Arsenio!'"
Hmmmm. Well, we open with "Oodles of O's." And, no, I'm not sure what
the hell they are talking about. Maybe I'll figure it out next week.
In any case, the music is really nice on this one, in a De La way. In
fact, it's not just nice, it's De La Dope. I might mention here that the
DJ seems to have become a regular rapper. Good. He makes an appropriate
complement to the De La style.
"Let the herd know if beef they want to throw
bunches of punches is what I bestow."
So, anyway, "Talkin' About Hey Love" is the next offering. No rap here,
really, just Heyish singer Ann Roberts for a while followed by a conversation
between Pos and a Heyish-woman.
"'You even give better treatment to that girl named Selina
from uptown like a daisy. You even gave her some of your special
doughnuts for free.'
'So this is what this is all about--doughnuts!'
'No, Pos, don't you hear the music? It's all about Hey Love.'"
"Pease Porridge" opens with some Brothers discussing this new club
and somehow they get into De La Soul. One of them thinks De La
are punks. This leads into a rap about some fight De La got into
at the aforementioned club. I seem to vaguely recall someone
talking about this earlier, but then my memory could be playing
tricks on me.
"Question, and that's if only I can ask this question--can I?
(Yes you can!)
Why do people think just because we talk peace,
we can't throw no joooooiiints?"
In any case, the rhymes, as always, clock in on time and the sounds
are nicely nice. There's a good use of the pease porridge nursery rhyme.
This leads us into "Skit One," a continuation of the read-a-long.
"This is so corny. Tell me what are they saying?"
I don't want to dis my De La partners, but that's a good question.
Sometimes, it's very hard to tell. Getting these lyrics right
is a nightmare. Oh, well, that's often true. Eventually, I'll be
able to recite these things in the Spanish.
We get two minutes of absolute wierdness with "Johnny's Dead AKA
Vincent Mason (Live From the BK Lounge)." The crew does wierd
things on piano. What can I say? This is followed by "A Roller
Skating Jam named 'Saturdays'." This song has everything I hate
about 70's disco, so naturally, I love it. Well, in small
quantities, anyway. They have everything from "Grease" to "Light
My Fire" in here. Scary, isn't it?
"Let's all get baked, like Anita"
"WRMS' Dedication to the Bitty" introduces us to another ongoing joke.
WRMS plays De La Soul music only and is used as a springboard for some
jokes on your average radio station. Anyway, this is a lead in to
one of the funnier tracks on the CD: "Bitties in the BK Lounge"
all about the bad service one gets at Burger King. Hmmmmm. Let's
hope Burger King lawyers don't listen to rap.
"Young girl, won't you take my order?
She said, 'Yeah, but right now I'm sorta
busy. Don't you see I'm tryin' to put
this bandid on my finger?'
Lingering, I can tell she's a BK madamoiselle.
With a uniform and bottom bell
and some jelly stuff on her sleeve.
Looked to this 'cause I had no name tag on my collar
could be pissed 'cause she's makin' 2.95 an hour."
Actually, this track is three songs in one with a common theme. At
each story end, the music changes dramatically. I especially like
the second one with the male behind the counter this time. Talk about
busts. It's hard to quote the back and forth insult-fest between
customer and manager without typing in the whole thing.
"Look, you don't have to play fly in here
(I'm not tryin' to play fly)
Yo, I can tell you're fly by the weave that you wear (weave?!)
But you must be aware that a fly can be swatted by a BK tray
By the way, here's yours."
"Oh you're a family man?
(Word booty)
Well, I shouldn't be surprised
since you're sister's flippin burgers
and you're mother's fryin' fries.
And oh damn, look (what) here comes one more
it's you father--he just finished moppin' the floor
Now give them a hand, it's the BK clan
so you can't talk garbage about who I am."
Anyway, it gets much uglier, but I won't get into it. Now we hit
"Skit 2." The boyz are still dissin' the album.
"Well, maybe, if you flip it on 45 so I can dance to it."
"My Brother's A Basehead" is about exactly about what you think.
"Told me you needed a stronger fix
Stepped to the crack scene in 86."
"Said there was a voice inside you that talked
said you shouldn't stop until you took a walk
Now the brother that could handle any drug
had just found the one that could pull his plug."
It's well done. Not at all heavy handed, just a story, and the
music is nice to listen to (yeah, I know, what can I say about good
music and crackheads). This track, like all of them, is still
punctuated with De La wierdness.
This track ends with a sample from... NWA! I nearly fell out of
my chair when I heard the quote.
"Let, let me in" is another winner. And I actually think I understand
it, so that's always a plus. It's a man-woman thing. The sounds are
particularly De La jammin' here. This is also true of "Afro Connections
At A HI 5 (In The Eyes of The Hoodlum).
"This is dedicated to all those HARD CORE ACTS.
Yeah, you know, them Brothers we used to look up to
but fell THE F*CK OFF.
And now they're doing all that R&B <crocker>.
You mean Rhythm and Blues?
No Rap and Bullsh--"
"Yes my life is hectic.
Every hour, every minute, every second.
I keep a level head and stay down to earth
'cause I've been an afro since birth"
"My breath never smells whack
I eat the watermellon tic-tac."
"Rap De Rap" show is a hilarious take off on all those celeberty
endorsements for radio DJ's. You know, like "Hi I'm MC Hammer.
Whenever I'm not off making really bad records, I listen to
Rockin' DJ Darrin Fears on V103."
"Y-y-y-yo. This is Kim KC and I'm chillin'
with the suck-wheat posse. And when I'm not
home makin' a hamhock sandwich, I'm listenin'
to Rap De Rap show on WRMS."
"Yo, my name is MC No-Shame. And when I ain't bustin
the bed with your momma or sellin' crack
to the kids at Ammityville High School,
I'm listenin' to my man--the Doo Doo Man
on WRMS radio. Peace."
Next comes "Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa." This one is all about
a girl who is being sexually assaulted by her father. Unfortunately
for her, her father is a locally known social worker who is so
popular that no one believes her.
"Child ya got the best pop's anyone could have.
Dylan's cool, super-hip--you should be glad."
"Wanted to know if I could get a loaded pistol.
That ain't a problem but why would Millie need one?
She said she wanted her pops to deal and heed one.
Ran some style about him pushin' on her privates.
Look honey I don't care if you get fossils.
There's no way that you could prove to me that Dyl's flipped."
Hmmmmm. Yes, well, the next track, "Who Do You Worship?" is
a fairly short track. We have some guy talking to himself, with
each statement being interrupted with lots of noise.
"Damn, I feel good today.
I look forward to going in and beating
the sh*t out of somebody and taking their money.
What a f*ckin' great job I have."
This leads to "Skit 3" and "Kicked Out The House." In just under
two minutes they manage to capture every single cliche in house
music. I love it.
"In no way are we trying to disrespect any sort house or club
music. But we're just glad that we're not doing it."
"Pass the Plugs" follows with a bit of a mellower sound. It's relaxed
dopitivity.
"Tommy Boy wants another 'Say No'--ha!"
"Not Over Until The Fat Lady Plays The Demo" is a hilarious lead
in to "Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)," their first release and current
single. We all know what this one is about: De La is being overwhelmed
by people trying to use them to get into show business.
"What did she want from me? What did she want from me?
She was screamin' and screamin' and she had the tape in her hand
and I knew what she wanted, I knew what she wanted!"
I'm afraid I can't feel a great deal of sympathy, especially after
hearing Ice-T deal with it much better ("Lifestyles of the Rich and
Infamous" on _OG Original Gansta_). Whatever, it's still a nice song.
Hmmmmm. I've looked at my other reviews, and this is the second
longest so far, coming in just under Ice Cube (and those were
two reviews in one). Perhaps I should rap it up.
We follow with another WRMS thing, "WRMS: Cat's In Control," and
"Skit 4." Then we get to "Shwingalokate." It's pretty good. The
beat is jammin' and if there's any danceable song on this album,
this is it.
Excluding the final "Skit 5," "Fanatic of the B Word" and "Keepin'
the Faith" round out _De La Soul Is Dead_. Both are good, although
after 65 minutes, they don't stand out as much as the other tracks.
The "B Word", BTW, is "Baseball"... sorta.
Oh, and there is an extra panel in the liner-notes version of the
read-a-long story.
So, it's dope. It's also clear that this is an album and it works
best as an album. You may find yourself making tapes for your
car or whatever minus the little skits, but I think that, in general,
this is a 74 minute song.
If you liked De La's first album, you'll definitely like this one.
If you haven't tried De La, I'd suggest buying _3 Feet High and
Rising_ first, wait a week, and then buy this one. The only worry
I have about _De La Soul Is Dead_ is that some might be out off by
the more adversarial nature of this new album.
De La Soul is dead. Long live De La Soul!
But that's just one Black man's opinion--what's yours?
[Oh, this has just become longer than the other review. Oh well]
Peace.
"Love is like a snowmobile rushing across the tundra and then
suddenly it flips over pinning you underneath. At night,
the Ice Weasels come."
-Matt Groening, "Love is Hell"
--
Don't just adopt opinions, | \ / | Charles Lee Isbell
develop them. | \/ | Homeboy from hell, living axiom and
------------------------------| /\ | anonymous absolute ruler of the cosmos
MIT has no opinions to adopt. | / \ | isbell@athena.mit.edu, isbell@ai.mit.edu