De La Soul Is Dead
| De La Soul Is Dead | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by De La Soul | ||||
|
Publication |
May 13, 1991 |
|||
| Label (s) | Tommy Boy Records | |||
|
Format (s) |
Music cassette, LP, CD |
|||
|
Title (number) |
23/27 |
|||
|
running time |
59:00 / 73:56 |
|||
| occupation |
|
|||
|
De la Soul, Prince Paul |
||||
|
||||
De La Soul Is Dead from 1991 is the second album by the hip-hop formation De La Soul . It was again created in collaboration between the rap trio and producer Prince Paul and has the character of a concept album . All titles are loosely tied into a story supported by inserted short radio plays ( skits ). The Rolling Stone lists the album among the "100 best albums of the nineties" ranked 87th
concept
De La Soul Is Dead has the characteristics of a concept album. The individual pieces of music are embedded in an overarching plot. The story begins with an intro radio play and continues with five inserted short radio plays ( skits ). The skits are visually complemented by a little comic story, which can be found in the MC / CD booklet. In response to a ring tone, the listener is asked to turn the page and switch to the next picture.
The Skits pretend to listen to the white rapper Vanilla Ice as he in turn listens to a captured demo tape by De La Soul. In the intro, a couple of children find a De La Soul music tape in a trash can. Vanilla Ice, who is just passing by with his farce, tears the tape from the children with the use of force and listens to it tense. Of course, he wants to know what the black rappers are singing about in order to be up to date. In Skits 1 to 5, however, Vanilla Ice was disappointed and made negative comments about the tape. He measures the loaded guns, the hot bitches and so on, in short: he misses the “real” hip-hop. Vanilla Ice throws the tape away and it ends up where it was at the beginning of the story: in the trash can. The last sentence of the album is said when leaving and reads: "Let's play Hammer !"
The plot ends as it began and can therefore be viewed and listened to as an endless narrative - like a music tape in Autoreverse or a compact disc on Repeat.
The album contains numerous pop-cultural references and cross-references, including a. just to Vanilla Ice, The Simpsons ( Pease Porridge ), Tracy Chapman's song Fast Car ( Bitties in the BK Lounge ) and MC Hammer ( SKIT 5 ).
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary on May 13th, 2016 De La Soul released a previously unreleased free track on Soundcloud . The track is called Sho Nuff and comes from the De La Sessions .
Track list
The album was released on LP, compact cassette and compact disc . The CD version has four additional music tracks compared to the music cassette, which are marked here with [*].
Music cassette
|
CD version
|
Samples
The album contains a wealth of samples from all kinds of music styles, such as soul , jazz , hard rock , reggae and funk . This is also one of the reasons why the album is still not available as a download, as all samples have to be legally and financially clarified. Among other things, titles of the following well-known artists were sampled:
- James Brown - Oodles of O’s
- Stevie Wonder - Talkin 'Bout Hey Love
- Frankie Valli - A Roller Skating Jam Named "Saturdays"
- Lou Donaldson - Bitties in the BK Lounge
- The Doors - My Brother's a Basehead
- Genesis - Who Do You Worship?
- Thin Lizzy - Who Do You Worship?
- Eric Burdon & War - Pass the Plugs
- Serge Gainsbourg - Not Over Till the Fat Lady Plays the Demo
- Lenny Kravitz - Not Over Till the Fat Lady Plays the Demo
- Aerosmith - Keepin 'the Faith
- Bob Marley & the Wailers - Keepin 'the Faith
Web links
- Sho Nuff free anniversary track from the De La Sessions on Soundcloud .
- “Make Those Records You Make”: Prince Paul Recalls the Making of De La Soul is Dead on January 10, 2016.
Single receipts
- ↑ 100 Best Albums of the Nineties In: Rolling Stone from April 27, 2011.
- ↑ Sidney Madden: De La Soul Liberate Unreleased Song “Sho Nuff” for 25th Anniversary of 'De La Soul Is Dead' , May 13, 2016.