They did a couple of songs, including “The Bizness,” from “Stakes Is High,” which features him afterward, Common said, “This group changed my life. It was the hip-hop star and actor Common. It was nice to see him smiling beyond dozens of swaying hands.Ī muscle-bound bald rapper leapt onstage like a superhero, and everyone started screaming and reaching for their phones. “Listen up-this is the first venue that De La Soul performed at, twenty-five years ago,” he said. Posdnuos had everybody wave their hands from side to side. They played a recent song, then did the lovable “Potholes in My Lawn.” You began to wonder if they did want to take us back. “We definitely want to take you back, but we also want to play some new stuff,” Trugoy said. He pointed to her and said, “Twenty-five years ago, we were in her house practicing!” She smiled. Posdnuos looked down at an older woman in front, by the stage. Maseo said, “I want to give a shout-out to my moms, who is in the house.” Oooh, oooh, oooh! Everyone was starving for De La Soul, and this was helping.
The crowd sang, danced, jumped, hands in the air. When Posdnuos got back onstage, Maseo came downstage and the three of them, mics in hand, sang “Oooh!,” a song from 2000 that, at the time, sounded wonderfully De La Soul and wonderfully now, and still does.
Dinkins, will you please be my mayor?” Two teen-age girls wore crop tops and rings of flowers around their heads. A guy behind me with a great Q-Tip voice sang along with “Can I Kick It?,” which played on the speakers: “Mr. The bar offered a Me, Myself & I drink special. A woman with dyed crimson hair wore a denim vest with a section of a Tribe Called Quest T-shirt pinned to it that said “ Q-TIP PHIFE DAWG ALI SHAHEED & JAROBI.” A woman in an “I ♥ Old-School Hip-Hop” shirt stood toward the front. I was startled, therefore, when, a couple of weeks ago, I saw that De La Soul was playing a show at Irving Plaza: a celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of “3 Feet High and Rising.” Could it be? At the show, for the first couple of hours after the doors opened, the big crowd-many ages, multiracial, with a strong Native Tongues aesthetic-was cheerful and excited. Though they’ve always enjoyed respect and good will and have stayed interesting-working with Gorillaz and Handsome Boy Modeling School, for example-they haven’t repeated the success of “3 Feet High and Rising,” and have seemed burdened by the album and its legacy. Even “My Brother Is a Basehead” was danceable.ĭe La Soul kept putting out decent records every few years, even after they parted ways with Prince Paul. But despite “Bitties in the BK Lounge” and “Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa” and so on, songs like “Oodles of O’s,” “Let Let Me In,” “Fanatic of the B Word,” and the jubilant “A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays” were just as funky, funny, and spirited as the songs on the first record. They named their next album “De La Soul Is Dead,” put a knocked-over flowerpot on the cover, and had darker, grumpier skits and lyrics. They resented being thought of as peace-loving hippies the Turtles sued them over the use of a sample. Many albums are beloved, but only a few feel like a revelation “3 Feet High and Rising” is one of them.įor De La Soul, the all-embracing, life-is-a-feast D.A.I.S.Y. They were proud to be who they were and to love what they loved, and they invited you to join in. The album had an incredible freedom, a we-can-do-anything feel. (“I know I love you better!”) With their producer, Prince Paul, De La Soul sampled everything. Surprises were everywhere: in wordplay and with in-jokes, in their mixture of singing and rapping and games, and, especially, in the sampling, the melodies and the bits of music you could hear weaving in and out of a song-or forming its very foundation, like “Eye Know,” built boldly and hilariously on “Peg,” by Steely Dan. age (Da Inner Sound, Y’All), and sample not only Johnny Cash’s “Five Feet High and Rising” but James Brown’s “Funky Drummer” and Eddie Murphy asking, “Anybody in the audience ever get hit by a car?” The effect of this fat, bouncy sound, these freewheeling guys slaying us with words coming fast and furious, was near-delirious happiness. The song manages to celebrate individualism and togetherness equally, introduce the concept of the D.A.I.S.Y. Three, that’s the magic number Yes it is, it’s the magic number Somewhere in this hip-hop soul community Was born three Mace, Dove, and Me And that’s the magic number
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