De La SoulDe La Soul Is Dead…

De La Soul

De La Soul Is Dead (Tommy Boy) (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)

De La Soul`s 1989 debut, ”Three Feet High and Rising,” is one of rap`s masterpieces, loaded with loopy humor, dense wordplay and playful sampling

(Steely Dan, Hall & Oates, Johnny Cash) that even those unconvinced of hip-hop`s virtues could love. The follow-up from this Long Island trio, again produced by Prince Paul, is an even more sprawling work, with 27 tracks covering better than 70 minutes. It includes a number of running gags, including commentary by a couple of neighborhood kids who don`t understand the album`s humor, complain that there aren`t enough cuss words and finally toss the tape into the garbage. Jokes about hard-core rap, ”quiet-storm” radio stations, house music, food, fame and sexual gamesmanship vie with more serious themes such as drug addiction (”My Brother`s a Basehead”) and child abuse (”Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa”). With few exceptions, such as the guitar riff from Wayne Fontana`s ”Game of Love” used on ”Basehead,” the samples are less instantly infectious, the tempos slower, the raps less fanciful (the exception: the seductively oblique ”Oodles of O`s.”). But though it`ll be a harder sell than ”Three Feet High and Rising,” the new album is nearly as rewarding. De La Soul may have buried its past, but not its creativity.

Ratings:

Excellent (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)(STAR)

Good (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)

Fair (STAR)(STAR)

Poor (STAR)

Originally Published: May 16, 1991 at 1:00 AM CDT