De La Soul - De La Soul Is Dead

One of the boldest and most misunderstood albums in the history of hip-hop, and for many devotees the greatest record De La Soul ever made. Released on May 14, 1991, the sophomore effort from Posdnuos, Trugoy the Dove, and Maseo was a deliberate and total dismantling of everything that had made their debut so beloved, and the shattered flowerpot on the cover said it clearly: the D.A.I.S.Y. Age was over.

The title was a declaration of metamorphosis rather than defeat, as Posdnuos himself has reflected, the group simply growing up and transferring to another plane. But the shift was undeniably jarring. Where 3 Feet High and Rising had been psychedelic, colorful, and warmly optimistic, De La Soul Is Dead was darker, more cynical, more satirical, and considerably more complex. Prince Paul returned to produce a 27-track, nearly 80-minute sprawl that incorporated close to 100 different samples spanning James Brown, Parliament-Funkadelic, ELO, Tom Waits, Lenny Kravitz, and dozens of obscure 1970s soul and funk artists, weaving them into an album-length concept piece framed as a radio broadcast, complete with skits, interludes, and a liner-note comic strip read-along.

The weightier subject matter matched the bolder ambition. "My Brother's a Basehead" confronted drug addiction with unflinching directness. "Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa" told a harrowing story of sexual abuse with the kind of narrative precision rarely heard in hip-hop. "Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)" skewered the unwanted attentions of aspiring artists riding their coattails. Against all of that, "A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays" featuring Q-Tip provided a blast of pure disco-funk joy, one of the most irresistible tracks either act ever recorded. Guest appearances from Q-Tip and Black Sheep's Dres completed a record that Rolling Stone called an unruly, seemingly effortless hip-hop masterpiece, and which The Source awarded its coveted Five Mic rating, one of only fifteen albums in the magazine's history to receive the honor.

Ranked at number 228 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and carrying now the additional poignancy of Trugoy the Dove's passing in February 2023, De La Soul Is Dead endures as a landmark of creative courage and one of the essential documents of hip-hop's golden era.