Most people consider this Long Island-based rap trio's debut, Three Feet High and Rising, to be the pinnacle of not only their discography but of old-school, conscious-based hip-hop in general, but to this writer, their follow-up was the most outstanding example of the creative limits rap can reach. Everything from the title, cover art, and skit interstitials between the songs was a clever concept designed around predicting the band's own demise; the premise being people getting sick of them and literally throwing their tapes into the garbage, where a gang of street thugs pick it up, play it, and for the remainder of the album, mock it à la a ghetto version of Siskel & Ebert. ("Aw, now they're starting to sound like MC Shan. I don't like it!") Of course, the irony is De La displays some of their best material between the fake, curt reviews, including "A Roller Skating Jam Named 'Saturdays,'" which contains a killer record scratch, and the minor hit "Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)," which featured a chorus that served as quite a hip answering-machine message. The group also had the courage to show their serious side with the exemplary "Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa," a heartbreaking, ripped-from-the-headlines story about a girl who gets revenge against her abusive father in a mall during the Christmas shopping season. As if one concept wasn't enough, De La Soul Is Dead throws on another layer with WRMS; a phoney radio station that plays underground hip-hop, like a certain rap band who was predicting its disintegration. The real De La Soul is almost disintegrated now, but this album should never be tossed in the trash.
Michael Perone has written for The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore City Paper, The Island Ear (now titled Long Island Press), and The Long Island Voice, a short-lived spinoff of The Village Voice. He currently works as an Editor in Manhattan. And he still thinks Michael Keaton was the best Batman.
