De La Double

Two "new" albums from one of rap's greatest of all time (hard to argue, come on now) have come out in the last month. Manifest Destiny breaks it down:

Artist: De La Soul Album: De La Mixtape: Remixes Rarities & Classics Label: Rhino Records Year: 2004

Rhino Records, the label that's brought us such classic compilations as The Very Best of Dr. Demento and The Very Best of Frankie Vallie & the Four Seasons, is now getting into the rap game with releases by Naughty by Nature, Big Daddy Kane, Brand Nubian, and now De La Soul. You all know what this means, right? Rap's getting older, ahem, more mature, and so are its listeners.

Tommy Boy Records, of course, had a hand in these releases too. Plundering De La Soul's vaults after dropping them from their label is a classically wack label move (anyone remember Fu-Schnickens' Greatest Hits album?). However, some labels have done a nice job of providing listeners with new classic material by releasing b-sides and hard-to-find records, while paying respect to the legacy (Del tha Funkee Homosapien's recent The Best of Del was abundant in memorable rare tracks). The De La Mix Tape is a little of the good and a bit of the bad--the "remixes and rarities" part is what we all want, while the "classics" part is what we already have in our collection and fills up the album needlessly.

The album shines when it delivers the goods: both remixes of "Stakes is High" are nice to have, as is the lovely "Trouble in the Water" from the DJ Honda album. Unfortunately, it's difficult to give this album a full recommendation for a few reasons. Number one, it's not a "mixtape" as advertised--there are no blends between tracks, and the sequencing seems almost random. Number two, the prevalence of pre-released songs ("Oodles of O's," "Three is the Magic Number," and "I.C. Y'all") makes one wonder for whom this album is targeted? Causal listeners would have little interest in picking up this collection of De La Soul oddities, and serious fans already have most tracks. We know that there's a full album's worth of "remixes and rarities" in the vaults--imagine if Maseo was charged with the task of collecting the finest and producing a mixtape worthy of one of the most innovative groups in hip-hop history!

Rating: 3/5

Artist: De La Soul Album: Live at Tramps NYC 1996 Label: Rhino Records Year: 2004

Second up to plate is the live recording of De La Soul at New York City's Tramps nightclub from 1996. Tramps no longer exists, but many a hip-hop memory has been made at the venerable establishment off 6th Avenue. Having seen De La Soul four times, Mike C will be the first to admit that the trio has never been the strongest of live acts. In fact, they're distant, poorly prepared, and slip too easily into cliched crowd-involvement chants instead of digging into their rich catalog of songs to deliver a dope show. I had seen De La Soul on this tour, only a month before this recording, at The Cubby Bear in Chicago, and considered it perhaps the best live show that the group had delivered. Common spit his rousing "Bitch N Yoo" diatribe in front of a home crowd, De La Soul thrived off the ensuing energy. Quite a contrast to their 1993 performance in Pittsburgh where the group lazily appeared on stage backed by a DAT (!) and sleepwalking through a 45 minute set. Despite the disappointments, I was really hoping that this live album would capture the more positive memories. I mean, it must be good if they decided to print up thousands of these discs and distribute it nationwide, right?

Well, yes and no. The good news is that De La Soul is indeed performing at their peak of energy and live show experience, delivering the same amount of focus and creativity that I had seen at The Cubby Bear. Unfortunately, the recording is spotty at best, sounding more like it was captured through a smuggled-in tape recorder than a professional line through the mixing board. The bass drops out, the vocals come and go, and the mix is so variable that it distracts from the performance. Some may value the "authenticity" of the grimy recording, I'll argue that it's poor quality control, and yet another case of Tommy Boy plundering the vaults. The CD packaging is better produced than the recording, nuff said. Lucky for us, De La Soul is no ordinary group, and their renditions of "Potholes in my Lawn," alongside "Shwingalokate" and "Buddy" (featuring the JBeez!) shine brightly in spite of it all.

Rating: 3/5