I can’t believe that the VH1 Hip Hop Honors are just getting around to honoring De La Soul this year, its almost criminal. How do you honor Snoop Dog, Outkast, or even A Tribe Called Quest before De La? Is there any understanding or respect for history? What criteria do they based their decisions for honoring bands on. It cant be based on the impact that a band has had on the genre or the aesthetic of the Hip Hop community because there are very few Hip Hop bands that did more to impact the genre than De La Soul. I know because I was there, in fact me and the youngest member of the group Maceo are the same age; I actually went to his high school graduation party in Amityville, Long Island; because we had mutual friends. I’m not from Amityville but I am from Suburban NY; the same suburb that Brand Nubian and CL Smooth are from, and as suburban kids we had a different sensibility towards Hip Hop because we grew up in a quieter, safer, more friendly place than our urban peers.
De La Soul gave birth to bands like A Tribe Called Quest, Leaders of the New School, Brand Nubian, the Pharcyde, Hieroglyphics, Freestyle Fellowship, Blackalicious, UMC’s, Main Source, and a host of others. They ushered in a whole movement and a different sound; a sound that had less to do with urban blight and more about the expression of youthful life discovery of sex, culture, and growing up. And the expression was wrapped in a competitive lyrical style that was based on who could be the most original. It was a time when it was embarrassing to be wack; what ever happened to that? If you listen to Three Feet High and Rising you never heard the word nigger, maybe once; and that was in the context of a parody of the word. There wasn’t one song bragging about inner city violence or drug trafficing. There were songs about diasies though, and potholes in lawns and about getting laid. The subject matters were universal and human, every kid; black, white, asian, indian from Long Island to Boisee could relate. De La Soul gave Hip Hop freedom, freedom from James Brown and Funkadelic samples; freedom to sample Steely Dan. It was fun to be young and black again and it for a minute Hip Hop was inspirational. Who the f*ck makes these decisions about who should be honored. If it was me De La Soul would have been on the first show with PE and Grand Master Flash and the Furious 5; they were that important.
1 comment:
I'd have to agree. I mean, when I was growing up (though I'm significantly younger than you) I remember my older brother blasting potholes in my lawn, and bitties at the bk lounge! I remember thinking, "yo these dudes are dope, and I really wanna hang out with them." Not to mention, they pretty much revolutionized the interlude on 3 feet! Even Pos's cadence was different than every other emcee at the time. He was kicking a/b/a/c then d/e/d/c for those of yall who understand rhyme scheme, while every one else, was a/b/c/b alllll day! Geniuses! AND their LAST record was FIRE! So not only were they pioneers, but they are pulling an Al Green, and still making jammin records! Hat's off Shawn for shining some light on this!
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