I'd say the first four are classics. Stakes is High is a personal classic. De La has never dropped a wack album, Mosiac, Bionix, Grind Date, the Nike album and the First Serve album all have their great moments.
Classics Discussion: De La Soul
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first 2 are certified, Stakes and the two AOI are personal favorites...one hell of a discography overall though. They're great live too
BmoreGorilla
Veteran
Voted yes for the first two. De La Soul is Dead is a personal favorite of mine
IAmListenin'
Rookie
De La Soul is Dead is my favorite De La Soul album. I've always thought it was better than 3 Feet High and Rising.
voted for 3 feet. Influential.
De La Soul is Dead is one of the shyttiest sophomore albums from a legendary group (though "Roller Skating" is a classic song). 3 Feet is their best album imo. Then after that, Stakes. Then Buhloone. and I can't rate the rest because I havent heard them all. Grind Date didn't do anything for me with the exception of Rock Co.Kane Flow
overall, De La Soul aren't my cup of tea but they have some songs I love.
A little harsh, but I feel you.
Y'all play this album frequently, front to back? skits and all? Rhyming along with what Pos and Trugoy are saying?
De La Soul is Dead is one of the shyttiest sophomore albums from a legendary group (though "Roller Skating" is a classic song). 3 Feet is their best album imo. Then after that, Stakes. Then Buhloone. and I can't rate the rest because I havent heard them all. Grind Date didn't do anything for me with the exception of Rock Co.Kane Flow
overall, De La Soul aren't my cup of tea but they have some songs I love.
A little harsh, but I feel you.
Y'all play this album frequently, front to back? skits and all? Rhyming along with what Pos and Trugoy are saying?
IAmListenin'
Rookie
DLSID is one of the albums in my regular rotation, yes.
I've had an ambivalent relationship with 3 Feet High and Rising. Back at the time it was too corny for me (I recognized its importance in the genre, but I just didn't personally like it). Years later I gave it another chance, and it's in my Top 50 albums now (though when people called The Pharcyde "the West Coast De La Soul," I liked Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde better than 3FHAR and I still do. If I'm going to listen to that kind of album, I'll throw that on, and I have Bizarre Ride in my Top 30). I don't have a problem with the skits on DLSID because it's part of the concept of the album. After their D.A.I.S.Y. Age was misconstrued and people called them hippies, they weren't going to let themselves be put in a box, and took control of their own image (which I applaud), with the cover art stating in no uncertain terms that that was dead. The whole thing with Jeff and the bullies was them being proactive, because they anticipated people not liking them changing, and the bullies were stand-ins for the inevitable critics. Just like you had people who didn't like OutKast changing up after Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik. (Though The Source gave them a 5-broken record rating, and as you saw the other day, Vibe had it as a Top 10 album.) The first skit with the schoolgirls gushing over Vanilla Ice was an indictment of the success of Vanilla Ice's To the Extreme, and the last skit had the bullies throwing the DLSID tape into the garbage saying they were going to go play Hammer, who was also popular. They'd criticize the current state of hip-hop more explicitly five years later in Stakes is High. Prince Paul also wanted the skits to lighten up the album.
"Pease Porridge" addressed people perceiving them as soft due to the whole "hippy" thing which they were killing off, which is why Maseo said, “Why do people think just because we speak peace, we can’t throw no joints?” "A Roller Skating Jam Named 'Saturdays'," as you said, is a classic, and an injection of light-heartedness after "Pease Porridge": “Back once more with the wallop in the store/ Sponsored by the riff sure ta make ya rock ya hip/ Reviver of the roller-boogie and the rink/ That’s sure ta make ya think/ About the time we scoped fun instead of fights.” "Bitties in the BK Lounge" is what we used to call "bagging" or "capping" in junior high back then, I don't know what people call it now. It also talks about minimum wage fast-food workers (the worker was making so little she didn't even have on a clean, ironed uniform), and addresses the reaction De La Soul received with their newfound fame after 3 Feet. He couldn't get any service until he took his hat off and was recognized as "that guy from De La Soul," and then suddenly the same person who wouldn't serve him "was quick wit’ the Bic just to get that autograph." People who don't give a damn about you when you're just a regular Joe do a 180 after you become famous.
Then you had "My Brother is a Basehead" which talked about drug addiction, and "Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa," which tackled sexual abuse, a topic too heavy for 3 Feet. People often aren't who they appear to be, and Dillon was a completely different person behind closed doors than he was in public, which is why no one believed Millie when she said the beloved Dillon was abusing her, which left her with no choice but to procure a gun and kill him in order to make the abuse stop. I like the Funkadelic sample. I frequently use sarcasm, so I don't have any problem with it on this album, and can appreciate the parody of house music, which you had people like Queen Latifah and Jungle Brothers into (the actually mimicked the later on the song). I also have an appreciation for the “Not Over Till the Fat Lady Plays the Demo” skit about being hounded by people wanting them to listen to their demo, which led into “Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey),” which also addresses a consequence of their newfound fame, being besieged by every Joe Schmoe wanna-be rapper looking to take advantage of their fame and use them as their "in" into a rap career: “Exit the old style, enters the new/ But nut’n’s new ’bout bein’ hawked by a crew/ Or should I say a flock?/ ’Cause around every block/ There’s Harry, dikk and Tom with a demo in his palm.”
As I've said before, to each his own. I'm a lyrics guy, and a lot of albums I like are for 1) technical ability displayed/rhyming ability; 2) storytelling; or 3) the content. Other people couldn't care less about any of that, and that's fine. They can like what they like, and I like what I like. And I couldn't care less if other people don't like what I like, because my tastes aren't dictated by what other people think and I don't need any external validation.
Of the first four De La Soul albums, my order is DLSID, 3FHAR, Stakes is High and Buhloone Mind State. But I still listen to DLSID and SIH more than 3FHAR (I listened to SIH a couple of days ago).
I appreciate the explanation, breh 
what other albums do you have in your regular rotation?
Hamza B.
Pro
First 4 are all classics. De La Soul Is Dead is their best album from front to back. Prince Paul production at its finest. And people around here sleeping on Buhloone Mindstate.
BmoreGorilla
Veteran
Its been a while but I used to listen to that album all the time
I opted for all being classics, except for the AOI albums. I'd say that "Grind Date" is a classic only because for them not to have released work for that many years and then drop it, the album blew me away.
I'm slightly biased in that they're my favorite rap group of all time, some look at me crazy when I say this, but I say they're better than ATCQ.
I'm slightly biased in that they're my favorite rap group of all time, some look at me crazy when I say this, but I say they're better than ATCQ.
I don't think there is any album that I play "frequently" front to back.
I don't have a "regular rotation" in that sense.
There's way too many albums out there and I have limited time to listen to music to make that practical.
@SirBiatch
5 mics in the Source in 90/91 has been pretty hit or miss on the Coli so far.
but good point about 5 mics, those were legit back then
5 mic albums that didn't get coli classic status: Let The Rhythm Hit Em, 1st Tribe album.
Cube's first album and Tribe's second did get coli classic status.
De La Soul is Dead is just shy of 80% at this point and the thread isn't getting much participation
Be interesting to see how the Brand Nubian album fares.
I'm voting yes.