unpopular opinion but De La Soul is the epitome of boring

Marc Spector

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So i went to the last NY State of Mind show last Saturday and it was a blast :wow:

To See Nas and the WU share the stage was special. But the opening act was De La and sheesh was it rough. They got no pop from the audience at all. I get Trugoy just passed and theyre adjusting to that but i can tell that even if he were alive, the reaction wouldve been the same.

As a group they just lack any real charisma or casual appeal. IMO they:

-dont have great quotables
They dont have great diction, have monotone flows, they dont rap loud enough, or put enough emphasis on words...this got better as they got older but their classic material is mostly when they were young guys and everything seems to run together, no lines stand out.

-let their bitterness and outsider attitude dictate their career
So much of their material is meant to critique the popular trends of rap and they honestly just come off as haters. And it seemed like a chore for them to make hits. In retrospect they were right about how corny rap was becoming, but you look goofy if you cant make better music than the nikkas you are mocking.

-their music is very insular
Their early material is chock full of inside jokes and references which is great for loyal fans but makes listening to some of their music and albums a task.

-they have dumb stage names
What the fukk is a Posdnous and Trugoy?

Now i do like some songs by them (breakadawn, saturday, Rock.Co Kane Flow) and I recognize their importance to the industry. But they always seemed to be kinda overrated to me. The kinda act that people try to force on you just cuz they made "positive" music.
 

knnymac

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Never thought about them like that but I’d have to agree. Way tf back in like 03-04, I was a writer for a hip hop magazine some people in my college started up and one of my first assignments was to try to interview Mos Def or Talib before a show. Had backstage passes so all I had to do was approach them. Me and my dog ended up talking to one of them De La nikkas backstage for like 30 minutes before Mos showed up. The De La dude gave me the alley oop, not only introducing me to Mos but also asking him to do a quick interview with me. Mos said no thanks but did take pictures with us and also let us rock out with him onstage during his set. He just said that he wasn’t in the mood to do an interview and I wasn’t mad at it.

I said all that to say this, that night and to this day, I have no idea which member of De La it was and I can’t even think of the name of even one song without checking my phone. Was a good dude tho, hope he isn’t the one that died.
 

Sugarbush

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I'd say that about Little Brother.
GqkUeU9.gif
 

Pop123

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The crowd is probably a bunch of mid-late 90's heads, they're not really up on the late 80's-early 90s stuff. De La aint boring...it's just the crowd aren't that familiar with their stuff more than likely, that's why they weren't getting crazy ovations and people singing along and all that. Nas loves De La so it was probably him who chose to put them on the bill...might have been better, crowd wise, to throw AZ on there or Common even.
 

THEREALBRAND

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The crowd is probably a bunch of mid-late 90's heads, they're not really up on the late 80's-early 90s stuff. De La aint boring...it's just the crowd aren't that familiar with their stuff more than likely, that's why they weren't getting crazy ovations and people singing along and all that. Nas loves De La so it was probably him who chose to put them on the bill...might have been better, crowd wise, to throw AZ on there or Common even.

A good performer can move the crowd regardless of the situation :manny:
 
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