Audio Absinthe - Music » De La Soul

De La Soul + Fela Kuti = FELA SOUL

Eric B — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 22:14:41 +0000

- Posted by Eric B -

I’m not a huge fan of mash-ups but when you combine one of my favorite hip hop artists of all time in De La Soul with one of the legendary pioneers of funk in Fela Kuti, you have a winner in my book. See for yourself by checking out producer Amerigo Gazaway’s project entitled “Fela Soul”. You can check out the link to download the mixtape here.

The Boom Boxx with NOSAJ THING, DE LA SOUL and DJ Z-TRIP

Eric B — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 22:29:15 +0000

The Boom Boxx With Nosaj Thing, De La Soul, and Dj Z-Trip – August 19, 2011

- Posted by Eric B -

Hip hop was definitely in the building at the Hollywood Palladium on Friday night when a couple of classic acts and an up and comer came to rock LA. Arriving half-way through Nosaj Thing’s set with low expectations, what I saw was a pleasant surprise and a fresh take on hip hop and turntableism as he wet the crowd’s appetite for my personal main event of the night, De La Soul. De La did not disappoint either as Posdnous, Dave, and Maceo came out and rocked the crowd as usual mixing up the tunes with classics (“Saturdays”, “Me Myself and I”) to newer, still funky tracks like “Days of Our Lives” and “Much More”. Highlight for me was the J Dilla tribute where they played tracks from Stakes Is High including my all-time De La favorite “The Bizness”. These three hip hop pioneers did a great job of getting the crowd ready for the headliner in Z-Trip. When Z-Trip hit the stage, he came out to a crowd foaming at the mouth waiting for some more hip hop and he came through and delivered the bad crap, in a good way. He slowly sucked the crowd in by spinning classic tracks from the golden era and clearly displaying his master of the turntables with moments of scratching that were able to put smiles on everyone. The Palladium may not have been sold out on this night, but what the crowd lacked in size, it made up for in energy and straight up love for hip hop. Z-Trip surprised everyone by bringing LL Cool J out for his swan song I would imagine, as he performed classic tracks from his catalog including “Doin It”, “Mama Said”, and “Rock the Bells”. LL and his ridiculously massive frame destroyed the crowd and by 1:30 when the lights came up, the crowd filtered out into the Hollywood night with their hip hop appetite satisfied, at least for one night.

Kasabian – “Days Are Forgotten (DJ Z-Trip Remix featuring LL Cool J)”

De La Soul – “Watch Out”

Dillanthology 1

Spencer — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 07:21:35 +0000

A new compilation of songs produced by one of the greatest hip hop producers, J Dilla, is available in stores now. Released on March 31st, Dillanthology 1 is part 1 of what will be a tribute series celebrating the contemporary musical brilliance of the late producer. This first album in the series showcases “some of his classic productions” for artists like Pharcyde, Common, Busta Rhymes, Erykah Badu, De La Soul, The Roots, and others. Check out a couple of my favorites* below. *De La Soul’s “Stakes Is High” is one of my favorite tracks on Dillanthology 1, but I didn’t find it on Imeem so I linked the MP3 at the bottom…

Buy it at Amazon

I was really happy to hear about this compilation coming out. Maybe some of the issues with his musical legacy have been resolved, not sure though. After J Dilla died in 2006 due to complications from lupus, there were some problems regarding the rights to Dilla’s music between lawyers, labels, and J Dilla’s family. There’s a great article about it all called “The Battle for his Legacy” by Kelley Louise Carter in Vibe magazine (read it here).

The compilation is great because the content is classic hip hop track after the next. The album does have some of the most popular Dilla tracks, but I’m hoping the next release in the series will showcase some of the amazing unreleased material that’s leaked onto the web over the years. There are some truly beautiful tracks that showcase Dilla’s genius that I would love to see included in the series. Beats like “Circus” and “Trashy” are two of my favorites, both from the Ruff Draft EP. What are some of your favorite Dilla productions? If listening to the music hasn’t completely taken over and you’ve read this far, comment below and let me know your favorites…

MP3: De La Soul – Stakes Is High (produced by J Dilla)