De La Soul - The Grind Date

This is a slept-on 5-star classic!

Where do you start with one of the greatest groups of all-time DE LA SOUL?? They came out in the late 80's under the mentorship of the great producer Prince Paul(who was in a great group himself-Stetsasonic)...they were part of the collective "Native Tongues"..which included A Tribe Called Quest...the Jungle Brothers....Queen Latifah and Monie Love to name a few....In other words this group has been "doing it" for a long time...This CD dropped in 2004 and thanks to the Amazon hip-hop forum I was lucky enough to be put up on it in 2007...it just took me a little bit to actually get around to writing a review and here it is:

First of all over the last month I haven't taken this joint out of the cd changer...and to think that I was one of the people who thought De La didn't have the passion anymore for this hip-hop thang....I was WRONG and big time at that:
Madlib,Super Dave West,Dilla(RIP),and 9th Wonder handle the production, that should give you a clue right there that this is going to be an extremely fun ride...

Hip-hop fans will gravitate towards,"The Future","Verbal Clap","Much More" with the DJ Premier intro,"The Grind Date","Church","It's Like That" with Carl Thomas on the hook,"Days Of Our Lives","Come On Down","Rock co.CaneFlow" with MF Doom.....these are my favorite joints on the album but actually there are no bad ones on it....If you notice I haven't gone into complete detail on the tracks and that is because I want you to form your own opinion on them...but I gave you an overview of the producers on it and the tracks I'm really digging...anyone that knows REAL hip-hop already knows that is an all-star line-up on the beats and when you combine that with a veteran supergroup like DE LA SOUL, then you understand that this MUST be a part of your hip-hop collection.....GET IT NOW!!!

April 29, 2008

VASTLY UNDERRATED! A+

BOTTOM LINE:

De La brought the thunder on this one - and totally slipped under the hiphop radar. Which is too bad becuz this album is flawless from the opening Jermaine Jackson sample- to the last beat of the sinister track 'Rock Co. Caine Flow' (starring the always uncanny, MF DOOM). What makes a classic? After the 50th listen...IT STILL BANGS.

A+! COP THIS NOW. February 8, 2008

They still got Soul

In a rap game that is filled with one-hit-blunders and here today gone tommorow emcees, its refreshing to hear rap pioneers like De La Soul still making quality hip hop albums. Lets get one thing clear. Shopping Bags SUCKS! I dont like when rap gods force themselves to do commercial records because they usually sound forced and out of place. Case in point with Shopping Bags. Other than that, this album is great. I like the Broadway Musical sounding The Future and Carl Thomas provides a good chorus for De La Soul's reflective It's Like That. MF Doom ripped Rock Co. Cane Flow in half(along with De La of course). More hip hop gems follow as Common joins in on Days Of Our Lives and Ghostface does his thing on He Comes even though he never outshined De La on the track. Bottom Line: De La Soul's The Grind Date is unquestionably one of the best albums of 2004. De La can still rip it solo(Grind Date, No, Verbal Clap, Come On Down etc) and with guest spots(Rock Co.Cane Flow, He Comes and Days of Our Lives). Other than the terrible Shopping Bags, this album is smooth sailing. Standout Tracks: MUCH MORE, THE GRIND DATE, NO, ITS LIKE THAT, VERBAL CLAP, ROCK CO.CANE FLOW, HE COMES, COME ON DOWN, DAYS OF OUR LIVES and THE FUTURE. August 28, 2007

sorry I slepted on it

man all i have to say is this cd is the ish and I've been playing it all the time and this is a true gem and I would like to know are they going to release any more work out cuz this was a crazy cd and they shined on each track TRUE HIP HOP LIVES ON June 18, 2007

Buy This!

This album came out in 2004, and when people ask me to recommend my top 10 albums of the year, I forget that this came out 3 years ago and tell them to go buy this. If you don't have this in your collection, go get it. There's not a track that I don't bang. And it seems like I'm always finding something new in it that just makes me go "Ohhhh!" This is a fantastic album. May 30, 2007

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