Kin Folk,
Hope everyone has had a good summer. Over here at GFS we're real ready for the fall. The changing of the seasons, the turn of the tides... Don't get me wrong, I love me some Wind N' Sea shore break just like the next guy. My general beef with summer though, is that it seems the season mandates even the most grown of folk dress like children. You know, short pants and flip flops... Now that fall has arrived a man might get the chance to wear some wool, perhaps even a bit of tweed. And it's definitely time to put some leather under our feet, isn't it? Man up, yeah? Don Draper says 'Yeah'.
So to follow up our Stones Throw Showcase summer series and celebrate the advent of a new season we've got some of our biggest and most exciting events of the year lined up for October, starting with this:
The staff here at the GFS offices have been working on procuring this particular event since the very day Grown Folk Shit started (almost an entire year, incase anybody's counting). Trust, it's a very special occasion, this exclusive Maseo dj set, not only for us here at GFS, but presumably for anybody out there who has any degree of appreciation for hip hop. I don't imagine that a De La Soul primer is required here, being that they are among the most widely recognized groups within the genre world wide, along side A Tribe Called Quest, Gang Starr and perhaps a few others. I am, however, going to use this space to put forth a concept and personal belief, to which everyone is welcome to respond (via comments):
- De La Soul, has more truly great albums (beginning-to-end-Illmatic great, not In My Lifetime Vol. 1-I-love-3/4's-of-the-record-but-could-do-without-the-Blackstreet-cameos great) at a total of four ('3 Feet High And Rising', 'De La Soul Is Dead', 'Buhloone Mindstate' and 'Stakes Is High'), than any other hip hop group in history (excepting Boogie Down Productions, with a total of five - 'Criminal Minded', 'By All Means Necessary', 'Ghetto Music: The Blueprint Of Hip Hop', 'Edutainment' and 'Sex & Violence' - perhaps six, should you want to consider 'Live Hardcore Worldwide', the live album... An anomaly of a catalog which, surprisingly, if any artist in hip hop is ever going to contend with, it's going to be Ghostface). It's a concept which provides evidence enough to argue that De La Soul is perhaps the greatest hip hop group of all time.
Relative to one's perspective, four great albums may not seem like a tremendous benchmark. Compared to artists like The Beatles or The Rolling Stones, each with over ten beginning-to-end great albums in their catalogs, a single digit number such as four may seem unaccomplished. But let's be sure our perspective is adjusted properly to compensate for the field in which De La is working... The greatest of hip hop groups all plateau, at least within their recording careers, at three studio albums. Insert your favorite hip hop group here and apply... Eric B & Rakim - 3. Public Enemy - 3. Run D.M.C. - 3. A Tribe Called Quest - 3. Gang Starr - 3. Jungle Bros -2.5, maybe 3. M.O.P. - 2.5. The Beatnuts - 2 full lengths and an E.P. Pete Rock & C.L. - 2. The closest contender would have to be EPMD with flexible total of somewhere between 2.5 - 3.5 ('Strictly Business' and 'Unfinished Business' are both beginning-to-end triumphs... Most everybody seems to love one of either 'Business As Usual' or 'Business Never Personal' and have mixed feelings for the other).
The De La four album benchmark stands up even in the realm of solo artists: Slick Rick - 3. Kool G Rap - 2. Jay-Z - 1 and the aforementioned 3/4. Big Daddy Kane - 1. Biggie - 1. Nas - 1. One approaching competitor here would be, as previously mentioned, Ghostface with a debatable 3.75 ('Ironman', 'Supreme Clientele', 'The Pretty Toney Album' and 'Fishscale' all seems pretty perfect to me, but the middle two often provoke dissenting views, to say the least). As of press time, however, it appears that Ghostdini has taken a sharp left turn to become the (singing) 'Wizard Of Poetry', perhaps clouding his future...
Anyhow, point being... Pos, Dave and your dude Mase are one of the greatest of all time, if not the very best.
For nobody's sake but your own, please don't miss this shit.
Something we've yet to even mention, Maseo is a bona fide, no joke, official disc joc and record collector. Money is nice on the mic too. According to his bio, Mase made his debut as a dj at age 12. Snap!
Here's a recent (Aug 09) live set of his in two parts:
Part 1 is classic hip hop.
Part 2 is funk, soul and breaks.
While you're at it, enjoy this...
...and this:
Earlier this year dj & producer J Period released this pretty incredible Native Tongues dedication program for his True Elements show on Scion Radio. The show is filled with mad entertaining interviews with various Native Tongues members. Below is a link to a portion of that program with Dave and Pos of De La Soul discussing how they first were introduced to hip hop and how they connected with Maseo and Prince Paul to form De La -
The origins of De La Soul interview with J Period on Scion Radio
Again, for your sake, we would like to recommend that you catch a ticket for this Thursday's Grown Folk Shit party with Maseo NOW. Tickets are available right here and at the top of this very blog.
Merci beaucoup,
GFS
Posts
