De La Soul - Classic or Dud?

See, I knew there was an explanation.

Are they reissuing Is Dead and Buhloone (and Stakes) on vinyl too? Because I have Is Dead and Buhloone but they're missing a bunch of tracks and would be up for unexpurgated versions.

Years ago on Sound Opinions, around the early '00s when it was still on WXRT, Jim DeRogatis reminisced about getting an advance copy (I *think* a cassette) of De La Soul Is Dead for review, and because there were major concerns of piracy, they threw in something like a braying donkey that would be randomly heard every now and then. He no longer had it but he said it actually added to the surreal nature of the album. (He brought this up because he wanted to talk about "Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa" for what was probably a Christmas-related show.

I've never been able to find any mention of this anywhere since then, much less an actual copy. Anyone know what DeRogatis was talking about?

kinda like Lee Scratch Perry's cow-moo toy!

i've never heard of that but def sounds like some prince paul chicanery.

and yes, early 90s cd propaganda=differing tracklist across formats. the cd is the full version of the album. the only "real" song that got cut was "my brother's a basehead", the rest of the cuts were jokey half-songs or interludes.

Damn, they picked a wrong one to cut.

Basehead is on my copy https://www.discogs.com/release/210087-De-La-Soul-De-La-Soul-Is-Dead.

My Buhloone (has a first name) is definitely missing a bunch of tracks, not least as it's 1LP.

I played the cassette to death so those extra songs on the CD always seem superfluous to me. I interviewed them once and Maseo told me the cassette followed the vinyl version tracklist, and the vinyl had fewer songs so they could fit without sounding worse. I too thought Basehead was on the tape but I'm struggling to find my tape or an accurate tracklist of it online (on discogs even). I know Johnny's Dead, Kicked out the house and Who Do You Worship were among the CD only tracks

I remember hearing about the promo with the animal noises a lot in articles at the time of release but haven't ever heard that version

Still scratch my head about how …Dead got bad or indifferent reviews on release. And iirc Buhloone got better but still middling reviews.

I think it was perceived at the time as just more of the same, but less interesting.

I still remember it earned good reviews but also a sense of, "Well, the Digable Planets album did this kind of thing already."

I remember the take being “Didn’t these guys used to be funny? This album’s kinda depressing…”

You refer to is Dead, right?

Yes.

Yeah, I remember the reviews being, like, “why are they such boring sourpusses now”, which seems like a mystifying take on a record as full of wonder and complexity as DLSID

Buhloone is also one of my favourites of all time but I still wish Three Days Later and Ego Trip went on a bit longer!

Mercy!

Unrelatedly and dorkishly, my IRL name is Paul and I had “Paul’s Revenge” as my answering machine message for perhaps much longer than I should have (‘whatever you say, I agree”)

I was curious about the negative reviews - here are two FWIW:

Bill Wyman in the Chicago Reader for Buhloone Mindstate (which placed at #8 for that year's Pazz & Jop poll)
https://chicagoreader.com/arts-culture/de-la-soul-a-tribe-called-quest/

"It’s another exposition of pulverized pop, but with side trips into drones, weird jazz, and other sorts of less-than-compelling sonic dreamscapes. It also contains a lyrical universe that’s beyond this willing listener’s ken, which is a nice way of saying I haven’t the faintest idea what the fuck they’re talking about."

And in Trouser Press's guide, written by David Sheridan and/or Steven Mirkin:

https://trouserpress.com/reviews/de-la-soul/

On De La Soul Is Dead, as on the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique, the band’s ambition outstrips its ideas. The feeble, forced skits that dot the album fall flat, and many of the songs can be heard as a reaction to criticism that De La Soul was soft. Unlike “Do as De La Does” (from 3 Feet High and Rising), where the group puts itself in a leadership position, songs like “Afro Connections at a Hi 5 (In the Eyes of the Hoodlum)” and “Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa” hew closer to rap convention, with harder-edged lyrics and sound. The album’s not bad, but it lacks some of the qualities that made the debut unique.

Superficially, Buhlööne Mind State is a return to form. While it does resemble the first album, there’s a pro forma air to the proceedings that even guests like Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker can’t allay; the sound is in the house, but the trio’s once-profound inspiration has fled.

It also contains a lyrical universe that’s beyond this willing listener’s ken, which is a nice way of saying I haven’t the faintest idea what the fuck they’re talking about."

oh like Wyman knew what Elvis Costello was talking about

no specific shade to any listed critics but i always took the in-its-time reaction to de la's mature work as condescending and at least racist-adjacent.
i mean, everyone loved paul's boutique...

Buhloone's their most profound record imo. Not hard, complicated. The Native Tongues were falling apart and this is the record where they say that out loud.

Did everyone love PB on release?

i mean, everyone loved paul's boutique...

Not so sure about this. I loved it, was more of a fan than I had been of Licensed to Ill, but I don't remember reading many super-positive reviews.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul%27s_Boutique#Critical_reception

I recall the chapter entitled "Steely Dan: Understood as the Redemption of the White Negro - a conversation between Greg Tate and Vernon Reid" in Tate's Everything But the Burden features a digression about why critics didn't accept the change of direction on De La Soul Is Dead, though I don't remember the details.

Critics were pretty terrible about most early 90s rap classics.

De La Soul is dead got 5 mics in The Source the only review that mattered

I recall Paul's Boutique being savaged in rap reviews at the time. I know it's hardly the gold standard of rap criticism, but I remember a review in Yo! or Word Up! or one of those other glossy newsstand-type mags that said something to the effect of "even the title is wack"

Scrolling down fast I thought this was a lyric bc it started out like a brag

yeah, i grabbed all of the downloads at the time.
just checked : they are all encoded at 320.

*sample from Peg*

The PB wiki linked above:

"Contemporary reviews of Paul's Boutique were uniformly positive, with the production singled out for praise. ... Since Paul's Boutique was first released, its critical standing has improved significantly."

lol

It did sell disappointingly compared to Licensed to Ill (still now 5x more sold)

yeah iirc it was a critical fave but didn't shift those crazy teenage numbers like LTI

def remember my slightly older friend who worked at a record store and didn't like the first one RAVING about how amazing PB was

I love PB yet remember the splat "Hey Ladies made as first single

IIRC there weren't many shows in support of Paul's Boutique - I'm sure that didn't help (and it's a shame because the live stuff that's available is great).

Also during their book tour, they made it clear that Capitol didn't give the album much promotion, preferring to pour their marketing dollars into Donny Osmond's new record. (They also mocked the record's video, with Ad-Rock calling it a "sexy funeral.")

"Shake Yr Rump" is one of the all-time great opening tracks, how did it not get released as a single

^^^

It did weirdy lead off the Hey Ladies single and it had a video, so it kinda was?

https://www.discogs.com/release/1061910-Beastie-Boys-Love-American-Style-EP

PB was the end of them being part of the rap scene, moving towards their alt phase

I had the cassette version of that EP; it was sold as a cassingle (the last two tracks are instrumental versions of "Shake Your Rump" and "Hey Ladies").

There was some animus over the Beasties leaving Def Jam. I remember Chuck D dissing Paul’s Boutique.

Chuck D even said, ‘The dirty secret among the Black hip hop community at the time of the release was that Paul’s Boutique had the best beats.”

i do kinda remember rap people feeling a bit betrayed by PB but the rock critics fuckin loved it

The 33 1/3 book is solid.

The version of The Magic Number that is now streaming is missing the Eddie Murphy sample. From the version on Spotify at least. Few people seem to have spotted it so far if Twitter is anything to go by.

it definitely sounds different than what i remember. the narrative for so long was "tommy boy is screwing them!" i never considered there would still be sample clearance issues. i mean that stuff was in print forever. hrmph.

still thrilled to see it actually happening.

the narrative for so long was "tommy boy is screwing them!" i never considered there would still be sample clearance issues

two things are true in this case

i do believe that the language in some deals was related to the specific formats at the time (lp, cassette, etc) and that you may have to re-clear stuff for streaming, but i'm no lawyer

As someone who worked in clearance (albeit not in music) I can say that one of the major hangups for a lot of late 80s/early 90s agreements was how understandably there was no anticipation of the possibility of digital and online usage, and how some documents didn’t include the all-encompassing part where they cited any and all future media usage as being covered.

Yeah, like why they had to remove or re-clear the music used in MTV shows, etc.

I had to license a song for a video my school produced for a faculty member - my first exposure to licensing - and the guy I dealt with was nice enough to walk me through it. IIRC he said you typically want "all world" (every territory and country) and most importantly "all media" and I think that became the standard term in the digital age in anticipation of downloads, streaming and everything else.