De La Soul Is Dead is the second studio album by American hip hop group De La Soul, released on May 14, 1991. The album was produced by Prince Paul, whose work on 3 Feet High and Rising was highly praised by music critics. The album was one of the first to receive a five-mic rating in the hip-hop magazine The Source,
In 2008 the album was re-released on vinyl without the CD version's bonus tracks.
Title and cover art
De La Soul chose the title De La Soul Is Dead to emphasize their departure from their previous style.
Skits
The album features a series of separate, ongoing skits, which parody old children's book-and-record read-along sets by utilizing a recurring bell sound that lets the reader know that it is time to turn the imaginary page. The introduction to the album features Jeff, a teenage character (introduced in the B-sides to "Eye Know" and "Me Myself and I": "Brain Washed Follower", "The Mack Daddy on the Left", and the rare "Double Huey Skit"). Jeff finds a cassette tape copy of a De La Soul album in the garbage. Bullies appear, beat up Jeff, and steal the tape. Ensuing skits feature these bullies harshly criticizing the songs on the album. Mista Lawnge of Black Sheep provides the voice of the lead antagonist called Hemorrhoid, P.A. Pasemaster Mase voices the second bully, while a third gets ridiculed and abused by Lawnge for his admiration of the album. In the end, they throw the tape back in the trash, exclaiming, "De La Soul is dead". The album also introduces a fictional radio station called WRMS that plays nothing but "De La Slow" music.
Critical reception
After the widespread acclaim that 3 Feet High and Rising attained, De La Soul Is Dead became a highly anticipated album for which listeners built high expectations. The album placed 228th on Rolling Stones 2020 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time and 74th on Spin magazine's list of the best albums of the 1990s; further, Exclaim! labeled De La Soul Is Dead as the best album in De La Soul's catalogue. A retrospective review from NPR praised the album for its "wild, creative swings" into eclectic samples and boundary-pushing concepts, describing it as one of the most "creatively sprawling" entries in an era of hip hop where numerous artists were attempting stylistic experimentation. The Exclaim! review, meanwhile, identified De La Soul Is Dead as the album on which the group established their "signature sound and style" and "street philosopher image".
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