De La Soul

(US)
hip-hop with pop & psychedelic influence

This will be a special gig as De La Soul, one of the most influential hip-hop acts ever, celebrates their 20th anniversary on their summer tour. Before the trio has usually performed with machines and

turntables, but now they take the stage with a large live band.

In 1989, when the Long Island, NY threesome’s debut album Three Feet High & Rising jumped to the higher end of both pop and R&B charts, it was a sensation with its clever rhymes,

goofy humor and surprisingly psychedelic pop tones. Nothing like it had ever happened in rap, today it’s a classic.

On the following albums the sound got a little darker and funkier and sold less. Still, the second album De La Soul Is Dead and also the third, Buhloone Mindstate, have later been

declared by several music magazines two of the all time best hip-hop albums, just like the debut.

Along with Jungle Brothers, Queen Latifah and A Tribe Called Quest DLS are part of the Native Tongues Posse. In 2005 the band (Posdnuous, Trugoy, Maseo) collaborated on the Gorillaz Grammy-winning hit

single Feel Good Inc. They have also worked with Flavor Flav, Ghostface Killah and Mos Def, whose early career they supported heavily.

De La Soul’s tenth album, You’re Welcome, will be out this year, and you will surely hear material from it live in Pori.