Over the past years, I felt it was flagrant (as a hip hop fan) that I didn't know more about De La Soul. Aside from their billboard top-10 hit “Me, Myself, and I”, a couple of joints on their debut album 3 Feet High and Rising, and the phenomenal Native Tongue anthem/mission statement, “Buddy (Remix)” it’s quiet for me when talking about De La Soul’s career, so I decided to review one of their critically acclaimed albums. I landed on BuhLoone Mindstate (1993), the group’s third album and last album executive produced by beat-maker Prince Paul. I know the group was influential, but I hadn’t experienced why first hand.
The main reason my De La knowledge is light is that the group’s music isn’t on any streaming platforms (and unfortunately probably won’t be unless the same cat who paid $2 million for a WuTang album covers any potential sampling clearances fees and lawsuits). But I’m going to come clean, actually, if you’re a millennial music listener you remember the Limewire and Mediafire days when the world’s discography could magically appear as zip files in your Mozilla Firefox downloads. Circa 2008, I downloaded De La Soul’s first album 3 Feet and Rising, but the discovery stopped there and I instead chose my west coast allegiance and dove into the discographies of pioneers (not named Tupac Amaru Shakur) like Ice Cube and The Pharcyde.
1989’s 3 Feet High Rising album cover / Photo Credit: Tommy Boy Records
De La Soul is a group (a rare concept in hip hop) — the trio, rappers, Posdnuos, and Trugoy the Dove and, deejay/producer Mase hail from Amityville, Long Island, NY. As high schoolers, their first album released in 1989 and they become hip hop’s original flower boys (it actually they were afro-centric and conscious). Like every project following their debut, Buhloone Mindstate challenged notions of what type of music they could make, what topics they should speak about, and how many fucks they could NOT give about going platinum.
Buhloone Mindsate album cover. Photo Credit: Tommyboy Records
TRACK BY TRACK Review
1. Intro
‘It might blow up, but it won’t go pop.’ These are the opening lines on the album, and they are chanted over a blend of 70’s jazz horns and guitar riff samples. If the Buhloone (buhloone is the phonetic spelling of balloon) Mindstate title went over your head, De La Soul makes it very clear that this was a cathartic album made to feed them creatively, and not the bank accounts of the marketing teams and record execs that tried to box them in as hippie loving, flower-boy rappers.
2. eye patch
“Mess up my mind, mess up my mind / Mess up my mind wit the eye patch”
Posdnuos & Trugoy the Dove are accelerating through their verses. This song took the most listens to unpack because this it’s an allegory. I comprehend the song title, “Eye Patch”, as a metaphor for everything that record labels try to do blind artists and listeners. Throughout the song, Posdnuos critiques the music industry’s exploitation of black tropes — toting guns, dope-peddling, knocking up girls, and children smoking delirious amounts of weed.
The song closes with the intro instrumental. By the time I reach the end, I am excited to hear the ‘it might blow up, but it won’t go pop’ thesis develop throughout the album.
3. En Focus (featuring Shortie No Mass and Dres of Black Sheep)
“On a naked white sheet / Most recognized by my dark-brown self / Yo you found some wealth? / More in my mind than in my pocket”
De La Soul is passing Harlem Globetrotter style assists on this track. Another fast-paced song that requires your full attention. This high-octane beat starts with a sampled hook and deejay scratches. It paints the scene of a raucous cypher. I imagine the walls rattling when Prince Paul (acclaimed producer that led production on De La Soul’s first three albums) whipped up this beat, and 2 hour freestyle that ensued afterwards. Lots of sound effects — random voices, howls, groupies, sirens.
The song is about De La’s recent years of fame. They tell us, unlike other artists in their genre they’re still growing intellectually and creatively, and you’ll be damned if you find them in a suit. The group is sticking the guns, and hasn’t missed a verse yet to tell their record label, suck it.
4. Patti Dooke (featuring Guru, Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley and Pee Wee Ellis)
“White boy Roy cannot feel it / But the first to try and steal it / Dilute it, pollute it, kill it / I see him infiltratin' to the masses / And when the leechin' I mo shoot 'em all in they asses” - Posdnous
Patty Duke, is white-american actress with an eponymously titled show that ran in the 1960s and Patti Duke an elevated two-step dance move that was popular in the late 70s — early 90s. The premise of this song is about the bitters, voyeurists, or appropriate coming with intent to exploit. They may dance like you, wear the same starter jacket, or show up to the parties, but we are not the same. They’ll attempt to rent your style and run off with it as their own. Beware.
Guru (rip) from Gang Starr is featured on this track. It was a nice but surprising collaboration to hear him on the track because he's more associated with a gritty, boom-bap brand of hip hop. Reminds me of the excitement I had when I found Q-Tip (Native Tongue member) mixed and produced a few records on Mobb Deep’s The Infamous (a group known for their raw music that luminates street life).
5. I Be Blowin' (featuring Maceo Parker)
This track is a solo by Funk and Jazz saxophonist Maceo Parker (member of James Brown’s Original band, J.B. and the Parkers). Parker’s soothing instrumental brings some calm to the knottiness of the album. On each listen I feel chasing De La Soul through the record, and this song graces me with a moment to comprehend the past few tracks.
This is a special moment because this era of Hip Hop is defined by the jazz, soul, funk sample. The bridging of genres and generations is noteworthy, De La Soul was able to connect with a living legend to cut an original track for them. The Buhloone Mindstate sessions with the J.B.s was the highlight of his career.
6. Long Island Wildin' (featuring SDP and Takagi Kan)
The minute and half track features two verses from Japanese Rappers SPD and Takagi Jan. Until new information is unearthed this is the first record of Japanese rap artists featured on an American rap song. Another feat for this album (although the track doesn’t say much). Hip Hop was born in the Bronx, but also calls Asia home. One of favorite stories about Hip Hop’s global impact is clothing designer-extraidonare Hiroshi Fujiwara gaining cultural relevance amongst his peers because he brought them Hip Hop.
7. Ego Trippin’ (Part Two)
The previous track ended with the screaming RZA “Long Island is wylin’”.
Ego Trip is a palette cleanser. This the smoothest track on the album. The beat is a drummed out version of the jazz trumpeter Al Hirt’s 1967 ‘Harlem Hendoo’. Prince Paul’s deejay scratches (album executive producer) and goes crazy crate-digging.
On my first listen, this was my favorite track. And aside from the intro and album title, this track was the easiest to follow. Ego Trip is a critic Hip Hop’s braggadocious and ostentatious lifestyle — sports cars, pools of women, neck-hurting jewelry, you name it. The video for the song features the aforementioned elements and is a spoof of Tupac’s “I Get Around”. I’m surprised De La Soul would come after the gangster rap’s biggest artist, but no-one in hip hop is exempt from critique on this album.
8. Paul’s Revenge
This is an interlude of Dj Prince Paul talking shit about Source Magazine dissing on song credits. This is a light diss, there are stories of some artists meeting writers at clubs and press them about negative reviews in the magazine. Receiving A 5-mic album, the highest source rating, meant entry into the hip hop hall of fame. Cool to hear an actual example of artists talking shit about The Source.
9. 3 days late
“C’mon there’s no R&B in this song, come along fly children come along” - Trugoy
At the time a hip hop artist dropping an R&B single is another instance of selling. These guys are always dissing somebody. You can tell they really love Hip Hop and are experiencing some existentialism with how the genre is slow drifting for its origins — suckers MCs and gimmicks are being flaunted. The two verses on the song offer more social commentary — Posdnous contracts herpes and Trugoy is the victim of an armed robbery.
10. Area
We are considered the generation with shorter attention spans. Musicians are now churning two verse songs, and 25 minute albums. Admitely, whenever I reach this song on this record, some focus is lost on the album content.
On this track, the group uses area codes to tell some of the favorite tour stories. Clever record.
11. I Am I Be (featuring Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley and Pee Wee Ellis)
“I be the new generation of slaves / Here to make papes to buy a record exec rakes / The pile of revenue I create / But I guess I don't get a cut cuz my rent's a month late”
The most introspective track on the album — De La Soul raps over Maceo Parker’s ‘I Be Blowin’ interlude. Pos tells us that he fathered a child out of wedlock, his grandma passed, and a Native Tongue member didn’t keep to their word, and he’s getting short-changed by Tommy Boy Records because paychecks can’t cover his rent. There’s no filter on this record.
On the intro and outro there’s a pool of folks (Shorty, Q-Tip, each De La Soul) repeating “i am i be” on the close of the record.
12. In the Woods (featuring Shortie No Mass)
“I been stylin' abstract since loose leafs was the shit / Catch me breathin' on planes where the gangsta's outdated / Fuck being hard, Posdnuos is complicated”
The scenery for this song is the woods, which serve as a sacred place for real hip hop. On each hook, Trugoy, Posdonous, and Shortie No Mass take turns telling you about their mecca — complicated lyrics that go-over your head, funk beats, no narcotic sales, feminine style without the need to be sexy.
De La Soul showing again that they take this music shit serious.
13. Breakadawn
There’s 5 verses on this record! This was the album's lead single, it heavily features a sample of Michel Jackson’s & Smokey Robinson's single of the "Quiet Storm”. The beat evokes the same innocent joy as Pharcyde’s Passin Me By. This track is stark difference to the g-funk sounds coming out the WestCoast and mafiosa rhymes dominating the east coast.
14. Dave Has a Problem...Seriously
Another interlude. Dave mumbles ‘hello’ for 40 secs then ends making orgasmic noises. I could do without this one.
15. Stone Age (featuring Biz Markie)
The album closer with biz Markie feels misplaced. After a somber track, breakadawn — biz kicks it off with his comedic voice over a high-hat instrumental. The type of beat, 90s music fans head nod, raise their knees and hands to.
Closing Thoughts
Buhloone Mindstate encapsulates a moment in time when Hip Hop was still figuring who it was in the face of capitalism, beat writer headlines of hip hop is dying, and a music industry betting black genre to fizzle out. With intentionally dense records and abstract lines, it makes sense that this was De La Soul’s lowest selling album of the 90s.
The album is an undiluted taste of 90s alternative rap, it’s filled with random samples and obscure lyrics that require focused repeat listens. The deejay scratches on the album are reminiscent of the deejay battles in the 1992 film Juice, the sampled jazz sounds paint pictures kids peeking through cracked doors to adults cut a rug in the living room, and the backforth verses between Posdnuos and Trugoy evoke the joy students had when seeing Busta Rhymes and Jay-Z freestyle battle in the cafeteria.
7L RATING
B: 6/7
7L REVIEW GUIDE
Music that stands the test of time and attention reigns supreme for us — especially in an attention economy, where information and media are treated disposable.
We prefer favorite over best. How does this resonate with the listeners? This switches focus to the listeners' relationship with a project, whether that’s in an individual setting or in group experience.
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Our scale is from 1 listen to 7 Listens. 1: a project we struggled to complete and 7: a project that we’ll revisit periodically throughout life.
