De La Soul Is Dead

De La Soul Is Dead is the second studio album by American hip hop group De La Soul, released on May 13, 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, and it was also selected as one of The Source's "100 Best Albums" in 1998. The album's cover refers to the death of the "D.A.I.S.Y." (Da Inner Sound, Y'all) age, or a distancing from several cultures including hippies and mainstream hip hop.

The song "Oodles of O's" was featured on the soundtrack of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4.

In 2020, Rolling Stone placed the album at number 228 on their "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.

Music and lyrics
De La Soul Is Dead departed from the image that the group had fostered on their previous album, 3 Feet High and Rising. While De La Soul Is Dead retains the humorous approach of its predecessor, its humor is darker, featuring more biting parodies and a more cynical mood. Particular attention has been paid to the album's discussion of weightier topics, especially the discussion of drug addiction on "My Brother's a Basehead" and the story of sexual abuse in "Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa". Lead single "Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)" has been seen as emblematic of the album's prevailing mood: the lyrics, where the group complains about being harassed by aspiring artists trying to ride their coattails, showcases the album's wearier attitude, while the production counterbalances that cynicism with a "playful post-disco groove". De La Soul Is Dead also features tracks that feature a more fully lighthearted attitude, such as the summery, disco-influenced "A Roller Skating Jam Named "Saturdays"", and the back-and-forth banter of "Bitties in the BK Lounge".

Reflecting on the album and its goals, producer Prince Paul has stated: "We were trying to prove we weren't just a one-album act. And there was a lot of disillusionment with the music industry. When I listen to it now, the raps sound—shall we say—bitter?"

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. The group's separation from the "D.A.I.S.Y Age" imagery of 3 Feet High and Rising is visually demonstrated by the album cover, which shows a broken pot of daisies, as well as by the music video for "Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)", which depicts a pot of daisies being smashed. Maseo has stated that the group's goal was "breaking the stereotype and the stigmatism that was put on us with the hippy concept when D.A.I.S.Y. just was an acronym for Da Inner Sound."

Skits
The album features a series of separate, ongoing skits; in a parody of old children's book-and-record read-along sets, throughout the skits, a bell sound lets the reader know that it's 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. However, when De La Soul Is Dead was ultimately released, its change in stylistic direction led to a divided critical reception. Outlets that reviewed the album positively included Rolling Stone, who described it as "an unruly, seemingly effortless hip-hop masterpiece", and The Source, who characterized the album as featuring "musical and lyrical talent combined with unlimited creativity and an ingenious sense of humor". Conversely, the Los Angeles Times opined that De La Soul were "bitter" and "riding a bummer" on the album, NME felt that they "sound thoroughly bored" and their attempts at humor "seem an after-thought or forced", while Entertainment Weekly described the album's mood as "smug and self-righteous". The production on the album attained a more broadly positive consensus: reviews variously stated that "most of the music slams", that the album featured "unique music and overall slammin' production", and that it was "knee-deep in hooks and rhythmic reversals that play like a history of pop experimentalism". The Chicago Tribune stated that "the samples are less instantly infectious [and] the tempos slower" than on 3 Feet High and Rising, but that De La Soul Is Dead was nevertheless "nearly as rewarding"; conversely, Entertainment Weekly found the album to be "full of songs that are tuneless or slight".

In the years since the album's release, critics have come to view De La Soul Is Dead more positively. In 1998, it was included in The Source's "100 Best Albums" list. The album placed 228th on Rolling Stone's 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! magazine 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". A more mixed retrospective review came from Steve Huey of AllMusic, who found the album "less cohesive and engaging" than its predecessor, but still "fascinating in spite of its flaws".

Commercial performance
The album was certified gold on July 18, 1991, selling over 500,000 copies.

Track listing
All tracks written by P. Huston, K. Mercer, D. Jolicoeur, V. Mason; additional writers credited below.

The LP and cassette versions of the album did not include all of the tracks found on the CD release. The LP omitted "My Brother's a Basehead", "Afro Connections at a Hi 5 (In the Eyes of the Hoodlum)", "Who Do U Worship?", "Kicked Out the House" and "Not Over till the Fat Lady Plays the Demo", while the cassette omitted "Johnny's Dead AKA Vincent Mason (Live From The BK Lounge)", "My Brother's a Basehead", "Who Do U Worship?" and "Kicked Out the House".