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Posted by Kristen Imes

Plugging Plugs: De La Soul Comes To Portland

De La Soul is a mammoth among old-school classics, having fathered the styles of all your favorite hip hop acts and helped catapult the careers of Prince Paul, Mos Def, and A Tribe Called…blah, blah, blah. The best kept secret about De La is that they're still at the peak of their talents. Not to disenfranchise their earlier, masterful work, but these D.A.I.S.Y.'s have risen way taller than 3 feet high. If their more recent joints are lacking any of that late ‘80's innovation, it's only because then they were integral in creating no less than a fresh art form. Now they get to play with it. (Buy Tickets here)

Perhaps indicating their ability to stay abreast of current currents, the guys who revolutionized how you can spin LPs haven't released an official one in five years. Instead, they've been in the mixtape trenches expanding styles with the likes of A-Trak and Madlib. Check out this year's Are You In? record and get reminded why cats like Simian Mobile Disco and Justice pay homage to hiphop (and it's not just because people used to dance and have fun to it – think Afrika Bambaataa and digital samples), via a single-track recording interspersed with some boom bap joints to sate the purist's break beat habit. And the rhymes.

These guys rap with the type of hard to earn confidence that all the 50 cent pieces in the world couldn't buy, without the laziness that has infected many talented rappers (re: my review of Talib Kweli). Yes, the lyrical content takes on social issues and the failings of modern hiphop, but De La approaches you like a stern dad rather with a belt rather than an undergrad with a clipboard (re: my opinion of Common).

Still insist that there's no school like the old school? You're in luck. This is being billed as De La's 20th Anniversary tour and will focus on their classic material, with live musical accompaniment, promising to bring the mastery of decades to bear on what remains some of the freshest material ever recorded.

For video of a recent Atlanta show (heads are cutting rugs at these shows!):
http://allhiphop.com/stories/reviewsmusic/archive/2009/08/13/21893044.aspx

Never slept on nor stepped on (featuring artwork from 3 Feet High and Rising):
http://solepedia.com/De_La_Soul_High

Jammin 107.5 Presents: 20 Years High And Rising Tour … Celebrating 20 Years Of Hits
De La Soul
Animal Farm
Libretto

Friday, September 4, 2009
Roseland Theater 503-224-2038
8 NW 6th Ave, Portland, OR (MapQuest)
8pm (doors open at 7pm). All Ages.
$25.00 advance tix from TicketsWest.
$30.00 at the door.