De La Soul
and the Anonymous Nobody...

Album Release Date: August 26th, 2016

De La Soul's album and the Anonymous Nobody... succeeds as a fairly engaging escapade in esoteric HipHop charm. One of few groups from the genre’s golden era in the late 1980s to the mid-'90s that still tour and record, De La Soul has maintained relevance with several mixtapes and EPs in recent years. But this, their 9th album, is their first proper full-length LP with all three original members since 2004. So it could be considered a comeback album of sorts, and highly-anticipated for fans of one of the most creative groups in HipHop history.

Opening track "Genesis" features Jill Scott delivering a poetic preamble about the presence and absence of love in the world, with the proclamation: "When it's reached its lowest and you don't believe in it anymore / And the world done kicked it in its tail enough that it's lost itself / Yes, that's when Nobody cares, that's right—Nobody". The "Nobody" here is a personified identity of the concept of love, so the statement means there actually are those who care—that in the apparent absence of love, and the presence of hardship, a sometimes unseen force emerges even stronger. Album credits list production by "The Anonymous Nobodies", implying that De La Soul themselves are among those who represent love in times when it seems sparse. It's not an airtight metaphor as much as an intriguing yet enigmatically expressed theme. But De La's music has always exhibited an offbeat sensibility—stylistically and thematically—distinguishing them from many of their HipHop contemporaries.

The first five tracks are decisively mellow, R&B- and jazz-influenced grooves in which the trio confidently flow with their signature singsong cadence. Early highlight "Royalty Capes" compares HipHop to mythical empires from antiquity, with a potent horn riff and ill lines like "I choke the blood out of felt tips / Heavyweights up to the front if the belt fits". One of the album's best is "Pain", another jazzy jam featuring Snoop Dogg, with a gospel-like chorus sung by Lola Troy: "Pain gon' make you better / Tell me how you feel / Look over your shoulder / Time will make it real / Give me no excuses / I know how you feel / Pain gon' make it better". The song displays the album's prevailing theme of turning negatives into positives—not in a sappy way, but rather as a confident assertion by mature artists comfortable in embracing life's complexities. 

The upbeat "CBGB's" reminds us of the rappers' ability to flow to a faster tempo just as well as they can keep it laid-back. Similarly, "Nosed Up" is the funkiest track on the album, with a killer beat comprised primarily of bass, drums, and horns. One of the strangest of several disparate guest appearances is Justin Hawkins from rock band The Darkness, on "Lord Intended". In a screechy rock voice, he sings a chorus of "Fuck everyone / Burn everything" over a wailing electric guitar. But with references ranging from Kool-Aid to NASDAQ to IBM, the song presents more of an ironic, satirical stance and less of a nihilistic attitude than the refrain might suggest. Another unconventional yet effective collaboration "Snoopies" spotlights new wave legend David Byrne just as much as the De La emcees, feeling like a genuine joint effort rather than just a plugged-in guest appearance.

With 17 tracks alternating between hype and chill vibes, the album concludes with "Exodus", in which the rappers reflect on their years in the music industry: "People think we are linked to the solvin' / Of the problem that's revolvin' / Around music today, but it's not true / We just do it our way 'cause we're not you / But we know you / We embrace you like brothers, bestow you / With an outro that's also an intro / For the east and the west and the central". When listened to from front to end, the album resonates as an inspired journey, a musical voyage led by this trio of experienced, innovative HipHop artists, wrapping up just where it started—with a love vibe.

Part of what contributed to De La's early success was the unique samples they used for their beats, employing eclectic music sources in ways uncommon at the time of their emergence in the late 1980s. Complementing that was a cartoonish air and unorthodox rap styles on albums punctuated with strange interludes and sometimes mysterious meanings. Like their compadres A Tribe Called Quest, De La balanced abstraction with accessibility, expanding the HipHop landscape into exciting new territory while also managing a solid measure of mainstream success. But obscure record samples are largely absent on this album, replaced with beats composed from a catalog of live instrument recordings that De La spent years collecting so as to avoid copyright permission costs. The instrumentation includes not only drums and bass as per traditional HipHop, but also guitar, violin, viola, cello, trombone, trumpet, saxophone, flute, and keyboards. The youthful playfulness of earlier works is also diminished, replaced instead with a contemplative quality appropriate for their age, as they're now middle-aged family men and industry veterans. But by no means does this make the new album boring or unenthused. To the contrary, it's rather refreshing, as all too often aging music stars attempt to replicate qualities that led to early career success. De La instead shows that they have progressed as authentic artists, developing with HipHop as it continues to flourish well into the second generation after its birth.

After nearly 30 years in the business, De La Soul continue to prove that they're still relevant not only in HipHop, but as consistently creative music artists that have evolved beyond genre-label confines. The album’s last words are: "We are the present, the past, and the future / Bound by friendship, fueled and inspired by what's at stake / Saviors, heroes? Nah. / Just common contributors hopin' that what we created inspires you to selflessly challenge and contribute / Sincerely, anonymously, Nobody".
• Nik Dobrinsky / Boy Drinks Ink
September 4th, 2016