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» member profile:
Meeelissa
» genre:
HipHop >
Hip Hop General
» location:
Melissa
» label: Sanctuary Records
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De La Soul
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With over 15 years under their belts, De La Soul is one the few long-term success stories in hip hop today. "We have shown a steady pace of longevity," Posdnuos states. "Nowadays, people are so quick to want to blow up, but they burn themselves out very quickly instead of moving slow and steady. I'd like to think that De La Soul is like incense that¹s burning slow and even by the time it¹s fizzed out, it's left a great aroma."
Band History:
There is no doubt about the fact that De La Soul—Dave, Mase, and Pos--are icons, not only within the confines of rap music, but in terms of hip-hop culture as a whole, and to a great extent as part of the global pop culture schematic. "I guess you could say that,” says Dave. “I think we’ve definitely done something for hip-hop’s growth, done something for the history books in hip-hop. But icons? Not to play the humble role, I don’t see it that way. We’re still students of the game, we’re still trying to learn and remain relevant. It’s good to hear folks call us ‘icons,’ but for us, we’re just trying to be a part of the game, man. That’s all.”
That’s where the Sly & The Family Stone’s concept of every day people comes in. While many would regard the trio as being nothing less than iconic, they see themselves removed from the pedestal, put down on the same plain as their loyal supporters and fans, and as such that’s why they’ve managed to remain so relevant. “I think our relevance is attributed to being able to relate to the everyday person,” explains Dave. "I think we give it to the listening masses like we live it. It’s not about going away on trips to tropical islands and owning vehicles that cost as much as two homes or having a watch with a designer’s name they’ve never heard of. We talk about being online, we talk about your car breaking down, we talk about CNN or maybe opening up The DaVinci Code and reading a couple of chapters. We talk about every day life and I think that’s how we’ve been able to stay relevant. It’s just about giving people our day-to-day on the record. People can just relate to every day people, which we are.”
Turning over the earth, uncovering something new, that’s always been a part of the De La philosophy. But so too has the concept of timelessness, which is something that Dave, Mase, and Pos have been striving for since day one. "When we thought of the name, when we were working on trying to pick a perfect name that fit, I told Dave and Mase that I wanted something that was timeless. And I thought ‘what could be more timeless as just saying that everything you’re doing is from your heart and soul. Why don’t we call ourselves ‘From The Soul’? And Dave was like, ‘That sounds dope, but let’s put De La in front of Soul.’ So that like from 1988 to two thousand whatever, everyone is in tune to themselves and trying to make good music, put it out from their heart and soul. That’s something anyone can relate to. I feel like we’re definitely prominent in what’s going on today because we’re still trying to do stuff from our heart and soul and compete and keep a healthy track record of putting out great music and pushing ourselves to the limit. We’re not even trying to look at ourselves as having a limit on what we can do. We’re trying to look at the power as being unlimited, which is coming from your soul.”