(La) Passion de Clermont

Advantages: A few really good tracks, some De La Soul tunes you have never heard before
Disadvantages: The album has no flow, a few weak remixes

...***Warning*** This review does contain some edited adult language and themes. The words have been changed but the meaning is plain. In the stacks of wax you can find the De La Mix: Remixes, Rarities & Classics, De La Soul's 2004 release on Tommy Boy/ Rhino. This is not so much a greatest hits as it is a revisiting in an alternate universe. Both commercial and critical successes are treated to a fresh dusting off, live performance or remix on this disk. Laying down the Knowledge For those of you that don't already know, De La Soul has been around since rap was just rap. Hip hop was just starting to take root as a music genre. There was just rap. When the boys from Long Island hit the scene there was the rap that played on the radio and the rap we listened to when our parents were out of ear shot. De La dropped 3 Feet High... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Great in car tune.
Disadvantages: Wears thin after a while

...It was no easy work matching up to the standards that De La Soul's debut album '3ft High And Rising' set for all the crew's preceding efforts and for a while it seemed that it wasn't to be. This latest single is, gladly, a return to form for the former daisy-agers seeing them at their funkiest for a while. The days of saying 'No Go' having long since passed, De La now find themselves recruiting the unique vocal talents of New Jersey's weed-smoking microphone terrorist, Redman. A wise move, as Redman's instantly recognisable style gives De La's low-key mic skills, once perfectly suited to their gently upbeat productions, the contrast needed to fit into the contemporary , neck-snappin' production style. Add a sing-along chorus to seal the trio's triumphant return.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Trippy Hippy hip-hop nonsense, upbeat and entertaining
Disadvantages: You can't take them as seriously as Public Enemy, the skits

...or three times. Short pieces like "Transmitting Live From Mars" and "Cool Breeze On The Rocks" are more distracting than anything else, and when the band try to go for a Public Enemy inspired rap track like "This Is A Recording 4 Living In A Fulltime Era", they suffer in the comparison. But the album, overall, tends to skip these faults. There's a reason this is regarded as one of the best hip-hop albums of all time - it's damn entertaining. Whether sampling James Brown on "Change In Speak" or dropping everything to listen to their nephew play chopsticks on the piano ("Jenifa Taught Me", which never stops being amusing), De La Soul have creativity and passion in spades, and this comes across on the album. It's a sweeping ideal, but one that is impossible not to get caught up in.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful