Their free MP3 download yesterday got me listening to them again. I used to listen to them loads in my youth and they’ve had some ace singles…

…BUT listening to 3 Feet High and Rising I had forgotten how much crap filler there is in between the good stuff. I realise it was pretty fresh and new all those years ago, but are De La Soul to blame for all the rubbish (too many) rap albums have in between the genuinely good tracks??

(PS I always preferred De La Soul is Dead anyway)

Double post. 😕

I don’t think rubbish filler tracks are limited to rap albums, hard to think of any album which is back to back good tracks.

FWIW I think most rap these days is pretty poor stuff in comparison to 80s and 90s stuff. Lost its edge when it became about being bling.

I don’t think rubbish album filler is limited to rap albums. Hard to think of an album which does not have at least a couple of weak filler tracks.

You don’t need to think, just consult STW!

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/albums-that-are-all-killer-no-filler-please

You don’t need to think, just consult STW!

And first post is Appetite for Destruction, didn’t need to look far to debunk my thoughts. In the most part though I think I am right.

Rap wise perhaps 36 chambers or Niggamortis/6 Feet deep (Gravediggaz)

I have quite a few hip hop albums which although have great proper tracks, are also peppered with 30-60 second filer/skits/sketches, and although they seemed rather fun at the time have not aged well. Step forward Handsome Boy Modelling School, Outkast, Saian Supa Crew etc…. 👿

The fugging greatness of [most of] De La Soul’s back-catalogue will always compensate for the irritation of the hip-hop skit…. I will never tire of listening to stuff like I am I be.

Musical giants, even at 3 feet high & a bit.

Every time I hear Eye Know or Magic Number I think how great De La Soul are, then when I put 3 Feet… on I’m left a bit underwhelmed. It’s like one of those rides with some awesome bits of singletrack but lots of dull uninspiring stuff linking it up 😀

FWIW I think most rap these days is pretty poor stuff in comparison to 80s and 90s stuff. Lost its edge when it became about being bling.

😕
Ever since Deborah Harry invented rap in 1981, it has always been about money making and bling?

It’s an album. I know that albums are not fashionable now and the likes of itunes have killed them with people downloading single tracks.
If you want ‘all killer’, buy the greatest hits albums. If you want to listen to something that stands alone with a bit of a story running through it, listen to 3 feet high and rising.
I like albums.

TooTall – Member
It’s an album. I know that albums are not fashionable now and the likes of itunes have killed them with people downloading single tracks.

Nah, it was napster and MTV

De La Soul nearly bancrupted Reading Studunt Union in about 1990. All year the Student Union Ents team had been making profit after profit on gigs and being able to book bigger and bigger acts which culminated in booking DlS expecting to make a killing (think they cost £20k). It was a huge flop, even at £7.50 a ticket, barely sold half the allocation and they made a loss. That was the end of decent gigs for a long time till they filled the kitty back up.

Horses for courses and I don’t think there is a bad tune on 3 ft high and rising. De La Soul is dead however…

FWIW I think most rap these days is pretty poor stuff in comparison to 80s and 90s stuff. Lost its edge when it became about being bling.

FWIW? Worth nothing if you don’t know what you’re talking about! There’s absolutely sit-loads of rap out there that is nothing to do with “bling”.
“FWIW” i think rap and hip hop is as good as it’s ever been. Finding new and exciting stuff all the time.
Latest is Gorgeous Children.

FWIW I think most rap these days is pretty poor stuff in comparison to 80s and 90s stuff. Lost its edge when it became about being bling.

In that case you’ve been listening to the wrong stuff since the 80s and 90s.

When de a soul first appeared they were groundbreaking, taking rap into a whole new and pretty much opposite direction, I think most of their lasting kudos stems from that. 3 feet high and rising probably has 4 really good tracks a couple of ok ones and the rest is really filler which is probably still above par for albums of any genre and definitely much better than most rap albums of that era.

I can understand the really short skits getting in the way but if you sit and listen to the whole album in order they kind of make sense and do tie the tracks together. If you want to try something less quirky then maybe start with listening to ‘stakes is high’.

I don’t think rubbish filler tracks are limited to rap albums, hard to think of any album which is back to back good tracks.

I’ve got many, many albums that I can, and do, listen to all the way through without having to skip a track, both on CD, or in iTunes.

I’m sure there is good stuff out there if you know what to look for, I am by no means an officianado but most of what gets the airplay and is commercially successful these days is utter pony.

Yeah but that’s like saying rock music’s not been good since 1990 because of the boy band era.

I’m sure there is good stuff out there if you know what to look for, I am by no means an officianado but most of what gets the airplay and is commercially successful these days is utter pony.

Is that just hiphop you’re talking about there? Cos I’m pretty sure that’s the case for all genre’s of music….

Sawyer. Please educate us as to what we should have been listening to since the 90s then. I am about 15 years out of date with rap music.

J-Live
Dilated Peoples
Ugly Duckling
Mos Def
Common
J Rawls
Gang Starr
The Roots
Sage Francis
Jurassic 5
People Under The Stairs
Talib Kweli
Souls Of Mischief
Dan Le Sac VS Scroobius Pip
Delton 3030

De la soul killed hip hop.
The filler shite spawned a generation of copycat drivel. Having said that, imo, dls’s good stuff is really good. The majority of their work is mleh. They influenced a pretty weak offshoot of the genre i think.
But, different people have different tastes. I like east coast 86 to 89 as my main thing, but, much of it cant appeal to the mainstream.
re the comment about most current rap being garbage id agree a bit.
there are some great artists about right now, most of them imo of course, ain’t gonna get airplay on mainstream radio. But they are out there.

J5 and ud at rock city, Nottingham in June. Good night out there.
And, puts are the nicest band out there right now.

If you want ‘all killer’, buy the greatest hits albums. If you want to listen to something that stands alone with a bit of a story running through it, listen to 3 feet high and rising.
I like albums.

I like albums too. My observation was that 3 Feet High and Rising has more filler than most. When I listen to it now it doesn’t sounds like the classic people profess it to be.

New stuff then:
(in no particular order)
Greenhouse Crew
Doom (particularly JJ Doom)
Cadence Weapon
Gorgeous Children
OFWGKTA
Danny Brown
Mac Miller
Willie Isz
Serengeti
and of course: Young Fathers

That’s just stuff I listen to that I could think of. There’s loads more styles out there.

Sawyer. Please educate us as to what we should have been listening to since the 90s then. I am about 15 years out of date with rap music.

Whatever you want to listen to.

I just don’t particularly agree with the argument (which, incidentally only ever seems to be applied to hiphop…) that a whole genre of music can be written off as “being about bling”.

That’s all.

PrinceJohn – Member
I’m sure there is good stuff out there if you know what to look for, I am by no means an officianado but most of what gets the airplay and is commercially successful these days is utter pony.
Is that just hiphop you’re talking about there? Cos I’m pretty sure that’s the case for all genre’s of music….

Nope, though I would say it a easier to find good rock music than hip hop (subjectively speaking of course). I’m not calling out all hip hop as bad But there was a time when a lot of the hip hop I heard was pretty good, whereas now the % is a lot lower, and the stuff that gets played more these days is mostly commercial rubbish.

Will have a listen to some of the stuff mentioned, but some of those artists have been around for years, I had a J5 album at school and that was some time ago.

I love de la…. even the fillers.

I listen to new hip hop still. and if you look about real hip hop never went anywhere, its just that the crap rose to the surface and became popular.

Action Bronson
RA the Rugged man
Masta ace
Ghost face Killa
Doom

to name just a few, all had amazing albums out last year…. and if you don’t know who they are then you haven’t been looking hard enough.

How long did people have to wait to get the link to allow download? I got it all registered at about 16:55 yesterday…got the confirm email but not had the next link that allows me to download…

DB – my download link took about 3 hours to arrive.

How long did people have to wait to get the link to allow download? I got it all registered at about 16:55 yesterday…got the confirm email but not had the next link that allows me to download…

I confirmed my email before 11am yesterday but never got a download link. Oh well 🙁