Hip Hop owes a lot of its cool factor to two things – the subject matter (with everything from the prominent guns-money-girls to deeper rags-to-riches stories) and the sonic canvas that beatmakers experimented with. As far as the coolest of the lot go, De La Soul have smashed out a few masterpieces in a career that spans nearly three decades now. The New York trio – Posdnous, Dave and Maseo – now have their ninth studio album out, called And the Anonymous Nobody and the tinkering continues.
After gaining a Grammy nod for their hit collaboration with Gorillaz on the unforgettable ‘Feel Good inc.’, this new De La Soul records feels a lot like a precursor to the next release by the animated band. It’s got collaborators ranging from Gorillaz mainman Damon Albarn (on the mind-twisting, unpredictable ‘Here In After’) and rapper Snoop Dogg (on the inspirational ‘Pain’) to singer Little Dragon (on an all-too-familiar slow-built dreamy song ‘Drawn’). But that’s not where the spectrum ends. They’ve tapped Top 40 crooner Usher on the surprisingly complicated rap song ‘Greyhounds’, hard rock band The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins on the seven-minute epic rock-leaning ‘Lord Intended’ and the dark-dancey ‘Snoopies’, which bounces between sharp verses from De La Soul and a signature vocal drawl by David Byrne. There’s even more rap action with 2Chainz dropping a verse with the band on the more typically hip hop ‘Whoodeeni’, which is a little more self-indulgent, boastful about women and keeping one’s rep up.
In contrast, the stand-alone songs like ‘Nosed Up’ and ‘Royalty Capes’ shine in the realm of quirkiness and coolness. De La Soul drop verses like they truly own the game, knowing fully well they’re veterans keeping things relevant in the age of Snapchat and Starbucks alike on songs like ‘Whoodeeni’ and ‘Trainwreck’. The variety on And the Anonymous Nobody is exactly what you’d expect from De La Soul, staying right on top of their game with seventeen tracks of hip hop goodness.
