At the end of the eighties, De La Soul rocked the American hip hop world with their album 3 Feet High And Rising. On that record, the trio from New York were able to put together a catchy mix of sharp samples, haunting texts, jazzy beats, and summery, slightly psychedelic soul that bridged the gap between the commercial pop world and mainstream music. Me Myself & I and Say No Go became worldwide hits and when the hip hop hippies continued the trend with De La Soul Is Dead (1991) it looked as if they had a golden future ahead of them. But the success of the first two albums had not been repeated until last year with And The Anonymous Nobody. This conceptual rap album, with contributions by Snoop Dogg, Jill Scott and Damon Albarn and others, was nominated for a Grammy. De La Soul is well and truly back, although for fans of singular hip hop they never really went away.
