Tribe VS. De La
tonyphrone
1,500 Posts
An age-old debate (at least in my circles...).Tribe's got more cred and their first 3 records are arguably better than De la's first 3 (very close...). But, Stakes is High was dope and so was Grind Date. And what's really fucking with 3 Ft. High... 
I vote De La!
I vote De La!
Comments
vs.
"I was born in the boogey down cat-scan..."
I went back to The Low End Theory the other week and found myself surprisingly bored.
De La Soul is Dead however still gets regular burn.
atm its DE LA for the win
tribe is more nostalgic because their stuff was played EVERYWHERE (radio, tv, the clubs, etc.), but it is amazing how timeless de la's material has been. you can say the same for tribe, but de la took more risks and still does not sound dated in hardly any of their material.
I can't really even listen to De La anymore.
though id have to say tribe for me. as much as i go and listen to a de la record i put on the tribe stuff way more. 3 ft and... shit i cant even remember what the 2nd lp is called? see how much i pay attention.
You don't like rap.
And yet Tribe still wins somehow.
How many times have you listened to Three Feet High and Rising this year?
Sorry, I appreciate it as a classic, I would never get rid of my copy, but I also think it sounds immensely dated... in part because of the very possibilities in production that it helped open the door to, but also because I don't think the rapping has really held up.
It simply does not have the timeless quality that EPMD, or Rakim or, yes, Tribe have for me... part of that probably stems from the high humor/skit quotient, which is inevitably tied to the era when it was recorded and when I first experienced it.
Again, I would never argue against its importance/classic status, but it's just not something that has much appeal for me as a listener nearly 20 years later.
De la has some straight up goofy stuff and they have serious stuff too. It's a good balance. I am I be is some beautiful shit. The beat is amazing and the lyrics are on point.
i love me some de la
EPMD is timeless?!?!
does that mean that your watch broke in 1991 and you've just refused to look forward.
knick knack paddy wack
i agree, but their next two subsequent records don't. still, overall:
production of tribe records > production on de la records
but
de la as MCs > tribe as MCs
Well that's the weakest of their first three LPs, imho. I also find People's Instinctive Travels unlistenable. I still listen to Bulhoone and Is Dead frequently.
Vibe, Vibration
I love this album.
but were the true De La fans feeling it at the time?
I remember a lot of die-hard De La fans calling bullshit when this came out.
I can understand people thinking at the time that it was their least impressive to date. And while that CERTAINLY isn't the case anymore given the the AI turds, I still think a lot of heads have backtracked on initial Stakes is High hatteurism.
Of course this is purely anecdotal, and [preemptivehate] fauxrillz can always argue that I don't know any real hip-hop heads [/preemptivehate] .
How many times have you recited that line in the last year?
But I'm pretty sure we've had this conversation before.
de la
ok I like el segundo ok