Rating:
Genre:
Rap
Release Date: 05/13/1991
Run Time: 73:30
On their notorious second album,
De La Soul went to great lengths to debunk the daisy-age hippie image they'd been pigeonholed with, titling the record
De La Soul Is Dead and putting a picture of wilting daisies in a broken flowerpot on the cover. Critics and fans alike were puzzled as to why the group was seemingly rejecting what had been hailed as the future of
hip-hop, and neither the reviews nor the charts were kind to the album. It isn't that
De La try to remake their sound here --
Dead keeps the skit-heavy structure of the debut, and the surreal tone and inventive sampling techniques are still very much in evidence. But, despite a few lighthearted moments (
"Bitties in the BK Lounge," the
disco-flavored
"A Roller Skating Jam Named 'Saturdays'"), a distinct note of bitterness has crept into
De La's once-sunny outlook. On the one hand, they're willing to take on more serious subject matter; two of the album's most powerful moments are the unsettling incest tale
"Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa" and
Posdnuos' drug-addiction chronicle
"My Brother's a Basehead," both true-life occurrences. Yet other tracks betray a brittle, insular state of mind; one running skit features a group of street thugs who ultimately throw the album in the trash for not having enough pimps, guns, or curse words. There are vicious parodies of
hip-house and
hardcore rap, and the single
"Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)" complains about being harassed into listening to lousy demo tapes. Plus, the negativity of the bizarre, half-sung
"Johnny's Dead" and the hostile narrator on
"Who Do U Worship?" seemingly comes out of nowhere.
Dead is clearly the product of a group staggering under the weight of expectations, yet even if it's less cohesive and engaging, it's still often fascinating in spite of its flaws.
~Steve Huey, All Music Guide
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