Live at Knight

De La Soul

De La Soul are a revolutionary force in hip-hop. Upon its arrival in 1989, their debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising, sounded like nothing else, with a colorful, almost collaged production aesthetic and rhyme styles that were equal parts clever and goofy. At the time, this made De La Soul a gentler, more inventive, one-of-a-kind presence in a rap landscape largely defined by aggression and righteous anger.

De La Soul incorporated not only funk and soul, but also pop, jazz, reggae and psychedelia samples into their strange and alluring patchwork of sounds. The group continued down their own path on their own terms as trends in rap came and went. Their 1990s output, including works such as 1991’s De La Soul Is Dead and 1996’s Stakes Is High, inspired generations of artists. As founding members of the Native Tongues collective alongside A Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers and Queen Latifah, De La Soul were pioneers of a hip-hop movement that has influenced countless artists.

After 2004’s The Grind Date, De La Soul went on hiatus, but returned in 2016 with the crowdfunded And the Anonymous Nobody as well as the occasional stand-alone track. In 2023, after years of legal battles over rights and ownership, De La Soul finally regained access to their back catalog and released some of their classic albums on streaming services for the first time.