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Review: De La Soul at Emo’s
De La Soul rocked a near-capacity audience Saturday night at Emo’s with old-school hip-hop on the positive tip, proving why they’re universally considered one of the most important and innovative hip-hop acts of all time. Unfortunately the record-setting heat caused the New Yorkers to cut their set short by nearly an hour.
The set times hung next to the stage and the soundboard read that De La Soul would perform from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., but the group called it a night shortly after midnight. The sweltering heat proved to be utterly brutal, rendering their hour-long set an endurance test for both the group and the audience.
De La Soul - Kelvin Mercer (Posdnuos), David Jude Jolicoeur (Trugoy) and DJ Vincent Mason (Maseo) - were soaked in sweat after just a few songs. (“It’s hot as Satan’s toenail,” Maseo joked more than once.)
Since the show was billed as a 20th anniversary celebration of the group’s debut “3 Feet High and Rising,” fan speculation on the Internet and in the audience abounded that they might play the entire album (a rising trend among bands still touring primarily off the strength of back catalogs). As they’ve always done, De La bucked the expectations and played a slammin’ set of fan favorite “consciousness” rhymes culled primarily from their first four albums.
DJ Mase went hard on “Potholes in My Lawn,” laying down a killer scratch throughout the entire first chorus, then dropping a new beat during the second verse that lit up the audience. Then De La segued right into “Stakes Is High,” the stellar title track off their fourth album. And the audience - made up of old-schoolers that were likely in college and high school when De La’s first couple of albums dropped - sang all the words on cue when Posdnuos and Trugoy employed hip-hop’s requisite African diaspora-influenced call and response.
The show took on a magical synchronicity when De La rocked “A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays” as the audience chanted “Sat-ur-day” along with the group over Maseo’s dizzying beats during the chorus.
De La’s encore included the slinky beat-laced “Itzsoweezee (HOT)” and the sing-a-long “Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey).” Then while much of the audience was busy grabbing their second beer/cocktail, De La recited their heartfelt thank yous and were done. De La Soul’s truncated set served as a reminder that their positive consciousness rhymes (that avoid glorifying bling, misogyny, inflated cool-pose boasting and the N word) are now even more of an anomaly in pop culture hip-hop than before the group started.
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By Mj
August 4, 2009 5:51 AM | Link to this
It’s a shame that the heat concluded a classic performance so soon. However, the tribute you gave in your writing was awesome enough to make De La smile in their soaked attire. Enjoyed the piece…
Marcus Jordan RandomStarMusic www.RandomStarMusic.com