"They said the good die young so I added something bad ass to my flavor to prolong my life over the drum." - De La Soul, Rock.Co.Kane Flow (featuring MF Doom)
Here's what I said about The Grind Date when it topped my list in 2004:
Here's what was true about me in 2004: I was facing down my 30th birthday. I was disenchanted with our Presidential candidates and the direction our country was headed. I was growing ever more disenchanted with work and with life in general. Half-way through the decade and I was feeling that urge for change. A shake-up. I wanted much more.Is it so wrong that I absolutely love hip hop that grows up as I do? That with each successive album, I've found plugs won, two and three to continue to speak to my particular point in life as well? The Grind Date is absolutely dad rap. It's bumpin' and hard and clever and on point but De La understands that there are those of us that can remember 20 years of hip hop. There are those of us who need a little more from our hip hop. And De La responded by saying, you know what, "we give you much more." And this isn't harkening back to times and sounds long since past, this album is fresh. Fresh as in clean, crisp and now and fresh as in FRESH make me wanna walk the streets with my boom box blasting joints. FRESH like head nodding hard on the bus or the subway or in your car at stop lights. FRESH like put that shit on repeat fresh.
But I was also nostalgic. I was old enough to "remember when." I've got a pretty solid memory but I tend not to dwell on the past (this series of posts notwithstanding) but to keep it on forward motion.
De La Soul and The Grind Date felt like a perfect soundtrack for that kind of moment. Pos, Trugoy, and Dave were old friends telling me they were going to ride into the next stage of my life—of our lives (How the days of your life go, kid?)—with me.
Into the future, baby.
Another day, y'all.
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