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It would be almost unorthodox for a rising, true school emcee to skip over De La Soul when listing his/her influences. After all, De La is one of the few older groups to weather the hip-hop storm. They started during an era of real music with real topics; when emcee’s didn’t care as much about the paycheck, but more about how it made people feel. Kelvin “Posdnous/Plug 1” Mercer and his crew beat out the era of one hit wonders and still stand strong amongst the rising group of snap rappers and other club music makers of today. After all, it’s been 20 years since the group released their seminal album, 3 Feet High and Rising ... , and they still haven’t lost our attention.
With that being said, Mercer has strong opinions as to why his group will be remembered over artists with current hip-hop fame. "It’s pretty much at the same place it’s been for awhile, it’s pretty stagnant," the rapper stated. "It’s definitely ... become a permanent fixture within music and it’s accomplished so much and it’s outlived this whole point of people considering it a fad; but rightfully so a lot of our pioneers weren’t compensated the way they should have been because it was all about fun.” Mercer stated that in his teenage days, it was nothing to see KRS One or Kid Capri jump on stage and do their thing for the simple love of their craft. Yet, today, the rapper feels that if an act isn’t being paid to touch the microphone — they simply won’t. He blamed greedy club promoters and record labels who pushed artists to become more “business savvy” as the cause of the eruption of lacking lyricists. Mercer said, “[Hip-hop] lost a lot of creativity ... it lost that spontaneity.”
In the decades that have passed since the Long Islanders first broke into the scene in 1989, De La Soul has built a stellar resume. Nike latched on a few years back and released two exclusive kicks with the group. Although sneakerheads before the collaboration, Mercer joked, “Once you get a little money, of course you increase [the sneaker collecting] habit.” He described the group’s relationship with the corporate giant as one that happened organically. Originally meeting at ASR, a skateboard convention, while they were working with LRG, Mercer and crew met the SB reps for Nike and over time released the exclusive 3 Feet and Rising SB’s, based on the group’s debut album.
The group has since done numerous live performances for the sneaker king. Most recently, they collaborated with Nike for the release of Are You In? — a 44-minute single track that mixes several songs together to play as one. The iTunes exclusive was the fifth in the Nike series, but the first to include emcees as previous Original Run tracks had been by producers or DJs. “I try to explain this to people,” said Mercer, “it’s still a regular album … it has I think 11 tracks but it’s just seamless. The way Nike has done the past albums, it just comes up as a 45 minute track for a 45 minute workout.” Are You In? was De La’s first release of original material since 2006, but they haven't been slacking. Prior to the Nike disc, De La was working on new material for a CD that should drop in early 2010. The upcoming disc, You’re Welcome, is in the works, but the members also have other projects too, including Mercer’s upcoming solo effort.
Despite a Grammy in their back pocket for their work with Gorillaz on "Feel Good Inc.” and several classic records in their discography, De La Soul still manages to stay impeccably grounded. Mercer credits their family lives and upbringing. “We never let the fact that someone loved our music make us think that we’re these legendary dudes," Mercer stated. “We’re just ordinary people … we just have a great job.” | RDW
De La Soul • 7/1 • Cityfest’s Main Stage
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