Stakes Is High

Product Information

Da Inna Sound, Y'all) philosophy on their brilliant and weird debut, Three Feet High and Rising (making them the first—and probably only—hip-hop act to appropriate a Johnny Cash song for their album title).

Then they tried to kill the Daisy with their follow-up, De La Soul Is Dead and then tried to find their way through the aftermath of that unnecessary act on Buh-Loone Mind State. The introduction track begins with various clips of interviews, the interviewees describing where they were when they first heard the influential rap album Criminal Minded. Great to see so many other reviewers echoing what I'm feeling about this record - its absolute quality!

All the tracks are as original from what I can hear, no edits which is too common with Hip Hop reissues. At the end of track 9, "Long Island Degrees", a "redneck" explains why he hates rap music ("There's no music in it. At the end of track 15, "Pony Ride"—an excerpt from the documentary Crumb, in which Maxon Crumb discusses his struggle living on the streets, describing his periods of optimism and depression. I’m a beginner at this vinyl thing when it comes to assessing records but this sounds really good to my ears.

I look back on people like that and think about how they had that moment of clarity, where they looked around them and at things decaying in their society–whether it’s music or life, that’s where “Stakes is High” was at. Stakes Is High was mainly produced by the group themselves, with additional tracks provided by Jay Dee, DJ Ogee, Spearhead X and Skeff Anslem. I think that the energy we put into that song was similar to that of what Marvin Gaye put into “What’s Going On. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.Super-Emcees"), skewer the industry ("The Bizness," with some help from that super MC, Common), and even shout out to their birthplace, Long Island, twice (on "Long Island Degrees" and the break-down-funky "Wonce Again Long Island"). The streaming version of the album divides "The Bizness" into two tracks, "The Bizness" and "Yunonstop". Love the flow of it, every track is focussed and is a real pleasure to listen to - whilst most people have got/ heard 3 Feet High (and don't get me wrong it's a great album), far less people have heard Stakes is High and its a shame because it shows how much De La Have evolved as a group. The song included many memorable lines such as Posdnous' " Gun control means using both hands in my land.

The clip at the end of the final track, "Sunshine", closes the album with a young man saying "Yo, when I first heard 3 Feet High and Rising, I was" and then the clip is cut out in similar fashion to " Fight the Power" in Public Enemy's legendary album, Fear of a Black Planet. The album did provide a launching pad for future star rappers and actors Mos Def, who appeared on the track "Big Brother Beat" and Common who is featured on "The Bizness".Dilla was excited because here we are at this point in time where Dilla had already been seasoned in the game doing different things in the name of The Ummah, working with different artists but hadn’t did a De La Soul record. Stakes Is High deals with many topics, including the state of hip-hop, the commercialization of hip-hop culture, and criticism of gangsta rap. Bigger sound and clarity is spot on, an absolute winner of a reissue (why can't there be more like this). Feet High and Rising was De La Soul's first release and a very influential album, held in similarly high regard as Criminal Minded, which is discussed at the beginning of the album. Robert Christgau wrote: "After almost four years, Posdnuos and company emerge from the ether like the long-lost friends they are.