Stakes Is High

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This month currently marks the 30th anniversary of De La Soul’s classic debut album 3 Feet High and Rising. Along with the Jungle Brothers’ first two projects, it was the beginning of the Native Tongues movement, which was primarily based around positive and good-natured content (some of which were Afrocentric, to be precise); and the album featured classic gems such as “ Buddy”, “ Eye Know”, “ Plug Tunin’”, and, of course, “ Me, Myself and I”. The album has gone down as one of the greatest albums of all time, bringing a new sound to the table and influencing a wide range of artists. This is not to belittle the rest of their output – for many fans, Buhloone Mindstate is the magic record. For others, it’s De La Soul Is Dead or Stakes Is High. I just have this particular album’s imprint at a particular age. The song was one of the earliest mainstream productions to be handled by hip hop producer Jay Dee. The B-side to the single was "The Bizness", featuring Common. This song talks about the music industry. The weirdest time in a writer’s life is the year between handing in a book and it coming out. You feel like a fantasist. To have decades lived in that liminal space between albums must have been tortuous for the band. I imagine it didn’t mean nothing then, when during that interminable wait, Damon Albarn asked them to do Feel Good Inc with Gorillaz – and they ended up winning their first Grammy, 16 years after their debut album.

It's been more than 20 years and De La Soul's seminal album Stakes Is High still holds its own as not only a definitive work by the Long Island trio but a classic from that era. In their own words, Maseo and Posdnuos gave Okayplayer the inside scoop on the times and circumstances surrounding the record, the creative process behind specific songs, beefs with Naughty By Nature and Tupac, and how the album changed their lives, respectively. Ashon, Wil (July 1996). "De La Soul: Stakes Is high" (PDF). Muzik. No.14. p.122. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 April 2022 . Retrieved 16 July 2022. Like other De La Soul albums, Stakes Is High has a running theme, which in this case is the group's concern about the state of rap, as well as the state of hip hop culture and how it is regarded in general. The following sound clips are featured:Funny enough, Vinny called and I told him everything, I spoke to them so I told them what it was. I said, "Yo, please let's get up," but we never wound up getting up. I think Mase saw Treach at New Music Seminar, I guess Treach ran into him on it. Once again, it was just something like Treach expressed to Mase he was upset about, but we thought we could work it out. Then, we did two shows that night, we did something at NYU and then a little bit later we ran right to the Palladium. We got on stage and was doing our performing and there were a bunch of people up front and they was just jamming with us and then they put their hand out as if they was going to slap fives. I went to clap to do five and next thing I know, someone's trying to pull me off stage.

After the album's release, the group toured extensively and remained rather quiet before returning in 2000 with the first installment of their "Art Official Intelligence" series, Mosaic Thump. Stakes Is High" is a single by De La Soul released in 1996 from their album Stakes Is High. [1] Overview [ edit ]Smith, Ethan (July 12, 1996). " Stakes Is High". Entertainment Weekly. New York . Retrieved June 13, 2012. Mos was always around. Mind you, we always had that type of environment where it wasn't overpowered by these people being around but good vibes was always welcome, people was always welcome. Mos was one of them, whether Mos came through, Mos will come through with his brother, so someone like Medina Green would be hanging with us in the studio as well. That's how even in "Stakes Is High" we got the little dice game thing. We would all hang. On the Rift with Naughty By Nature. Maseo: There was definitely a misunderstanding that turned into a rift. Treach is my brother. I love him to this day. We’re all dealing with the transitions at this time. Everybody is a little sensitive and insecure about a whole lot. You’ve got your crew, your clique, here it is. He feels like he’s got to do something about it because his crew is saying one thing and the record really means something else.

Offiziellecharts.de – De La Soul – Stakes Is High" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved April 23, 2021. Cigarettes, Johnny (July 29, 1996). "De La Soul – Stakes Is High". NME. London. Archived from the original on October 10, 2000 . Retrieved December 16, 2018. Maseo: It ended up, turning out being as successful as we needed it to be. It wasn’t really about record sales, although selling records is always a great thing. It sustains us monetarily and all that, but it was a statement that was way more important than the sales of the record and its statement. Let’s put it like this, the statement of the record, the response behind the statement let us know there’s a place in this music industry for us. That whether we sell 100,000 records or 100,000,000 records, De La has a significant place in this music business. Produced by Jay Dee Co-Produced by De La Soul Written by K. Mercer, D. Jolicoeur, V. Mason& J. Yancey Published by Tee Girl Music/Daisy Age Music (BMI)/Ephcy Music (ASCAP) Contains samples from "Mind Power" by James Brown and "Swahililand" by Ahmad Jamal

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We were just trying to think about, "How can we start Stakes Is High?" We was like, "Yo, let's try to do a collage of just people saying stuff," and then we was thinking like, "Yeah, let's maybe do like when the first time someone heard Criminal Minded." Then that's when we just start gathering up people. I just left a message on my phone and whoever would call I was like, "Yo, just let me know the first time you heard Criminal Minded." Everyone just started leaving messages and telling me when they heard it and so we had put it with that music. I imagine there are a lot of hip-hop heads who were bright kids with undiagnosed learning difficulties, gravitating to rap as relief from the learning struggle. First music love is often a reaction to feeling like a school misfit, but in this instance, it was like my struggle with learning was reversed through the album. Posdnuos: Buhloone Mindstate wasn't really doing what we needed it to do. Us and Tribe [Called Quest] was on tour together and, of course, they were just on fire. We were all having great shows, but we both had the same manager, this was Rush Management, Russell Simmons and Lyor Cohen. We recall Lyor Cohen sending us down at one of the shows. Tribe was closing and he was like, "Hey, I know your album isn't doing well... You all going to have to tighten your belts, you're going to have to get out and just do it when you’re on the road." I played the album on repeat the year I went to secondary school, and because I knew all the lyrics by rote, including the comic interludes between songs, I bewitched the coolest girl in class into choosing me as her best friend. That I was able to memorise and repeat it was unusual; I couldn’t make sense of the lessons at school. It was rough not understanding questions nor knowing how to answer them. Being able to recite 3 Feet High off by heart was a balm I’ve talked to Treach. He was confused, disappointed and hurt. We really talked about it. I felt like even it wasn’t taken to any physicality, we could have gotten into it in private but the record was out there and so he felt he had to make it just as public as the record. We came at it but … We’re all at a better space today. Apologizing on both ends and that was a time in rap where there was a lot of pop shots being and taken and given all across the board throughout the entire genre. On The Rift With Tupac.