De La Soul

De La Soul return with De La Soul’s Plug 1 & Plug 2 Presents - First Serve their first full length album in eight years. Although Maseo (plug 3) is absent for First Serve, Plug 1 (Pos) and Plug 2 (Dave) have delivered a vintage De La Soul album.

The duo have taken on the personas of Deen Witter (Plug 2) and Jacob “Pop Life” Barrow two young friends trying to make a name for themselves by making music in their basement. This eventful tale tells of the boys dramas, their problems, their initial rise to fame and the subsequent fall and finally after much hard work and several interruptions from Jacob’s mother the duo who resolve their differences just in time make a successful comeback. The tale of rock and roll hopefuls dreaming of the big time is not a original narrative but the old school era setting gives it a fresh twist.

Even though the story telling element of First Serve has been painstakingly crafted it often falls short but the quality of the sun drenched Hip hop on this LP manages to make up for it. First Serve is filled with the signature disco beats, funky rhythms and offbeat skits that De La Soul triumphed in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Songs such as Must B The Music and We Made It could easily fit into De La Soul’s back catalogue and which fans will revel in.

De La Soul’s Plug 1 and Plug 2’s new offering is ridiculous, it is conceptually weak and often it is cheesy but does this matter? First Serve is not among the greats as far as Hip-hop concept albums go, it is certainly no Prince of Thieves or Deltron 3030 but the buoyant personality that is laid bare on this album is sun drenched Hip-hop for a mass audience, which is what De La Soul has always been about.