(which goes without saying, my all-time favorite De La Soul album, and much like their debut, an instant classic)

But then again, I remember so much more of this album, and out of the Native Tongue-related albums released in that time, I enjoyed this one the most.

Largely because of the title track. I wasn't reading liner notes back then, but when that dropped, it was one of a number of songs that nailed what I was thinking about the world at that point and time, released as singles... AND it had a great beat backing it up to boot.

If for anything, this was when De La Soul started to shed their "otherness" and even more of the esoteric nature of their look and their rhymes, and became a bit more "working class". I guess they were entitled, because they had been around for 7 years up until this point.

"Supa Emcees" is just one of those songs I associate with getting up at the ASS CRACK of dawn to get up in the Volvo and do what I had to do during the day.

Rocked the hell out of this tape.

oh yeah, what was it that Common said that was deleted from his verse on "The Bizness"?

So back to the "classic"-ness of this album:

- is it one of the more essential rap albums of the year of its release? Certainly, if you were going to understand the "big divide" in thematic content that became even more pronounced this year.

- is it one of those albums that contributes one or more songs to the artist's canon (i.e. songs that a lot of people know, regardless of their leanings)? I'd say yes. The title track got a good deal of play on MTV (and so did Jeru's "Ya Playin' Yaself", ironically) and BET. Though it's not "Me, Myself and I" level, I think if you said "De La Soul" to a rap fan who knows who they are, the song comes up in the discussion.

- is it generally well liked within its discography? Not overwhelmingly, but many either got into De La Soul (late) though this album, or welcomed it.

Hmm. Maybe is it a classic after all.