Released August 8, 2000 so a bit late but hey it's not 21 yet.

I'm curious to know your thoughts on this album. How did you feel when it came out? How do you feel about it now? When's the last time you listened to it?

I've seen people on this site say this is the album that made them stop checking for De La Soul. They also didn't like Stakes is High when it came out. I think most people have come around on Stakes.

I think the album definitely deserves a revisit.

Track listing
1. "Spitkicker.com / Say R. (Intro)" Produced by De La Soul 1:19
2. "U Can Do (Life)" Produced by Supa Dave West 4:23
3. "My Writes" (featuring Tha Alkaholiks and Xzibit) Produced by Ad Lib, De La Soul 5:29
4. "Oooh." (featuring Redman) Produced by De La Soul, Prince Paul 5:24
5. "Thru Ya City" (featuring D.V. Alias Khrist) Produced by Jay Dee 3:29
6. "I.C. Y'All" (featuring Busta Rhymes) Produced by Rockwilder 3:21
7. "View" Produced by De La Soul 4:18
8. "Set The Mood" (featuring Indeed) Produced by Mr. Khaliyl 4:23
9. "All Good?" (featuring Chaka Khan) Produced by De La Soul 4:59
10. "Declaration" Produced by De La Soul 2:56
11. "Squat!" (featuring Mike D & Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys) Produced by De La Soul 4:14
12. "Words From The Chief Rocker" (featuring Busy Bee Starski) Produced by De La Soul 1:01
13. "With Me" Produced by De La Soul 4:50
14. "Copa (Cabanga)" Produced by Supa Dave West 4:06
15. "Foolin'" Produced by De La Soul & Deaf 2 U Inc. 4:22
16. "The Art of Getting Jumped" Produced by De La Soul 3:48
17. "U Don't Wanna B.D.S." (featuring Freddie Foxxx) Produced by De La Soul 4:13

To me in 2021 there is probably only 1 track I would remove and I'm happy the track exists I just don't think I would want to keep coming back to it. I'm going to save the rest of my thoughts for later.

But still pretty good compared to rap music in the year 2000. I will try to relisten and give my current thoughts. I still go back to a lot of Bionix and to The Grind Date, but never think to go back to this one.

Like I couldn't remember which song was from which album except for maybe a handful.

I think it being their weakest album and still pretty good compared to music in 2000 is a fair assessment lol

I always say that De La's worst is better than most rappers best.

I had this album as very spotty up until about a year ago. I finally gave it a listen again in full and realized how many great songs I had cut off rotation.

I wont say it deserves to be up with their best but I feel it's better than people might remember.

And Trying People was almost instantly an all time favorite De La song for me, where none of Mosaic Thump’s songs hit me like that one.

It is definitely one of the best songs ever made but the fact they were hyping it up through out the album is so weird lol. Usually if you do that the song ends up not living up to the hype this time it did.

I've thought this for years and was wondering if it was just me.
I dig the song but...I didn't need any help.

https://digife.com

Like it's a fine song, but considering the album-long hype for it, it seemed utterly unremarkable.

I've come to really like it and appreciate it. But I always thought they should've tacked a Trugoy verse onto "Held Down" and hyped THAT song instead. That track would've been worthy of all that self-hype and then some.

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"Fuck aliens." © WarriorPoet415

So to me it worked, as in I already loved the song so all the album hype for it made sense to me once I heard the rest of the album.

Even wrote a tribute to it last year:

https://www.albumism.com/features/de-la-soul-art-official-intelligence-mosaic-thump-turns-20-anniversary-retrospective

But I can understand why some say that they don't like it. It's their first album where there is no "concept" and where they aren't really talking the problems with hip-hop and their efforts to "save" it. They're mostly focusing on just making dope music.

Yeah, there are lots of guests, and a good amount of outside production, but there's a lot to like. "With Me," "My Writes," "View," and "Foolin'" are all upper echelon De La tracks. Only one I out and out don't like is "U Can Do (Life)."

It's not their "worst" album; for me, that's still Bionix. Which isn't bad by any stretch, but has some very bad songs.

-----------------

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Checkin' Our Style, Return To Zero:

https://www.mixcloud.com/returntozero/

I didn't know (or forgot) that Outkast was supposed to be on All Good? That would have fit so well and maybe given De La a big boost. Have they worked together at all? I'm blanking.

Funny that you say Bionix is their worst. I listened to it after Mosaic today and I don't know if I would remove even one song from it. A couple years ago it would have been similar to Mosaic, I would probably only keep around 6 tracks in rotation. Not sure what I would remove from Bionix today. I still would remove one or two from Mosaic.

I think the hooks in both albums turned me off when I first heard them. At least on some songs. They work for me now though.

>I didn't know (or forgot) that Outkast was supposed to be on
>All Good? That would have fit so well and maybe given De La a
>big boost. Have they worked together at all? I'm blanking.

Yeah, it was only months before "Stankonia" dropped. And it could have dropped as a single right around the same time as that album. I don't think they've ever together beyond that. Closest is Cee-Lo on "Held Down" (who replaced Al Green).

>Funny that you say Bionix is their worst. I listened to it
>after Mosaic today and I don't know if I would remove even one
>song from it. A couple years ago it would have been similar to
>Mosaic, I would probably only keep around 6 tracks in
>rotation. Not sure what I would remove from Bionix today. I
>still would remove one or two from Mosaic.

I mean, "Pawn Star" is awful. So I could cut that no problem. And some of the other stuff on the back half of the album I could take or leave. There's still great stuff on there, but I prefer all the other "official" De La albums.

>I think the hooks in both albums turned me off when I first
>heard them. At least on some songs. They work for me now
>though.

They were using A LOT more singing on the hooks, which had mixed success.

-----------------

www.albumism.com

Checkin' Our Style, Return To Zero:

https://www.mixcloud.com/returntozero/

I think up to this point I knew them from Buddy and Me, Myself and I. Old school act that didn't do much since those singles (yeah I know). Oooh. grabbed me. I was really into Redman then so that song alone made me wanna be down with De La. Not enough to get the album apparently. I didn't listen to the album until Bionix had came out. I think I first listened to Bionix then worked my way backwards on their catalog.

So I remember Bionix being long and kind of all over the place. Good enough to keep me interested and to check out their previous albums. I think by that point I understood their rep enough to know I should listen to them. Mosaic was kind of similar to Bionix to me in that regard. Sonically similar, a lot of tracks and some big highs and big lows. I think with just these two albums I loved their vibe and saw the two albums as them being past their prime. I think at this point Stakes was no better to me than these two, just sounded more dated. Again, some great songs but a lot of forgettable tracks at the time.

So for Mosaic I kept, My Writes, Oooh., Thru Ya City (dilla was the move when I got into these albums), Set The Mood, All Good? and With Me (this isnt dilla??). 6 songs on a 17 track album...aroooof. Still, I LOVED these tracks. I honestly don't know how many times I came back to the album since 2002ish in full until a year or two ago.

So since that time their first 3 albums were classics to me, I totally understood their appeal. I always heard people say Stakes was great but it just never clicked to me until a year or two ago. Mosaic and Bionix? pretty decent but spotty carried by those great tracks. Grind Date, a return to form. Anonymous, too new.

So a year or so ago I bought all their records. I wanted the first 3 for sure, I listened to Stakes again and it finally clicked so I had to get that. I bought Anonymous and Grind Date because I liked them and to support. Do I need AOIs?? might as well right? So I bought them mostly to complete the collection. Kind of hesitant to play them.

Once I did play them they blew me away. Both albums are way better than I ever gave them credit. How did I sleep so hard on Declaration, Copa and Foolin'? U Can Do, I.C Yall, Words from the Chief Rocker, The Art of Getting Jumped and U Don't Wanna BDS are pretty good too but I can see what put me off from them.

View is good but still kind of gets lost to me in the album. I can see it being one of those chill songs that just grows on you with each listen though.

So that leaves Squat! Not bad but its just too much. Beasties with De La in one track?? Has to be fire right? It's fine. I'm glad they made it but I wouldn't miss it.

So if we look at it we go from 6/16 great songs (to me) to 9-14/16 great songs. Not bad. I know some people have View as a top 5 song on the album too. I don't know if anyone has Squat! but overall the album is pretty great.

I do think Bionix edges it out but that can be it's own post.

I'm curious to know peoples favorite songs and least favorite songs on it.

I kind of feel like the album was overlooked back then since they weren't the new band and there was a new sound. Their fans probably wanted more of the fun vibes with more Prince Paul production still. Instead they kind of just did what they wanted to. I can see why it might have not been a hit back then but I do think listening to it now it should get more respect.

I liked it WAAAY more than Bionix.

"When I'm on the mic, a nigga throw down his blunt just to hear what we say...up in this bitch..."-Baatin

I’m biased - De la can do no wrong. 1st year of grad school when this came out. Album was a bright spot during a darker time in my life

@GetoutTheroom
http://getouttheroom.podomatic.com
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Basically it has a strong start with a weak finish, some artists got so many songs recorded that by time they start compiling songs they want on the album you can tell they was just tacking on some of the not so good songs at the end just for the heck of it (maybe it was like: here goes the best of the songs two out of three of us liked), but to me the last three songs could've been taken off or replaced.

Sometimes I listen to the instrumental version of the album as well, it's still a solid album just when it comes to DLS I always feel they could do better and but they never do.

https://tinyurl.com/y4ba6hog

---------
"We in here talking about later career Prince records
& your fool ass is cruising around in a time machine
trying to collect props for a couple of sociopathic degenerates" - s.blak

..and thinking it sounded like a bad idea ...De La is my favorite group ever, but clearly it's their weakest LP yet up until that point (it is better than Bionix) ..still waiting for AOI3

That said.. it's by no means a bad record.. it's quite good.. just not De La good

< Live Mixshow - Thurs 11PM/EST >
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Oooh is dope and had a great video. IC Y'all was another one of my favs, it had that classic Rockwilder sound of that era.

-
Gang Starr / Nujabes blend - https://youtu.be/lsci1vu6ick
DOOM Tribute - https://youtu.be/qmBQ2BDefKM
Donut of the Heart cover in Javascript - https://youtu.be/afLc2CkC8lk

Lots of high highs. Love the "summer" vibe of MT vs. the "winter" vibe of Bionix. I always thought that was really clever, and it causes me to revisit MT every summer and Bionix every winter at a minimum.

I tend to agree with those who say that both AOIs are probably at the bottom of a De La best-to-worst list .. but I also agree with those who have said that De La can do no wrong. Their worst is many artists' best, so. Something has to rank last.

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"Fuck aliens." © WarriorPoet415

So the Ghost Weed skits were all the rage on the boards and when we would all meet in person. I remember there was a house party in Chicago way up in Rogers Park. OKP Tocsiq through the party so most of his people were from the boards. His roommate Steve invited all of his people. Somebody put on "Oooh" and ALL of the OKP's are running Redman's chorus. Then the ghost weed skits hit and we were running that.

Yeah...it was a time.

https://digife.com

..."View" was, is, and will forever be my joint! Just reading this post made me play it twice for good measure.


__
I don't like the beat anymore because its just a loop. ALC didn't FLIP IT ENOUGH!

Flip it enough? Flip these. Flip off. Go flip some f*cking burgers.(c)Kno

Allied State of the National Electric Beat Treaty Organization (NEBTO)

But alas I cannot.


So I will dig it out of one of the many CD boxes and put it in the whip for the official test. ( ..or find it on youtube). Give De La back their music already.


I feel like I remember favoring Mosaic Thump the least. Though, I tend to homogenize Mosaic Thump, Bionix, and The Grind Date.


werd.

>Though, I tend to homogenize Mosaic Thump, Bionix, and The Grind Date.

One of those things is not like the others. And I'm not talking just name. Haha.

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"Fuck aliens." © WarriorPoet415

I know I checked out Bionix when it came out but I wasn't waiting for it. The Grind Date came out when I was already a fan so it definitely has it's own place in my mind.

That aside, I don't see similarities in the sound or vibe. Not enough to group them together.

I do think AOIs are somewhat close to Stakes in vibe but are different enough to not be grouped together either. I do think there are some songs on Stakes that I sometimes confuse as being on AOIs. Don't think that applies for The Grind Date.

The AOIs are imperfect, bloated, uneven.

Still really good, but both definitely rank at or near the bottom of their discog.

Grind Date is in the middle or higher.

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"Fuck aliens." © WarriorPoet415

First 3 are classics to everyone that matters.

Stakes is there for most people I think.

Grind Date is next.

Then AOIs and Anonymous are somewhere below.

Today I kind of enjoy the AOIs more than Grind Date. Wouldn't think that up to a couple years back. I absolutely loved Grind Date when it came out. Could be that I slept on many AOIs songs so the albums got a new life to me now while I did play Grind Date almost in its entirety for years since it came out. So I kind of played it out some.

So for me in 2021 the first 4 are classics and the next 4 are basically on the same level as each other. Somewhere below a classic but still great albums.

>Today I kind of enjoy the AOIs more than Grind Date. Wouldn't
>think that up to a couple years back. I absolutely loved Grind
>Date when it came out. Could be that I slept on many AOIs
>songs so the albums got a new life to me now while I did play
>Grind Date almost in its entirety for years since it came out.
>So I kind of played it out some.

Yea this is pretty fair, and I similarly find that I like a lot of the "filler" songs on both AOIs more now than I did previously. I still like Grind Date a more than both AOIs, but I have come to appreciate the AOIs more upon recent relistens. So I'm with you here.


>So for me in 2021 the first 4 are classics and the next 4 are
>basically on the same level as each other. Somewhere below a
>classic but still great albums.

I think that's probably an apt way to put it. And perhaps that's exactly what maro meant when he said he lumped Grind Date in with the AOIs, in which case I take back my criticism of what he said hah.

I think the most important takeaway, whenever we discuss DLS discog, is that they've never, ever made a bad album.

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"Fuck aliens." © WarriorPoet415

I'm not sure if that's because I wasn't checking for De La as much by that point or if the sounds between those three are so different from their first set of albums to me.

But When I think of De La, I think of the first two as an era, then Buhloone and Stakes as an era, and the later albums as all one era.

*shrugs*

<--- Me when my head hits the pillow

If I were to group them like you did, mine would be:

3ft
DLSID

Buhloone
Stakes

AOI MT
AOI B

Grind Date

Anonymous


I sort of hesitate to group Buhloone and Stakes together, primarily because Paul was still involved in BMS and as a result the albums' production landscapes don't really match at all. But to me the pairing still represents the 2nd era or phase of their career because in terms of content, they were very similar. Both albums had a "fuck the industry/fuck where hip hop is headed," old-man-screaming-at-clouds tone to them.

And to a lesser extent, I think the pairing works because both albums were wayyy shorter than their predecessors and weren't as skit-heavy.

I pair the AOIs together for the obvious reason (the titles), but also because they have that summer/christmas dichotomy between them.

Maybe I should group Grind Date and Anonymous together as the "late career" releases but they were so far removed from eachother and so incredibly different that I think they should sort of stand on their own. But I wouldn't argue with someone grouping them together as such.

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"Fuck aliens." © WarriorPoet415

The Grind Date is the seventh studio album by American hip hop group De La Soul, released on October 5, 2004. The album was originally intended to be the final album of the Art Official Intelligence (AOI) trilogy, but as the album quickly changed focus, the group decided to put AOI III on hold and finish The Grind Date as a stand-alone work.



In my mind, Grind Date was always part 3, regardless of timing or sound.... we were waiting for AOI3 and got TGD.

werd.

>but as the album quickly
>changed focus, the group decided to put AOI III on hold and
>finish The Grind Date as a stand-alone work.

(^^^ this part) ... is why I *don't* lump them together, personally. But I see where you're coming from either way.

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"Fuck aliens." © WarriorPoet415

And what about that Nike Running EP jawn they put out... I never hear about this, but that was dope as hell.


werd.