De La Soul is dropping their classic 1993 album Buhloone Mindstate on Vinyl, CD, and Cassette soon, available from Get On Down. The reissues are set to ship the first week of May.
This comes on the heels of not just the tragic loss of Dave but also the long-awaited second coming of De La via streaming platforms following many years of fighting for control of their music.
“After years of being taken advantage by the recording industry in the worst possible ways, De La Soul now owns all the rights to their masters and is in full control of the amazing music they have created. Let’s salute Plugs 1, 2 and 3 for sticking to their guns and showing us that we can all beat the system if we come together as a community. Let’s hear it for black ownership of black art! Congratulations fellas…” During the Instagram live that took place between De La’s three members, it was revealed as a joke (while they were getting their technical difficulties in order) that Kweli will also be joining the group moving forward. However, that proved to be an offhand rib to Kweli as he was releasing information to the masses before De La could. The official lineup is still the original three man plugs.”
Talib Kweli
Buhloone Mindstate is rightfully regarded as one of the group’s most influential and enduring albums. The album marked a significant shift in De La Soul’s sound, with the trio exploring more experimental production techniques and complex arrangements.
“With [Buhloone Mindstate] we were in this experimental state, musically, lyrically, we were trying to take ourselves to another level. We’d been working with Prince Paul, who we’d known for many years, and we wanted to stretch ourselves, to take the sound to a new place. There was this pressure on us, but we embraced it, we wanted to take it on. We wanted to challenge ourselves, to see how far we could go.”
Plug 1
Buhloone Mindstate debuted at number 14 on the Billboard 200 and sold over 200,000 copies in its first month of release. The album features a range of standout tracks, including “Eye Know,” “Ego Trippin’,” and “Patti Dooke,” all of which showcase De La Soul’s sharp lyricism and clever wordplay.
Critically, the album was widely praised upon its release, with many critics applauding its innovation and creativity. The Source gave it a perfect five-mic rating, calling it “a masterpiece of modern music.” Rolling Stone named it one of the 100 greatest albums of the 1990s, while Pitchfork praised it as “an album of remarkable nuance and depth.”
The entire De La Soul catalog is available for streaming, and Stakes is High is the next album on the list for physical reissues.
