Sunday Music: Eye Know Eye Love You Better

We lost Dave Jolicouer from De La Soul a few weeks ago. In another week or so we get the group’s full catalog on streaming services for the first time ever. 

Sample clearances, label shenanigans – you name it, the crap that buried their music was frustrating. 

I can’t remember how or when I first heard De La Soul, but I do know that sometime in the mid-90s I picked up 3 Feet High and Rising and became obsessed. Better late than never I guess.

This wasn’t old-school Sugar Hill stuff, and it certainly wasn’t the Biggie/Pac of the day or even the emergent underground Co-Flow stuff. 

These guys made jokes. They talked about hard stuff (the story of Millie is still devastating to me). They didn’t want to chase trends, and they weren’t worried with defining new ones so much as they wanted to explore their interests. 

And the samples. Good lord the samples. High freaking art people. Genius-level stuff.

“Eye Know” is a love song, that happens to be a rap song, that happens to have an incredible Steely Dan sample at its core. 

Advance apologies for what will likely turn into me ranting about the daisy-colored brilliance of their entire catalog for the next several Sundays.