OVERALL RATING:
It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything new from the once hip-hop hippies, De La Soul. The trio’s last album, The Grind Date, dropped back in 2004, and since then they’ve been a bit quiet. Since their last album, released a compilation CD of some previously recorded material, played a couple of shows for Rock the Bells 2008, and were inducted into VH1’s Hip-Hop Honors awards later that same year. But what exactly have they been up to now?
Recently, Nike has invited De La Soul to help create another addition to Nike’s Original Run album series, which is a string of recordings aimed at runners to listen to while sprinting wherever they please. Are You In? is the sixth installment in Nike’s Original Run series, and is a 44 minute mix of nine De La Soul songs, all produced by Flosstradamus. The songs flow right into each other as one track so that runners who listen to the mix don’t have to struggle to toggle which song they’d like played. The mix is meant to be heard as a whole, and works perfectly for those flowing through a good workout.
The mix itself isn’t bad at all. In fact, De La Soul is still as refreshing to hear as ever. The production by Flosstradamus is done very well, and each beat after the smooth “Good Morning” intro comes at the listener very hard, which is great music to get runners and hip-hop heads alike, pumped. The album is excellent and it shouldn’t disappoint either Nike’s crowd or De La Soul fans.
However, the problem with Are You In? is it isn’t very memorable. It’s not bad, but it’s not what we’ve all been waiting for. After listening to the album, you may feel as if De La just briskly said hello to hip-hop again and immediately crept back into the shadows. It doesn’t feel as complete as a De La Soul record at all, so for those of you out there looking for a brand new De La record to overplay, this may not be your calling.
The project won’t be what you would call a new De La Soul joint, but rather a slight return. Fans of the group will be satisfied to listen to the mix, but for only so long, as the mix is only 44 minutes long, and doesn’t give the full De La Soul classic flavor. Nike and De La Soul definitely made a successful project together, but the feeling of the trio being officially back in your rotation just isn’t there.
