De La Soul

The month of April saw the (incredibly quiet) release of De La Soul's Plug 1 & Plug 2 presents... First Serve, the latest LP from the group’s front men.

I’d forgotten that this LP was in production and its stealthy release did nothing to bring it to my attention, nor will it help its sales.  As a result, I’ve not yet listened to it so I’m not going to comment on it.

Instead, when I accidentally spotted that the album is now out, it reminded me of several De La Soul videos I have sitting in my archive, and I subsequently realised that De La Soul haven’t made an appearance on this blog yet. So I think it’s time to put that right.

I wanted to upload the original 3 Feet High and Rising VHS release from 1990 that accompanied their debut LP, but I haven’t got the time to convert if from a vob file at the moment, so instead I’m going to hit you up with this rare concert footage from 1997.

This concert was filmed in Belgium at the Lokerse Festival. In an effort to make it a little more interesting than just the plain raw footage of Plug’s 1, 2 and 3 on stage, the editor has added some visual effects. Although the effects don’t detract from the concert or the music, they’re a little odd as the quality falls somewhere between amateur home video and authorised professional release. If these effects had been added to the video when it was recorded in 1997 then I probably wouldn’t have commented, but according to the closing credits the film was edited in 2008!

But don’t let any of this deter you from watching this DVD as the trio delivers a balanced mix of tracks from their early albums (which some might say was when they were at their best), all tightly pulled together and well performed.

Tracklist and embedded video after the jump.
1. Introduction
2. Afro Connections at a Hi 5
3. Bitties in the BK Lounge
4. Eye Know
5. Me, Myself and I
6. Ego Trippin'
7. Oodles of O's
8. I Am, I Be
9. Pony Ride
10. Sunshine
11. Flash Light
12. Ring, Ring, Ring (Ha, Ha, Hey)
13. Stakes Is High
14. Bizness
15. Eye Patch
16. Itsoweezee (Hot)
17. Breakadawn