If a new De La Soul album isn’t enough to get excited about the the collaboration roster for and the Anonymous Nobody should do the trick. It’s the New York hip hop trio’s 9th studio record and with everyone from Snoop Dog and Usher to Justin Hawkins and Damon Albarn, it’s set to be an ecclectic mix from Posdnous, Dave and Maseo.
With recent comments from Usain Bolt about how tough it is to stay at the top of your game with each passing year, it’s easy to see why artists fade from view as they get older. Luckily, that doesn’t appear to be the case for De La Soul and with five solid singles already released it’s looking like it’ll be an epic snow day in the height of summer for the trio.
Release date
The good news keeps on spinning as the new album has a UK release date of the 26th August 2016, so it’s petty much here. It’ll be available on digital download, CD and a double gatefold vinyl LP that comes with an 11 X 11 printed insert and a digital download copy of the album. We’re big fans of the album artwork, which along with the track list below confirms a certain affinity with the work of legendary cartoonist Charles M. Schultz.
Singles
The five singles released confirm a fairly broad mix of music on and the Anonymous Nobody, including slower R&B on Greyhounds (featuring Usher), classic rap on Pain (featuring Snoop Dog) and a hip-hop/funk combo on Trainwreck. The variety doesn’t just come from the different acts featured on the tracks, it also comes from the nature of the construction of the album, which is build on the foundations of a massive body of samples.
However, De La Soul did the hard way, recording all of the live music to build up their own catalogue of samples with bossa nova, soul and hip-hop to funk, disco and reggae coming together during the sessions. From this the trio built what they’re describing as a continuous story on the album, which includes some slick sounds effects and instrumental transitions between songs, which you can here at the end of Greyhounds in the lyric video below. If the singles are anything to go by, it sounds like it’s all going to come together beautifully.
Track list:
- Genesis (featuring Jill Scott)
- Royalty Capes
- Pain (featuring Snoop Dogg)
- Property of Spitkicker.com (featuring Roc Marciano)
- Memory of… (US) (featuring Estelle and Pete Rock)
- CBGBS
- Lord Intended (featuring Justin Hawkins)
- Snoopies (featuring David Byrne)
- Greyhounds (featuring Usher)
- Sexy Bitch
- Trainwreck
- Drawn (featuring Little Dragon)
- Whoodeeni (featuring 2 Chainz)
- Nosed Up
- You Go Dave (A Goldblatt Presentation)
- Here in After (featuring Damon Albarn)
- Exodus (Outro)
First impressions
This is locked on to be one of the big releases of the summer and with such a long history of hip-hop excellence behind the group and some excellent singles out prior to the release, it’s got a lot of album chart topping potential. It’s taken a number of years to bring the record together and you can hear the dedication to the cause in the tracks. The intricate album construction and attention to detail is impressive, so we’re definitely putting this on our kite flying playlist.
