It's been a while since we fans received a proper release from De La Soul (2004's The Grind Date to be exact, there was a one off with Nike in their series of albums that ran roughly 45 minutes and were meant to accompany you on your daily jog, but I would not consider that a proper release), so the announcement of two mixtapes and a studio album in 2014 was pretty great news. That news became even greater when it was announced that the first of the two mixtapes would feature De La rapping over strictly J Dilla (R.I.P.) beats. De La had worked with Dilla in the past, Dilla produced the title track from the 1996 album Stakes Is High. That album was the first De La album that did not feature production from Prince Paul, who had been the main producer on their first three records. The results polarized fans, but Stakes Is High, while a bit less light-hearted than their first three releases, still sounds great today. Production from J Dilla would be featured on the next three De La albums (most notably the criminally underrated The Grind Date). Smell The Da.I.S.Y. (Da Inner Sound of Yancey) sort of acts as a remix album of sorts. The majority of the lyrics on the mixtape are lyrics from the De La Soul catalog reworked to fit J Dilla's beats. The re-imagining of the De La catalog works well in my opinion. It may be a bit jarring to long time fans to hear some of these reworkings, but give it a chance and be on the look out for quite a bit more from De La Soul this year. Unfortunately the album is unavailable on Spotify, so I cannot directly link it for you, but I did previously link a site where you could actually download the mixtape here.
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