De La Soul - Ego Trippin' Pt. 2 (1993)
*** (of four)
In 1993, on their way off the pop/hip-hop radar, De La Soul released what I consider to be their best album, Buhloone Mindstate. Their lyrical goofiness was a little more subdued, the psychedelic samples moved into experimental jazz territories, a sharp female rapper guest starred on several tracks, and the singles all seemed to satirize the state of the current rap scene. Downloadable gems include "Eye Patch," "Patti Dooke," "In Da Woods" and, the best of the bunch, "Ego Trippin' Pt. 2."
The album is barely even a cult favorite, usually overlooked in favor of Three Feet High and Rising and De La Soul is Dead, but occasionally the pop culture universe throws me a bone. I was pleasantly surprised a few months ago to find the Buhloone Mindstate album buried in the jukebox of a neighborhood hoosier bar typically known for its David Allen Coe and Waylon Jennings background music picks. And when I set my TiVo box to tape a four-hour block of VH1 Soul late one night, "Ego Trippin' Pt. 2" was the first video to pop up.
Director Frank Sacramento brings to life De La's traded-off, tongue-in-cheek lyrics bragging about their excess as hip-hop stars. One rapper rides around in a drop-top while a subtitle notes, "It's a rental," then climbs the stairs to a palatial mansion while the subtitle sells him out again with, "He don't really live here." Mostly, though, the De La guys stand around outside the high walls of the mansion while you wonder if they underbid the location and were locked out. Because even when blinged out in a phony way, these guys look like down to earth hippies.
There's also a posh backyard pool party with rented models licking their lips at the camera lens from inside the hot tub, but I'm not gonna lie - the video is merely a modest, halfway-clever rendering of a classic song. But the interplay with the girl rapper, the charming and mesmerizing synth line and the frenzied shouted climax to the song are enough to carry the clip, which is widely available in MPEG form on the Internet. Search around if you'd rather not stay glued to the VH1 Soul channel for a glimpse of it.
In 1993, on their way off the pop/hip-hop radar, De La Soul released what I consider to be their best album, Buhloone Mindstate. Their lyrical goofiness was a little more subdued, the psychedelic samples moved into experimental jazz territories, a sharp female rapper guest starred on several tracks, and the singles all seemed to satirize the state of the current rap scene. Downloadable gems include "Eye Patch," "Patti Dooke," "In Da Woods" and, the best of the bunch, "Ego Trippin' Pt. 2."
The album is barely even a cult favorite, usually overlooked in favor of Three Feet High and Rising and De La Soul is Dead, but occasionally the pop culture universe throws me a bone. I was pleasantly surprised a few months ago to find the Buhloone Mindstate album buried in the jukebox of a neighborhood hoosier bar typically known for its David Allen Coe and Waylon Jennings background music picks. And when I set my TiVo box to tape a four-hour block of VH1 Soul late one night, "Ego Trippin' Pt. 2" was the first video to pop up.
Director Frank Sacramento brings to life De La's traded-off, tongue-in-cheek lyrics bragging about their excess as hip-hop stars. One rapper rides around in a drop-top while a subtitle notes, "It's a rental," then climbs the stairs to a palatial mansion while the subtitle sells him out again with, "He don't really live here." Mostly, though, the De La guys stand around outside the high walls of the mansion while you wonder if they underbid the location and were locked out. Because even when blinged out in a phony way, these guys look like down to earth hippies.
There's also a posh backyard pool party with rented models licking their lips at the camera lens from inside the hot tub, but I'm not gonna lie - the video is merely a modest, halfway-clever rendering of a classic song. But the interplay with the girl rapper, the charming and mesmerizing synth line and the frenzied shouted climax to the song are enough to carry the clip, which is widely available in MPEG form on the Internet. Search around if you'd rather not stay glued to the VH1 Soul channel for a glimpse of it.
posted by daytime at 4:53 AM
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