The Great Caper: De La Soul Return

While Da La Soul finish their new album, they drop a first salvo, "Royalty Capes."
By    July 22, 2016

de la

Chris Daly is still waiting for his Kickstarted LED yoga mat.

It’s been an interminably long wait for those of us awaiting the new Kickstarter-funded De La Soul joint, and the Anonymous Nobody. What was first presented as an opportunity for fans to help longtime hip-heroes with the cash to put together their next album proper somehow devolved into backers simply becoming investors that had to stand in the same line as everyone else. The updates haven’t come often enough, and the Plugs’ tone has been somewhat not-entirely-fan-friendly. The explanations seem to revolve around, “putting together an album takes time, people” without ever addressing the fact that backers expected to receive something within a reasonable amount of time, not play bag man while DLS got their shit together to put out an album for the masses.

Sure, they’ve addressed this issue by virtue of the For Your Pain and Suffering EP, but a handful of throw-away skits and largely unfinished tracks really doesn’t seem all that conciliatory to me. As the process continues to drag on (though with a promised release date of August 26th finally within sight), I, for one, was beginning to wonder:

A. If this album would ever actually materialize, and, arguably more importantly,

B. Will it be any damn good once it does drop?

With the release of the latest single, “Royalty Capes,” that rush of air you heard likely was the relieved sigh of many a D.A.I.S.Y. lover, as it’s probably their best joint since 2013’s “GET AWAY.” Produced by Trugoy and mixed by Bob Power, “Royalty Capes” sees the trio spitting characteristic knowledge over a trudging snare and cymbal, the occasional horn and cosmic political message breaking to the forefront from time to time. For those keeping score, this jawn also happens to be “one of those rare moments where Dave wrote his part first. Dave said it just sounded like royalty walking in and he put his rhymes down and Pos followed his lead.”

This one is for the the old school old heads still rising past three feet.

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