De La Soul Is Dead

Prince Paul produced it again. He said the aim was to prove they were not a one-album act, and that the raps now sounded bitter to him. Posdnuos has argued it is less cynical than its reputation, saying the word dead in the title meant they were metamorphosing into older kids. The cover shows a broken pot of daisies, and the video for Ring Ring Ring smashes one. Its skits parody children's book-and-record read-along sets, ringing a bell to turn the page. A teenager named Jeff finds a cassette of a De La Soul album in the garbage and bullies steal it, voiced in part by Mista Lawnge of Black Sheep as Hemorrhoid and by P.A. Pasemaster Mase. A fictional radio station, WRMS, plays only slow music. The songs take in drug addiction in My Brother's a Basehead and a story of sexual abuse in Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa. Black Sheep guest on Fanatic of the B Word, Q-Tip on A Roller Skating Jam Named "Saturdays", and Prince Paul takes a verse on Pass the Plugs. The LP and cassette editions left out several songs that are on the CD.

Reviews were divided. Rolling Stone called it a hip-hop masterpiece, NME thought the group sounded bored, and The Source gave it one of its first five-mic ratings. It was certified gold on 18 July 1991. Rolling Stone ranked it 228th on its 2020 list of the 500 greatest albums, and Spin ranked it 74th among the best albums of the 1990s.