Some albums from this era sound dated now but Stress: The Extinction Agenda sounds as fresh today as it did on the day it was released – the mark of a true classic. This album was way ahead of its time in vision and execution. Prince Po and Pharoahe Monch come with unparalleled lyricism on this dark, dense, complicated, and intellectual album. They admirably succeeded in creating an album with similarities to the first album, while doing something completely different at the same time. Organized Konfusion - Stress: The Extinction Agenda (1994)įollowing their eponymous debut LP, Pharoahe Monch and Prince Po had a lot to live up to. This was the album (along with Jungle Brothers’ Straight Out The Jungle) that paved the way for acts like A Tribe Called Quest, The Pharcyde, Freestyle Fellowship, Digable Planets, and many others. De La Soul’s debut album was unlike anything Hip Hop had seen up to then, and while arguably all Hip Hop in the 1980s can be called ‘ experimental’ because the genre was still in its infancy, 3 Feet High And Rising deserves to labeled thus for sure. Clever wordplay, deft rhymes, playful production, positivity, and fun: 3 Feet High And Rising represented a new direction for Hip Hop, clearly a reaction to cliches already emerging in Hip Hop, even in its early years. This album introduced the skit to Hip Hop albums and although skits more often irritate than add value, on this album they work. The first four are classics, De La Soul’s debut 3 Feet High And Rising arguably the most important of them all.Įxperimental, innovative, and hugely influential – this cooperation between De La Soul and producer Prince Paul is a landmark album. One of the biggest travesties in Hip Hop streaming is the unavailability of De La Soul’s first six albums. De La Soul - 3 Feet High And Rising (1989)

Mos def the ecstatic cd