Happy 25th Anniversary to De La Soul’s fourth studio album Stakes Is High, originally released July 2, 1996.
When I first heard De La Soul’s Stakes Is High, it was spring of my junior year at the University of Pennsylvania. I was in the midst of my tape-trading days, and I was in the habit of trying track down unreleased material and/or other soon-to-be released albums by artists that I loved. I made the connections with like-minded hip-hop heads on listserv-based message boards, which is a great indication that this all happened a quarter of a century ago. So, when someone offered to send me a bootleg promo version of the legendary Long Island crew’s fourth album in the mail, I leapt at the chance.
I don’t remember what I offered the guy in return (the sender’s name has been lost to time as well), but I do know I pleaded with the guy to send me the cassette ASAP. It was close to spring break, and I wanted to head back home to Oakland bumping the album and be able to share it with the rest of my De La Soul-loving friends. I didn’t feel all that guilty about getting the album early, since I knew I was going to buy it anyway whenever it was officially released (which I indeed did).
The promo version of Stakes Is High turned out to be a little different than what was eventually released 25 years ago. The song sequencing was different, it was missing a few songs that would end up on the official version, and there were “Tommy Boy!” audio tags on every song. Sometimes when I listen to the commercial version of Stakes Is High, I still hear the tags in my mind. It was an album that I enjoyed immensely, as I was able to play it all through spring break while hanging with the crew.
The official version of Stakes Is High infamously begins with numerous people reminiscing about the first time they heard Boogie Down Productions’ Criminal Minded (1987). The intro becomes a microcosm of how people experience music, and how great music can create indelible memories and change lives. With Stakes Is High, De La Soul aspired to create an album that will impact their audience on a personal level.
Stakes Is High is as ambitious of an album as their debut 3 Feet High And Rising (1989) and its follow-up De La Soul Is Dead (1991). Overall, it’s not quite at the level of either of those two releases, but considering that they both rank among the best albums ever made, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.
Kelvin “Posdnuos” Mercer, David “Dove” Jolicoeur, and Vincent “Maseo” Mason all pour their souls into the project, which ranks among the upper echelon of albums that they’ve released. It’s also one of the best albums of 1996, and accurately captured the sensibilities of that point in time as effectively as long players like Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt and the Fugees’ The Score.
Stakes Is High is the second De La album in a row where the lyrical spotlight is almost entirely on Pos and Dove. Though he clearly had fun rhyming throughout De La Soul Is Dead, Maseo again focuses on working behind the turntables and the production boards. Aside from one funny interlude, Maseo’s voice doesn’t appear on the album at all.
Listen to the Album:
Pos and Dove are in fine form on the album, each giving what was likely their strongest performances on a De La Soul album to date. Pos made (and still makes) a case for being one of the top 5 emcees of the time, sounding even sharper and more determined on Stakes Is High. Dove takes an even bigger leap, shining on the mic throughout the album.
The album notably diverged from De La’s previous projects from a production standpoint. In particular, it’s the first album where Prince Paul was not involved. Paul is famously the architect of the group’s initial quirky sound and sensibilities, serving as the mentor for the three members of the group and at the time, steering the direction of their first three albums.
Initially this dynamic made sense, as Paul was older than all three Plugs, and already had experience in the music industry as Stetsasonic’s DJ. However, as time went on, De La became more and more involved in the creative process. They’d gone from teenagers to grown men and wanted to drive their albums’ creative direction. They told Paul early in the process that they wanted to proceed by themselves, and while the producer was a little bummed, he understood.
Hence, aside from a few tracks, De La Soul handles the lion’s share of the album’s production on their own. The shift in overall tone isn’t radical, but it is noticeable. The group still digs in the crates, using heavy grooves from relatively obscure soul and prog rock tracks. This time out, they favor using jazzy sample sources overall, keeping the mood more mellow. There are a few real “skits” on the album, with the group mostly going the Pete Rock route by crafting musical interludes. Even though it’s still a fun album at points, there isn’t that feeling that anything can happen, as it lacks Prince Paul’s whimsy. But the truth is, seven years after their debut, De La had increasingly little to be whimsical about.
Much of the subject matter on Stakes Is High concerns De La Soul’s feelings towards what passed for mainstream hip-hop music in 1996, and the group was not particularly happy. Hip-hop’s surge in the mainstream had been building for years, and a quarter of a century ago, it was really becoming one of the most popular musical genres out there. This time out, the faces of mainstream music weren’t “safe” acts like Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer. Instead, it was spurred by the success of labels like Bad Boy and Death Row Records and their associated artists.
Some respected artists took decidedly different tacks when it came to expressing their feelings on what they saw hip-hop culture becoming. Emcees like Jeru the Damaja positioned themselves as vigilant hip-hop holy warriors, fighting for the music’s honor. Instead, De La Soul were the disapproving parents. Rather than being angry, the group seemed more disappointed in hip-hop than anything else, and that made it so much worse.
Their feelings are exemplified on the album’s title track and first single for the album. It’s one of the best songs of De La’s discography and one of the most iconic hip-hop tracks of the time period. As someone whose love of hip-hop music and culture defined them, I was increasingly frustrated with the direction of the genre. And with “Stakes Is High,” Pos and Dove spoke from a perspective that I shared.
Pos and Dove’s verses are soaked with exasperation on the state of affairs in hip-hop music. The group had worked for so long to expand the boundaries of what hip-hop could be, only to watch it begin to collapse around a singular sound as soon as it was apparent that there was money to be made. Dove famously decrees that he’s “sick of R&B bitches over bullshit tracks / Cocaine and crack, which brings sickness to Blacks / Sick of swole-head rappers with their sickening raps / Clappers of gats, making the whole sick world collapse.” Meanwhile, Pos often focuses on the increasingly dire situation for the Black population of the United States. “Yo, it’s about love of cars, love of funds,” he raps. “Loving to love mad sex, loving to love guns / Love for opposite, love for fame and wealth / Love for the fact of no longer loving yourself.”
But rather than convey doom and gloom, “Stakes Is High” ultimately strikes a triumphant tone. Pos declares that after a three-year hiatus, “The Native Tongues have officially been reinstated,” signifying the return of one of hip-hop’s most inventive collectives, as well as one of its earliest reconciliations. Moreover, it felt like De La was willing to take a stand and help recapture what had increasingly disappeared from the representation of hip-hop in the mainstream.
“Stakes Is High” also introduced James “J Dilla” Yancey to many hip-hop fans, as he produced the track. A quarter of a century later, it holds up as one of his best pieces of work. He filters elements from Ahmad Jamal’s “Swahililand” and mixes them with vocal samples of James Brown’s “Mind Power.”
The message of the album’s title track is threaded throughout the project, always present as subtext. Some songs, like “Baby Baby Baby Ooh Baby,” are overt parodies of the hip-hop remixes of the era. Tracks like “Dog Eat Dog” and “Long Island Degrees” are slightly more subtle. “Supa Emcees” is the group’s lament that rappers just aren’t what they used to be. “Entering my constellation puts your lives in jeop’,” Pos raps. “While you others represent, I present my rep.”
Of all the tracks on Stakes Is High, “Betta Listen” is the most reminiscent of an early De La track. Dove and Pos recount separate interactions with women, which run from prickly to flirtatious. Pos is particularly memorable, encountering a “ghetto philosopher” convinced that “Mary J. and Sade understood her strife.” It’s fun in a similar way to the material found on 3 Feet High And Rising and De La Soul Is Dead. To create the beat, the group chops up vocal samples from Junior Parker’s “The Outside Man,” arranging them into a hook, and splicing in grunts and yelps from James Brown’s “Funky Drummer.”
“4 More” is one of the album’s smoothest entries and is a more traditional “for the ladies” track. Pos and Dove kick their game on the album’s third single, trading brief verses while the duo Zhané croons on the chorus. I will admit it took a little while for the song to grow on me, as I’m generally pretty apprehensive about hip-hop tracks that feature R&B/soul collaborations. I am willing to concede that this is one of the better tracks of its kind, and though it seems tailored for club play, it does so in a very De La Soul way.
Stakes Is High also features something that had previously been absent on De La’s releases: solo tracks. Pos and Dove more or less shared an equal amount of time on every full-length track on their previous three albums. However, each get a chance to showcase their talents on their own here, and both excel.
“Wonce Again Long Island” features Pos’ best overall performance on the album. He adopts the alter ego “Wonder Why” and reflects on working hard to remain genuine in an industry that rewards fakeness. “I can stress the making of loot to feed the fam,” he raps. “While the voices impersonate the true who I am / Buzzing in my ear? Oh, you one of those wannabees? / Always buzzing in my ear you down with supa emcees.”
“Itzsoweezee (HOT),” Dove’s solo track, was an interesting choice for Stakes Is High’s second single. Musically, it’s pretty distinct from De La’s other material, as the group manipulates a pair of organ notes, creating a droning, but funky track. Dove spends much of the track calling out rappers pretending to be something that they’re not. “See them Cubans don’t care what y’all n****s do,” he taunts. “Colombians ain’t never ran with your crew / Why you acting all spicy and sheisty? / The only Italians you knew was Icees.” The song was also known for its video, where the group re-imagines hip-hop as a high school lunchroom, populated by the expected cliques and bullies.
Even though the Native Tongues were indeed officially reinstated at the time of Stakes Is High’s recording, the album doesn’t feature appearances by affiliated groups like A Tribe Called Quest and Jungle Brothers. The most established emcee who drops by is Chicago’s Common, who makes an appearance on “The Bizness,” the B-side to the album’s title track.
Common was in between albums at the time, but still ascendant after the release of Resurrection (1994). He delivers a memorable verse on the braggadocio-oriented song, boasting about his skills on NBA Live. Even with Common’s impressive performance, Dove and Pos still hold court on the boom-bap track. While Dove boasts that “I'm fazing those who're supposed to have the last laughter / ’Cause even when I'm gone, I'm reappearing in the after,” with Pos, “the certified as superior emcee,” dropping gems throughout his own verse. “My rhymes escalate like black death rates,” he raps, “over musical plates, being played as the rule / Kids thinking of stepping to the Soul? You’re labelled fools.”
The group also uses Stakes Is High to introduce new lyrical talent to a wider audience. The extremely funky “Big Brother Beat” features the first prominent appearance of Yasiin Bey a.k.a. Mos Def. Credited as “Mos Def of Medina Green,” the Mighty Mos had gotten his start with his brother and sister in the short-lived group Urban Thermodynamics. Eventually, that group morphed into Medina Green, which allied itself with like-minded artists like Da Bush Babees and De La Soul.
Mos definitely shines on the Skeff Anselm produced track, seamlessly interacting with both Pos and Dove. Overall, the song teases his seemingly limitless potential, showcasing his unique flow and voice. He uses his distinctive flow to kick lines like, “When I shine the light, crabs wince / Manifesting for the future here in the present tense.”
“Pony Ride” features the debut of Truth Enola, who, with his deep and gravelly voice, join Dove and Pos to find a way to cope with the obstacles that they face in life. The track is the album’s most unconventional, built mostly around a distorted guitar sample. Both Enola and Mos Def would join De La on the remix to “Stakes Is High,” further demonstrating their respective star quality. It’s a shape that Enola never received a proper chance to really find a wider audience; his sole solo album, Six O’clock Straight (2004), is a great showcase for his everyman emcee talents.
“Down Syndrome” features De La at their grimiest, as Pos and Dove continuously trade short verses, dropping straight battle shit with only a quick hook. It’s raw, no frills hip-hop, that sonically shared a lot in common with the more underground material coming out at the time. The pair smacks up wack emcees throughout the track, with Pos boasting, “Even my foes give me bravos, and that shows total domination in this rhyme complication.”
Due to its placement within the aforementioned promo tape, I sometimes still think of “Dinninit” as the album’s closer. It definitely has an “end of the night” vibe, but it would sound equally great playing at a summer cookout. Producer Spearhead X (formerly of the group Y’all So Stupid) puts together a laid-back, crowd-pleasing track, sampling Milt Jackson’s “Enchanted Lady.” Sometimes I think if the song had a catchier hook, it would have been a huge hit.
“Sunshine” works just as well as the group’s statement on Stakes Is High. The shimmering beat and Truth Enola’s uplifting introductory sermon somewhat mask Pos and Dove’s aggression in their verses. The two practice “leaving last impressions like cut to flesh,” as Pos mocks fake tough guys. “Cause the gun made a man out of pussies from around my way,” he states, “who usually wouldn’t have a fucking thing to say.”
De La themselves largely laid low for the next four years, only occasionally putting in a guest appearance on another artist’s album (Such as Prince Paul’s 1999 LP A Prince Among Thieves). Eventually they resurfaced with Art Official Intelligence Vol. 1: Mosaic Thump (2000), which, while entertaining, was an even bigger artistic departure for the group.
In retrospect, I probably knew when Stakes Is High dropped that its sentiments wouldn’t be heeded, and it ultimately wouldn’t change how rappers or record labels operated. There was a cynicism that always laid beneath the surface of hip-hop’s mid to late 1990s Shiny Suit Era, and artists who made it big tended to hold groups like De La Soul in contempt for “hating” on their success. The version of mainstream rap that De La pilloried continued to thrive, while artists not craving mainstream attention continued to exist on an increasingly separate and parallel path.
I take some solace that a quarter of a century later, De La Soul is still beloved by their fanbase and others, who are clamoring for albums like this one to be available on streaming services. In contrast, many of the rappers that compromised their integrity mostly warrant “Where are they now…?” blurbs. De La played the long-game, stuck to their guns, and ultimately won out. Though many won’t admit that the group was right about everything on Stakes Is High, De La’s longevity serves as a proper statement of victory.
LISTEN: