De La Soul Discusses Birth Of Native Tongues In Doc Outtake
Several weeks ago Mass Appeal released their De La Soul Is Not Dead documentary. The almost half hour long video documents the influential rap group's story up until this point.
De La Soul's beginnings in Amityville, Long Island; handling multiple sampling clearance battles; the collective's break with Prince Paul; their infamous 1996 game changing release Stakes Is High; and the present day, where De La Soul continues to create incredible and progressive music (if you have any doubts about that just check out their latest release, And The Anonymous Nobody).
Apparently, Mass Appeal still has some leftover footage from their documentary with the rap group, and has decided to release a chunk of that recently. Yesterday (Wednesday) the website dropped a clip that finds De La Soul talking about a certain rap powerhouse collective they were all a part of — the Native Tongues.
The Native Tongues were, and still are, considered an important pairing in the history of rap music. A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Jungle Brothers, DJ Red Alert, Queen Latifah, Black Sheep — all of these artists joined together to speak of black pride and afrocentrism, with jazz serving as their sonic foundation.
How it all came to be? De La's love for the Jungle Brothers.
"We were all just happy to be involved with the music," Posdnuos said in the outtake. "When we had a show in Boston and performed with the Jungle Brothers, we let each other know how much we loved each other's music. And after that show we were like 'Hey man, we have a studio session on this date — just come by."
That day history was made, because De La was working on one of the most well known songs to date, "Buddy." Through Jungle Brothers, De La got put on to Q-Tip (which then led to fellow Tribe members Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Phife Dawg being introduced), which ultimately resulted in a shared headlining tour between De La and Tribe.
"It was one common goal — to make music," Prince Paul said. "Everybody was helping each other."
Check out the clip below.
