De La Soul
Summerstage, Central Park, New York City
July 12, 2003

Review by: Alexander Washburn
Date: 8/20/03

We were gathered in the Park for another one of SummerStage’s fine free concerts, this one by hip-hop legends and creators of one of the greatest records of all-time, De La Soul.

The day's show kicked off with British poet-rapper Joneski, who was a poor choice for this laid back, De La centric crowd. His lyrics were borderline offensive and the only time the crowd showed him any love is when he sampled Bob Marley. Ultimately, he was boring, which was just fine by us for it gave us more time for Cosmo’s, Makers Mark and cold beers, while making new friends from England, Australia and Toronto, as well as catching up with old running partners from the Teaneck days.

Breakastra struck the first musical high-note of the day. This 9-piece from Los Angeles shook the crowd out of its Joneski induced boredom. Breakastra just plays the breaks of every kick ass funk jam ever produced. It seemed that most of their set focused on music sampled by the Native Tongues – most notably A Tribe Called Quest.

Where Breakastra bought the funk back in it, K-OS, the third act, offered up barebones reggae that preached one love and unity. It also set the stage to get nice. Tasty appetizers, stiff cocktails and left-hand side passing had whet the appetite and De La Soul delivered a hearty main course.

After years and years of shows, I'm pleased to announce that De La Soul has finally gotten it right. The show dips evenly through the entire De La catalog of songs from 3 Feet High and Rising to their last record AOI Bionix. How appropriate was it to sing "Saturdays" at the top of your lungs on a beautiful afternoon on your "one whole day to play." The only record that didn’t get enough love is the underrated Buhloone Mindstate and that was a shame for it would’ve been nice to hear "I Am, I Be."

The power of De La was so strong that I even spied former Spitball bassist Mike Webb play wrestling with some kids from a nearby blanket. Ah, yes the power of De La can even temper the angriest punk voices.

Expert neighbor relations, cocktails, cannabis, new and old friends met at the show, beautiful weather and excellent music – this is the way we organize.