Download: De La Soul at the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival (right click, save as)

I know it’s the end of the week, but we have more Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival coverage for y’all. Our homies at Subsoniq radio were on the scene in BKLYN and recorded De La Soul’s whole set. As you know the trio brought it during their headlining appearance and if you were there, do yourself a favor and right click, save as.

If you didn’t know, you can find Subsoniq radio online at SubsoniqRadio.com and @SubsoniqRadio.

Expect more coverage from The Brooklyn Hip-Hop festival in the upcoming weeks, including interviews with Black Milk, Diamond District, and Skyzoo.

For those in the know, the Brooklyn Hip-Hop festival is one of the best yearly looks on the hip-hop calendar. For over 5 years now, the yearly event has showcased some of the best the genre has to offer, combining live music with cultural and creative events throughout the week. Headlining the festival in previous years were acts such as Ghostface Killah, Big Daddy Kane, and Brand Nubian. However, this year, they are proud to announce this years headliner is none other than De La Soul.

If you haven’t seen De La Soul live then you are missing out. Forget these young kids and their half hour sets, De La can easily do 2-3 hours of solid (and energetic) hip-hop. With a catalog that spans from hip-hop’s “golden era” all the way up to sold millennium era releases like The Grind Date.

The show takes place on July 10th, 2010. Tickets go on sale Monday May 3rd at BrooklynBodega.com, the official home of the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival. Follow @BKHipHopFest for more details.

It’s been 20 years since De La Soul dropped their classic debut LP, 3 Feet High and Rising – and to help commemorate the event the trio has hooked up with the awesome Kidrobot to release a special edition set of 3 inch De La toys.

Maseo, Trugoy and Posdnuos will each come equipped with their own dope accessories like ice cream cones and gold chains and all arrive in “futuristic space travel boxes, symbolizing De La’s mission to take hip-hop to the stratosphere and beyond” says Kidrobot via his webpage. The figures will be available March 18 at Kidrobot stores and selected retailers for $50.

I so want all three of these!

Classic De La: Me Myself and I

Zelio | MySpace Video

Do to overwhelming response to Tuesday’s Subsoniq Radio De La Soul special, Sirius/XM will be airing an encore presentation of the interview this Sunday 8/23 at Noon EST on Backspin (Sirius 39, XM 65, Direct TV 846, Dish 6039).

For a preview of what you might have missed, check out these two 10 minute audio clips:

De La Soul – On Their Origins, Stakes Is High and Death of AutoTune

De La Soul – On Longevity in Hip-Hop and Women in The Game

Also, check out our review of the De La Soul show at the 9:30 Club.

Tune into De La Soul on Sirius/XM’s Subsoniq Radio today!

The Legendary De La Soul swings through to the home of progressive hip-hop, Subsoniq Radio, to celebrate the twenty year anniversary of their ground breaking album “3 Feet High And Rising”! Hear them speak on their influences coming up, the science behind their classic skits, their relationship with Prince Paul, and what’s in store for the next 20? It’s a full three hours with De La, exclusively on Subsoniq!

Tuesday (8/18) 7pm – 10pm EST on Backspin (Sirius 39, XM 65, Direct TV 846, Dish 6039)

Don’t have Sirius/XM radio? Get a FREE Online Trial!

Check out a preview of the interview:

“They’ll never be a breakup” says . For some bands this is famous last words but for De La Soul, a group that has been together–and stayed together–for over 20 years, this phrase is set in stone.

The trio rolled through the 9:30 Club on Tuesday night, dropping classic tracks as well as some surprises to the near capacity crowd. Backed by LA’s Rhythm Roots All Stars, the group completely, utterly, destroyed the club, and rocked a show harder than most rappers half their age.

The night began with a sparse, yet appreciative crowd for LA newcomer Keenan Bell. Bell might be an unknown on this side of the country, but he’s one of the most solid young rappers that I’ve seen in a while. With a naisly whine a la B Real from Cyprus Hill. , Bell and his live band, Bell and his crew were polished for their first tour and we will be hearing more from him soon.

Next up on the bill was Little Brother member Big Pooh. Pooh might have better name recognition than Bell, but he did little to get the crowd going. When he asked who knew about his upcoming album, only one person hollered back. Even with that setback, Pooh had a great sense of humor as he went through some mixtape tracks and the highlight from his set–old school Little Brother from their album The Listening.

The third member of the undercard was Harlem rapper Bill Ray, an associate of De La member Maseo. Even though it seemed like Ray was just another dude trying to hustle his way onto the bill,  he had control of the restless crowd and his throwback flow is a welcome change to most faceless, nameless rappers in the game.

After three acts, it was time to bring out De La Soul. The group casually rolled out onto stage and immediately talked about the 20th years anniversary of their classic album 3 feet High and Rising. Unlike the last time I saw them in Montreal, the group was backed by the live band, giving this show a new dimension. After backing such names as Ghostface, Rakim, and Mos Def, The Rhythm Roots All Stars are no strangers to the live hip-hop format and they adjusted to De La’s throbbing beats accordingly.

Instead of going through 3 Feet High track by track like Public Enemy did to It Takes a Nation of Millions, the group only made passing references to the album, focusing more on their more recent (and some might say better) works, The Grind Date, Stakes Is High, and Bionix. For the next hour, the trip went through tracks like “A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays,” “Say No Go,” and “Pass the Peas,” as well as a  Dilla tribute with the track “Stakes Is High, with the All Stars belting out the horn sample perfectly.

During the middle of the set, the band took their “union break,” as they De La through songs like “Potholes in My lawn” and rougher cuts like “The Grind Date,” a track that got the crowd especially riled up. Afterwords, the band came back as they went through the track “All Good,” from Bionix and of course their hit single “Me Myself, and I.” During the much needed encore (the crowd wasn’t going to leave), they dropped a surprise version of their Gorillaz track “Feel Good,” an a tribute to RUN DMC.

While other rappers spend their time on the Internet beefing, the dudes in De La Soul are busy rocking shows and keeping their legacy alive. The trio, is not ashamed about their age (Kelvin even celebrated his 40th birthday onstage), and these “old men” kept the energy level high throughout the near 2 hour set. Hat tip also goes to the Rhythrm Roots All Stars, who are becoming the best hip-hop backing band (other than The Roots of course) in the game. The combination made for one of the best hip-hop shows I’ve seen in a while.

From what everybody told me, the Suite for Ma Dukes performance out in LA last Sunday was as good as promised. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to make it out to the West Coast for this performance (I might fly out in April for David Axlerod though), but at least someone was able to snap some video of Talib Kweli and De La Soul performing “Stakes Is High,” and Illa J singing over ” Fall in Love”. (via Blind I for the Kids, Needledrop Twitter)

The good news for the rest of us that aren’t on the Left Coast? The’re was a film crew on hand, and a DVD will be available soon.

Having that said, the teens in that building could tell a certain 17 year old what real hip-hop is.

Starting off for De La was Montreal DJ Ghislain Poirier. Other than a few remixes he did, I wasn’t really up on his original music. To be honest, his set sounded real repetitive and bass heavy, and for a while I was going to give up and go to the bar. However, the party livened up, first when two MCs showed up, then when his dancers entered the stage and tried to one up each other in a booty shake contest.

Nothing gets a crowd hype like booty!

De La Soul

Let’s be honest, most hip-hop shows are wack. They show up late, play a 20 minute set, and fill the stage with every cousin and weed carrier known to man. But not De La. They ROCK the show.

De La Soul – Stakes Is High from Couch Sessions on Vimeo.

It’s hard to believe that De La has been in the game for 20 years, and even though these cats are “old” by hip-hop standards, they had more energy and fire than people half their age. Their longevity is rightly deserved, and they put every bit of energy they had into their performance, which lasted so long that they ran out of songs. And the crowd was one of the livest that I ever seen. Seriously, these dudes have been in business longer than most of these kids have lived, but there was such an appreciation for REAL HIP-HOP in the building that I almost shed a tear.

De La’s set skewed heavily toward their sorely unappreciated album The Grind Date which is one of the best hip-hop albums of 2004. Of course they did the hits, “Me Myself and I,” “Saturday,” and “Stakes is High”, but their hustle for an album that’s almost 4 years old shows their dedication to the game and their resistance to becoming just another washed up hip-hop hit parade.

FULL SET AT THE FLICKR PHOTOSTREAM

So yeah, most of y’all know that I love traveling.

After I turned 21 I told myself that I need to get out of the city at least once a year to stay sane. In 2008 I had a tough internal decision: go back to London or pick a new city for debauchery. An associate that I know invited me to Montreal to cover Jazz Fest, and naturally, I was in.

See, for some reason I’ve had this itching to get to Montreal. I don’t know why, but the city has been on my hotlist for a hot minute now. Reading Dallas Penn’s blogs about his trip didn’t help.

So yeah, Jazz Fest is supposedly off the chain, and the tickets are already booked. Of course this is all dependent on if my passport situation works out (nothing major, I just got to get a new one within 3 weeks). Only problem is that this is the first time I’m going to be in a city and not know anybody. And although I’m meeting people at Jazz Fest, for the most part I’m going to be roaming the streets by myself. If you are reading this and reside in the Montreal area PLEASE hit me up. I know nothing bout the city and can’t speak a lick of French. I’m reaching out to all my Canadian readers, all two of y’all, to help me on this.

I might be podcasting, trying to highlight the culture and scene of Montreal, but its highly unlikely. First and formost this is a vacation/musical experience.

As for jazz fest, I booked tickets to the De La Soul/Ghislain Poirier show on Saturday, June 28th, the Public Enemy show on Monday, June 30th, and for UK blue eyed soul singer Alice Russell‘s show on Friday June 27th. I will keep y’all posted on updates.