Man, what happened to Vinia Mojica? I thought she was so hot in this video. No bikini, no grind, no crazy extensions. Just a tee-shirt, jeans, doorknockers and a smile. What else did a 15-year old kid really need? Almost 20 years later, and I haven't changed.
Anyway, I'm ashamed to say that I didn't realize how great this song was until I heard it at a party a few years back. I loved it as a kid, but hearing it at live spot all these years later (and not in the middle of the cliche-ass old school set) had me wide open. I put my ring up to my man's waves, and saw the ocean...
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
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dont know if this is off topic, but the girls in the Crest ad that gets played before the video itself are all beautiful too. i am a sucker for a pretty smile, healthy skin, and natural proportions.
and btw all that applies to your girl Vinia, too. smile girl.. man i love a girl who can sing.
shit dude great song
Isn't it though?
there's a different version on youtube
I'm sure the instant time travel that this, and all your other crack picadillos, inspire are the reason why I found these songs so joyfull. Being 33 years old, this videos puts me back in awkward teenage years, life being all to simple then.
The choice of songs, have hit me so personal each time you post one. All these songs are songs I listened to that made feel different, and dare I say cool. These songs were not just an alternative to the gangsta wave that was to ensure, and in many cases dominated this time(I still contend) but they were also an answer to lame rap. Your Hammer's, Candyman's, Vanilla Ice's, Tone Loc's and the worse of the worse...Gerardo.
Of course, I must say while you(TNC) are now discovering your inner whiteness. This period of music was when I went through that same kind of introspection. This time was also the time of grunge, and all its teenage angsty greatness. It was also the time a young me discovered Led Zeppelin, Jimi, and The Doors...and certain, shall we say, musical enhancement devices that may have derived from certain botanical species of life. What a time...
No they weren't an alternative to "gangsta." That's why I post that Above The Law joint. I didn't even think of "alternative" back then. It was all hip-hop--just of different stripes.
I understand what you are saying, and don't disagree. I was speaking more personal, for me it was something different and in its difference more appealing. It wasn't all about "F the Police", or Geto Boys, or Too Short which dominated in the rides around me at that time. All I'm sayin...
Sorry, I wasn't clear. I wasn't disagreeing with you. I was agreeing with what you said about all of this being an answer to Hamme and Vanilla Ice--though I did kinda fuck with a couple of them Tone Loc joints. Just a couple!
Not feelin the Tone Loc, but I admit to my own lameness back then. Notice there is a certain group that wore their gear backwards that was mysteriously omitted from my lame list of early 90's rap...all those other dudes were in fact, wikedy-wikedy whack...
in the words of RZA.........."87 that was my favorite "ish"...Polo..everything."
damn 87 to 94...7 amazing years in hip hop
de la just ripped the stage at the ucla jazz/reggae fest (what jazz?) "saturday" afternoon...opening up for erykha badu.
I still remember seeing them in Richmond with Tribe. One of the highlights of my youth.
It's too bad that Soundsop, Yogurt et al. look back on this era of their music with unmitigated disdain. It's their new music that sucks, this stuff was awesome.
doorknockers!? are you allowed to say that in 2009?
Couldn't resist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4Kbyte51MY
This (and all of 'De La Soul is Dead') is all about Prince Paul. I also love 'Psychoanalysis: What is it?'
I'd never seen the video before, but this has been one of my favorite De La tracks for years. Never fails to put a smile on my face. It's like distilled happiness.
Out of curiosity, how do genuine hip hop fans (as opposed to dabblers like myself) feel about the hip hop skit? I mean, De La are sort of the Typhoid Mary of what I would consider this horrible plague, but I wonder if people actually like them. That's not to run De La Soul down, they're obviously a pantheon-level group but shit, even FDR had his Japanese internment camps.
I still laugh at loud at each skit in "De La Soul is Dead." I mean "Arsenio gum-having punk" is a great putdown and then you combine with the "ooh, you let him call you Arsenio" in the background. Like everything, if it's done well it's still fresh.
I'm 50/50 on the hip hop skit. The 25,000 pyramid debacle on The Chronic almost ruins the album for me. That said, I still laugh at Pharcydes yo mama, and Quenton's on his way(with another j, and it's ok). I guess like anything, if it's done well It doesn't bother me. But more often that not we tend to get more internment camps rather than new deals.
Hit or miss, with a fair bit of emphasis on the miss. Every once in a while one will actually be funny, but more often than not they're poorly put together and just interrupt the flow of the music. Redman seems to have a particularly bad habit of rehashing the same skits across several albums, which always drives me crazy.
Great song. Two things that come to mind:
1) Even though "Saturdays" isn't the best example of what he was talking about, Nelson George wrote a great essay about "ghettocentricity" and how "De La Soul Is Dead" (the album "Saturdays" appeared on) was a prime example of the group trying to shed their hippy (read: feminine) image in favor of a ghettocentric (read: masculine) one.
2) Prince Paul was awesome, no doubt, but a lot of the De La songs from this era were co-produced by Paul, the group, sometimes with a little help from A&R and "scrub" Dante Ross.
De La Soul is Dead is an underrated album.
Underrated? By who? I always thought it got major props.
(Ah, remember when albums got props? I sound like Funkmaster Flex now. WE IN THE 90S!!!)
Agreed. It's one of the first album's that The Source gave Five Mics. Hardly underrated.
Wow, I haven't thought about it in years, but I was in LOVE with this woman back in college.
This is from her Wikipedia page:
"In 2003 Mojica finally released her debut single, "Guilt Junkie" (with the B-side "Sands of Time"), and is currently preparing her solo debut LP on Fruitmeat/Giant Step Records."
Keep an eye out.
you're gonna have to fight me for her!! I won't give in...she's mine!!
"Man, what happened to Vinia Mojica?" Undoubtedly, questions about artists are interesting, but are questions about scientists and inventors perhaps even more interesting? In the year 1905 C.E. was Albert Einstein the supreme genius on planet Earth? In the year 2009 is the semi-crazy nerd Raymond Kurzweil the supreme genius on planet Earth? Is Kurzweil an incredibly brilliant and incredibly scary dude? Do we need to think about politics, economics, and spirituality, before it's too late? What is your opinion of http://questionsaboveanswers.blogspot.com ? Over the next 20 years, are there going to be totally unbelievable paradigm shifts?
one-sixth of this thread belongs to me! muahhahahahaha
Eye know I love you better...