De La Soul Timeless: The Singles Collection CD

De La Soul's most important tracks remastered and collected on their first-ever career-spanning disc! Tommy Boy. 2003.

De La Soul: Posdnuous/Plug Won, Maseo, Trugoy/Plug 2.
Producers include: Prince Paul, Posdnous, The Mentor & His Three Sons, De La Soul, OGee.
Compilation producer: Barry "Rockbarry" Benson.
Recorded between 1988 & 2001. Includes liner notes by Soren Baker.
Personnel: Vinia Mojica (vocals); Kyle Williams (guitar); Glen Mosley (keyboards).
Audio Mixers: De La Soul; Prince Paul; Tim Latham; Troy Hightower; Bob Power.
Audio Remasterers: Dan Hersch; Steve Pokorny; Bill Inglot.
Liner Note Author: Soren Baker.
Illustrator: Joe Buck.
Arrangers: Posdnuos; Prince Paul.
While rap vanguards De La Soul have always been one of the most album-oriented artists in the hip-hop universe, their career as traced by their singles is no less impressive. The trio first earned underground notice with the bouncing anti-"byte"ing 12" "Potholes in My Lawn" and even grazed the pop top 40 in 1989--at a time when fewer rap songs did that--with the Parliament-thumping "Me, Myself & I." Their history up to 2003 (when this compilation was dropped) includes classics like the disco-fied "Rollerskating Jam Called 'Saturdays'," the minimalistic "Ego Trippin' (Part 2)," the introspective and jazzy "Stakes is High," and the poppy ode to fuller-figured women, "Baby Phat."
A singles collection from the authors of hip-hop's greatest full-length? True, De La Soul may not be as desperate for this type of compilation as a notoriously album-weak rapper like Busta Rhymes, but Rhino's Timeless: The Singles Collection is an excellent alternate look at one of alternative rap's finest crews. As with nearly every other Rhino compilation to hit the shelves, it's presented in chronological order, with no major (or minor) highlights missing, emphasizing the best periods but also stubbornly refusing to shirk latter-day material (yes, taking four tracks from 1996's Stakes Is High is definitely pushing things). In direct opposition to the usual Rhino compilation, however, over half of the versions here are remixes -- and mostly superior versions at that, not radically different from the familiar album tracks -- taken from singles. For instance, each of the six tracks here from their masterpiece, 3 Feet High and Rising, are mixes, including a skeletal, hard-hitting rework of "Plug Tunin'," the far superior posse version of "Buddy" (featuring Jungle Brothers, Q-Tip and Phife, Queen Latifah, and Monie Love), and the radio version of the P-Funk classic "Me Myself and I" (their biggest hit, natch). The disc also includes nearly all the can't-miss jams from later albums ("A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays," "Breakadawn," "Ego Trippin'," "Stakes Is High," "Baby Phat"), making it the perfect complement for fans who thought they only needed one De La Soul disc. ~ John Bush

Rolling Stone (6/12/03, p.96) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Are De La Soul the greatest rap group ever to grace the mike? The Long Island trio's first anthology certainly makes the case..."