At first glance the word icon and the term "everyday people" seem rather incongruous. Let's face it; the two are almost mutually exclusive. That is unless you happen to be one of the three members of the legendary New School rap trio De La Soul. Pos, Dave, and Maseo embody every aspect of the phrase "everyday people" yet they are also pop cultural icons of the highest magnitude. It is precisely this very contrast that has allowed De La Soul to not only be continually successful artists in a genre that all too easily forgets the importance of the elder statesmen, but to have risen to the level of mainstream icons.

Sure, icon may be a weighty word, but it’s the best and easiest way to describe De La. How else do you encapsulate the fact that they have action figure statues made in their likeness, they've graced Apple adverts, Nike coaxed them into designing their own limited sneaker, and they are set to guest lecture a class at NYU? Not a lot of rappers can lay claim such accolades. On top of all that, the trio has crafted one of the strongest living legacies of sound in rap music history; seven albums released throughout the past decade-plus, is no small achievement.

Broach the subject of iconography with De La themselves and they showcase their near legendary down-to-earth “everyday people” attitude. “Icons? Not to play the humble role, I don’t see it that way,” states Dave. “We’re still students of the game, we’re still trying to learn and remain relevant. It’s good to hear folks call us “icons,” but for us, we’re just trying to be a part of the game, man. That’s all.”

In the hands of lesser men this laidback persona might come off as nonchalant, faux humility, but with De La it’s bona fide. The trio really do see themselves removed from the pedestal of stardom, residing down on the same plane as their loyal supporters and fans, which is precisely one of the core reasons they’ve continued to remain relevant over the years. “I think our relevance is attributed to being able to relate to the everyday person,” explains Dave. “We talk about being online, we talk about your car breaking down, we talk about CNN or maybe opening up The DaVinci Code and reading a couple of chapters. We talk about every day life and I think that’s how we’ve been able to stay relevant. It’s just about giving people our day-to-day on the record. People can just relate to every day people, which we are.”
De La continues to express themselves as down-to-earth, every day people on their latest joint, The Grind Date. Coming in the wake of the first two albums in their Art Official Intelligence trilogy, the new album is a much more stripped down, raw essence of rap type of an endeavor. “We said ‘Let’s just do a non-conceptual record, just a hip-hop record.’ That’s what The Grind Date became,” explains Dave.

To wit, The Grind Date contains all the key elements of a classic De La album. Which means, in the words of Dave, that it’s “thought free.” What? “There’s no real way of doing things, we just do it. It was like ‘Let’s call in some friends, let’s get some beats, let’s throw some titles in the air. Let’s try this, etc.’ that’s a De La record. There really is no set out plan. Whatever works, works and if it sounds good, it sounds good.”
While the creation of their music may not have a hardcore, paint-by-numbers blueprint, the guys each maintain a certain and integral role within the trio. Dave, for lack of a better description, is the chief brainstormer. “I think I’m the idea builder in the group,” he states. “I throw out a lot of the ideas. If we need to have eight of ‘em, I’m gonna throw out 400. I’m always thinking conceptually. I always try to throw concepts in front of the guys. Not so they can be ‘Okay, cool. We’ll take that.’ But more just so that maybe we don’t miss anything and maybe one of them might help turn the idea into a bigger picture, might make it become something bigger and better than what it is. I like that position, just creatively brainstorming.”
If Dave is the idea man, then Pos is the one in the group who helps the ideas come to fruition. “I’m the go-getter. I’ll go get it,” he says matter-of-factly. “A lot of times people can think of ideas but don’t necessarily know how to put it in play. I feel I’m that person. I will go to the length of finding whoever or whatever we need to do it instead of leaving it a great idea that doesn’t get accomplished.”
This leaves Maseo, who is the glue that holds the trio together. “I think I just bring a good support grounded on the foundation of the street element and the roots of where hip-hop comes from with this group and pretty much continuing to be the glue between us as a group and the fans, you know? I’m always gettin’ out there on the off-seasons, just to really be a part of it. And not just on the major level, but on the small level, too, which is to come out and DJ and come feel the crowd and then bring it on back home and figure out what we need to do to attack it with these records. Just bein’ the glue.”
Part of De La’s survival in the rap game is that even though they are a tight knit unit, they have no problem reaching out and collaborating with like-minded heads. As with their past projects, The Grind Date once again sees De La calling upon a wide array of producers including JayDee, Dave West, Madlib, and newcomers like Jake 1 out of Seattle. “He started submitting us beats and we just fell in love with his production,” says Pos of the Pacific Northwest beat maker. And just like there was no master blueprint to the way the album came together, there really wasn’t a set plan as to what beats were utilized. The group wasn’t particularly looking for beats that rumble in the car, the club, the crib or your head. They really wanted beats that connect with your soul. “With us it’s pretty much a combination of what we feel. It’s not really about ‘You know we need a club thing, etc.’” says Pos. “We like what we like. When people submit beats, it doesn’t matter if it’s the Neptunes or Joe X from Long Island; if it’s something that we respect and love, then we’re gonna roll with it. It’s all about if something grabs your interest and when you hear it, you know it. Certain beats can speak to you and you can hear something in it that no one else can and once you do, it just inspires you to write and you want to be a part of that track and marry yourself to it.”
The list of collaborators reaches beyond the beat, as well, encompassing a few carefully selected guest shots. This time around the trio called upon some familiar faces like Common and Yummi and just to keep heads on their toes, they tossed in some guest appearances by the likes of Ghostface Killa, MF Doom, and even Spike Lee. “On the song “Church,” it starts out with Dave screaming “wake up!” From that point right there, we figured it would be cool to have Spike introduce the track because when Dave screamed like that it just reminded us of School Daze when Lawrence Fishburn was screaming at the end of the movie,” explains Pos of how they snagged Lee for the album. “We reached out. Spike’s always expressed how he’s been a fan of our music and what we’ve tried to contribute to hip-hop. He was in the middle of shooting a movie, but he came down to the studio one night and did his part.”

The rest of the guests fell into place in typical haphazard De La style. “I had said ‘Yo, I would love to work with Doom on this album. I love what he’s doing.’ And when we got the song “Rock Co.Kane Flow” Pos was like ‘Yo, this sounds like something Doom would be perfect for. It sounds like his style; it sounds like he could complement the record.’ It’s all about complementing what we do. I heard Ghostface on “He Comes.” I was like ‘Yo, this is something that he would complement and definitely destroy. It sounds like something you would hear on a Wu-Tang album.’ And that’s how we do it. That’s how we pick the artists.”
Plus it wouldn’t be a De La production without the spotlight being put on a new artist. Few will forget how the trio more or less helped break Mos Def on Stakes Is High. This time around the new cat is Butta Verses. “Mase brought him into the picture,” says Dave. “It was refreshing hearing him on the album. It was just good bringing somebody into the circle that can make it refreshing for us to want to go in and write. And that’s what Mase did. He brought somebody into the circle that was inspirational, that made us feel good about writing, that challenged us and made us want to write better and even learn from. We will introduce Butta Verses to whoever picks up this De La record. I think that’s a part of being an established artist, you known churning the butter, turning the earth over, turning that dirt over and hopefully something new will sprout out of it. And I think that’s something we have to do and love to do when we put out an album.”
Iconography, high profile beatmakers, recognizable guest artists, and cultural achievements aside, in the end it all boils down to one simple conceit. De La Soul loves hip-hop culture and rap music in particular. And like KRS-One once said, “that word love is serious.” “We all love this music and I think we love doin’ it together. So that’s the biggest drive of it all,” says Maseo And when we first did this music it was truly for us, you know, what we always really, truly felt comfortable with. And if the rest of the world accepted it, that’s all love, too.”

http://www.myspace.com/delasoul