Stakes Is High

Product Information

Maseo: There was definitely a misunderstanding that turned into a rift. Treach is my brother. I love him to this day. We’re all dealing with the transitions at this time. Everybody is a little sensitive and insecure about a whole lot. You’ve got your crew, your clique, here it is. He feels like he’s got to do something about it because his crew is saying one thing and the record really means something else. Produced by Jay Dee Co-Produced by De La Soul Written by K. Mercer, D. Jolicoeur, V. Mason& J. Yancey Published by Tee Girl Music/Daisy Age Music (BMI)/Ephcy Music (ASCAP) Contains samples from "Mind Power" by James Brown and "Swahililand" by Ahmad Jamal

let me put my boys into this instrumental piece of Magic music just to be sure that the circle is circled 2020-11-10T20:28:21Z Comment by Dmac Featuring Common Produced by De La Soul Written by K. Mercer, D. Jolicoeur, V. Mason & L. Lynn Published by Tee Girl Music/Daisy Age Music (BMI) Common appears courtesy of Relativity Records Charts [ edit ] Chart (1996) Like other De La Soul albums, Stakes Is High has a running theme, which in this case is the group's concern about the state of rap, as well as the state of hip hop culture and how it is regarded in general. The following sound clips are featured: Stakes Is High marked the first time De La Soul did not collaborate with longtime producer Prince Paul on an album, as the group felt that the production he turned in for it didn't match the album's mood.This is not to belittle the rest of their output – for many fans, Buhloone Mindstate is the magic record. For others, it’s De La Soul Is Dead or Stakes Is High. I just have this particular album’s imprint at a particular age. I didn't mean it at all in a disrespectful way. Mind you, like I said, that rhyme that was heard on Stakes Is High was written a year earlier. It was supposed to be a part of a remix. Unfortunately, after Stakes Is High came out, at some point, we realized that Naughty had a discrepancy, or maybe Treach, with that line. He thought that we were trying to diss. Mind you, we were so cool with Naughty and we were one of the first dudes, if not the first group, who put them on our show in North Carolina. We had just gained such a really cool relationship with each other, we just didn't take it seriously like it was going to go into anything bad. We was like, "Yo, whenever we run into them, we can just talk about it." Ashon, Wil (July 1996). "De La Soul: Stakes Is high" (PDF). Muzik. No.14. p.122. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 April 2022 . Retrieved 16 July 2022.

Maseo: It ended up, turning out being as successful as we needed it to be. It wasn’t really about record sales, although selling records is always a great thing. It sustains us monetarily and all that, but it was a statement that was way more important than the sales of the record and its statement. Let’s put it like this, the statement of the record, the response behind the statement let us know there’s a place in this music industry for us. That whether we sell 100,000 records or 100,000,000 records, De La has a significant place in this music business. Mos was always around. Mind you, we always had that type of environment where it wasn't overpowered by these people being around but good vibes was always welcome, people was always welcome. Mos was one of them, whether Mos came through, Mos will come through with his brother, so someone like Medina Green would be hanging with us in the studio as well. That's how even in "Stakes Is High" we got the little dice game thing. We would all hang. On the Rift with Naughty By Nature. Sprague, David (August 8, 1996). " Stakes Is High". Rolling Stone. New York . Retrieved June 13, 2012. It's been more than 20 years and De La Soul's seminal album Stakes Is High still holds its own as not only a definitive work by the Long Island trio but a classic from that era. In their own words, Maseo and Posdnuos gave Okayplayer the inside scoop on the times and circumstances surrounding the record, the creative process behind specific songs, beefs with Naughty By Nature and Tupac, and how the album changed their lives, respectively.Now you know, they always had this weird relationship. Tip would play Pos some music, he would play all of us music, but Pos in particular, he would play him some music because Pos helped give ideas all the time. He was always like…Pos is always right. He was always coming up with concepts. That’s why all the records you would hear him rhyme the first, because he would have these concepts pretty much laid out, which would be really cool. He was just proactive like that.

Posdnuos: I've always been a person who looked at Mos and Common as like...I'm always a student. I've said it time and time again. Mos hanging around and being around that entire recording process pretty much coming in and out… I was studying them. I never miss a chance to be a student because of the fact that I'm trying to pose to people that I am this legendary teacher. I never gave a shit about none of that. I feel like Stakes Is High is where me as Pos really came into trying to perfect and get better at flowing. I was improving and doing what I needed to do from the first album up until the third album and how I wrote and how I could tell a story. Christgau, Robert (July 23, 1996). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. New York . Retrieved December 16, 2018.As you can imagine, because they sampled everyone from Johnny Cash to Hall & Oates, Steely Dan to Liberace, all on one album, they encountered enormous legal problems getting the samples cleared for streaming.