Art Official Intelligence - De La Soul

De La Soul is a Grammy-award winning hip hop group from Long Island, New York. They are best known for their eclectic sampling and quirky, surreal lyrics, and their contributions to the evolution of the jazz rap subgenre. The Art Official Intelligence album was the first in a planned three-disc installment, which was originally intended to be a three-disc album. Among the guests on the album are Redman, Tash and J-Ro of Tha Liks, Xzibit, Busta Rhymes, Mike D and Ad Rock of the Beastie Boys, Busy Bee, Freddie Foxxx and soul diva Chaka Khan. Unlike their previous album, Stakes Is High, Mosaic Thump returned De La Soul to chart territory again thanks to the hit singles, "Oooh" and "All Good". The album was also nominated for a Grammy. At the end of tracks 4, 8 and 13, there are the now classic skits advertising "Ghost Weed". A substance which allows the user to morph into their favorite MC/rapper with only a few puffs. This makes room for surprise cameos by three different MCs, Pharaohe Monch, Phife Dawg from A Tribe Called Quest, and Black Thought of The Roots. For obvious reasons it is a great record to listen to when your running as it runs at about 150 bpm which is just about perfect.