I’m not sure how the record itself sounds, but the cover looks amazing and it arrived protected and in perfect condition. Dilla was excited because here we are at this point in time where Dilla had already been seasoned in the game doing different things in the name of The Ummah, working with different artists but hadn’t did a De La Soul record. The album did provide a launching pad for future star rappers and actors Mos Def, who appeared on the track "Big Brother Beat" and Common who is featured on "The Bizness". In 2023, Billboard and Stereogum ranked the song number six and number two, respectively, on their lists of the 10 greatest De La Soul songs. The title track and first single was produced by J Dilla and the album's second single, "Itzsoweezee (HOT)", with only Dave on vocals, was accompanied by a creative music video.

Then they tried to kill the Daisy with their follow-up, De La Soul Is Dead and then tried to find their way through the aftermath of that unnecessary act on Buh-Loone Mind State.The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. At the end of track 9, "Long Island Degrees", a "redneck" explains why he hates rap music ("There's no music in it. Gangsta rapper 2Pac later retaliated on the song "Against All Odds" from his posthumous 1996 album The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory (as well as the unreleased song "Watch Ya Mouth" recorded during the same sessions).

Stakes Is High deals with many topics, including the state of hip-hop, the commercialization of hip-hop culture, and criticism of gangsta rap.

The song included many memorable lines such as Posdnous' " Gun control means using both hands in my land. Da Inna Sound, Y'all) philosophy on their brilliant and weird debut, Three Feet High and Rising (making them the first—and probably only—hip-hop act to appropriate a Johnny Cash song for their album title). I look back on people like that and think about how they had that moment of clarity, where they looked around them and at things decaying in their society–whether it’s music or life, that’s where “Stakes is High” was at.

Great to see so many other reviewers echoing what I'm feeling about this record - its absolute quality! To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. A very sobering, serious track that differs vastly from the playful music that De La Soul has always been known for. was a relentless attack on what De La saw as a decline, not only in hip hop music, but also in hip hop culture.Here, they're no longer so self-conscious and it's easy to remember why you liked them enough in the first place to stick with them through the hard times. All the tracks are as original from what I can hear, no edits which is too common with Hip Hop reissues.