De La Soul
Enmore Theatre, Sydney, NSW
Tuesday, March 3rd
A lot can change in a decade. Since their last visit to Australia in 2016 while touring the album And the Anonymous Nobody…, US hip-hop legends De La Soul have experienced the relief of getting their catalogue of classic albums on streaming services after decades of legal wrangling, and the grief of losing David “Trugoy the Dove” Jolicoeur in February 2023, the founding member passing mere weeks before the group’s music hit streaming.
Last year’s excellent ninth album Cabin in the Sky found remaining members Kelvin “Posdnuos” Mercer and Vincent “Maseo” Mason doing a wonderful job of paying tribute to their fallen comrade, the LP also including already recorded vocals from Trugoy to ensure Cabin was infused with his spirit.
Before tonight’s show, a question still hangs over how the duo will handle things in a live setting, now that three is no longer the magic number, as far as gigs go.
As it turns out, the absence of Trugoy sees DJ Maseo, he of the infectious laugh that’s been immortalised on the Gorillaz hit “Feel Good Inc.”, step out from behind the decks regularly to spit rhymes, and occasionally even sing. Together, he and Posdnuos make excellent sparring partners — sometimes quite literally, via some hilariously exaggerated boxing moves during the funky bounce of “Oooh”. Their refreshing sense of playfulness and goofy humour is a reminder of why the world fell in love with them in the first place on their classic 1989 debut 3 Feet High and Rising.
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All of the songs played from that era, of course, still sound a dayglo treat, including the Hall and Oates-sampling, anti-drug anthem “Say No Go”, “Me Myself and I”, which is built on the timeless funk of 1979’s “(Not Just) Knee Deep” by Funkadelic, and “Eye Know”, which finds Maseo joyously singing the intro to Steely Dan’s “Peg”, which the track liberally samples from.
The new songs fit into the set seamlessly, with Cabin in the Sky highlights like “The Package” and the hard-knock “Run It Back!!”, built on a backwards sample of The Police’s “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”, already sounding like classics in the De La Soul repertoire.
The real pleasure of seeing De La Soul live is that they don’t necessarily stick to the script. Maseo proves the turntables aren’t just for show by doing some deft scratching and surprise beats drops, and both he and Posdnuos often play fast and loose with the lyrics, inserting gags and generally just behaving like they’re having the most fun out of anyone in the room.
The only downside to the show is a curfew being imposed that the group aren’t made aware of prior, meaning the duo are forced to dash through their set in about 50 minutes, leaving it about 25 minutes and half a dozen songs shorter than other recent Australian shows (also missing is the colourful visuals employed at other gigs, which could’ve added some much needed brightness to the relatively bare stage).
Regardless, the energy and charisma displayed by Posdnuos and Maseo is a sight to behold, the crowd going spare for classics like “Stakes Is High”, “A Roller Skating Jam Named ‘Saturdays’”, “Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)”, and, of course, “The Magic Number” (which is three, for anyone unfamiliar with De La Soul’s favourite numeral).
As a party to celebrate the third day of the third month, aka ‘De La Soul Day’, and as a tribute to Trugoy — Maseo imparts some moving words about continuing Trugoy’s legacy, and reminds us to tell those closest to us that we love them — tonight is a treat, proving that De La Soul still have the magic, even if the number in the physical is now two.
