Legendary De La Soul member Posdnuos has been a hip-hop mainstay for over three decades. Although De La Soul didn’t have a lengthy run, that’s not to undermine their importance in developing the epic East Coast Jazz-Hop subgenre. That said, the emcee has just previewed some exclusive, highly rare De La Soul material.
On July 2nd, the Long Island emcee took to Instagram to celebrate the 27th anniversary of De La Soul’s fourth studio album, The Stakes Is High. Released in 1996, the project featured the best of the best concerning underground conscious rap, including the likes of Common and Mos Def.
The album featured a lot of production from the late legend J Dilla. However, Posdnuos recently unveiled that prior to Jay Dee getting his hands on the record and reforming it; De La Soul had another version recorded and ready.
Posdnuos (real name Kelvin Mercer) disclosed that the collective had provided Tommy Boy Records with a demo, who subsequently suggested they collaborate with Dilla on the single.
In celebration of the event, Mercer recalled the story with a video and snippet of the track, stating, “This is a version of the song that was made before the late, great J Dilla was brought on to work on it.” Highlighting the rarity, Mercer points to a tape of the album as an unreleased cut of its title track plays in the background.
The video was accompanied by a caption reading, “27 years ago, 3 Long Island men gave you the Stakes is High, and every one of those 27 years @wearedelasoul have been blessed with listeners letting us know what this album means to their lives.”
It continued, “Thank you! Thank you, Jay Dee for “Dilla-nizing our original version of the title track to make it into a Hip Hop sermon! #delasoul #thankyoudave #dilla #stakesishigh #27 #demo” You can see the post below.