Buhloone Mindstate

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Buhloone Mindstate
Buhloone Mindstate cover.jpg
Studio album by
De La Soul
ReleasedSeptember 21, 1993 (1993-09-21)
Genre
Length48:14
Label
Producer
De La Soul chronology
De La Soul Is Dead
(1991) 		Buhloone Mindstate
(1993) 		Clear Lake Audiotorium
(1994)
Singles from Buhloone Mindstate
  1. "Breakadawn"
    Released: 1993
  2. "Ego Trippin' (Part Two)"
    Released: 1994

Buhloone Mindstate (stylized as Buhlo͞one Mind State on the album cover) is the third studio album by American hip hop group De La Soul. It was released on September 21, 1993, by Tommy Boy and was the group's last record to be produced with Prince Paul.

Title[]

Buhloone is a phonetic spelling of the English noun "balloon". This theme is laid out in the intro track, which starts with the sound of a balloon being inflated; then the hookline "it might blow up, but it won't go pop" is repeated over and over, until the sound of a balloon popping replaces the final word "pop". This lends itself to the interpretation that the group hope to expand their popularity with their third album without selling out.

Songs and guests[]

De La Soul continued the early-mid 1990s experimentations with jazz by featuring jazz veterans Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley, and Pee Wee Ellis, on "Patti Dooke" and "I Am I Be". The song "Patti Dooke" deals with what the group sees as the mainstream's efforts to control the direction of black music. Posdnous raps:

I'm known as the farmer
Cultivatin' mate without mendin'
Bendin', compromising any of my styles to gain a smile
Listen while you hear it
There's no pink in my slip
I reckon that the rhythm and the blues in the rap got me red
While the boys from Tommy playing bridge crossin' to a larger community
Yet they're soon to see I have a brother named Luck

The Japanese rappers Scha Dara Parr and Takagi Kan make an appearance on "Long Island Wildin'" while Biz Markie drops by on "Stone Age" and Guru does the spoken chorus of "Patti Dooke." Dres of Black Sheep appears on "En Focus," and the album heavily features Shortie No Mass of Philadelphia. The album was preceded by the single and video "Breakadawn", which features samples from Michael Jackson's "I Can't Help It" and Smokey Robinson's "Quiet Storm."

Critical reception[]

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic3.5/5 stars[1]
Chicago Sun-Times4/4 stars[2]
Chicago Tribune3.5/4 stars[3]
Christgau's Consumer GuideA[4]
Entertainment WeeklyA+[5]
NME8/10[6]
Pitchfork9.1/10[7]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide4.5/5 stars[8]
The Source4.5/5[9]
Spin Alternative Record Guide8/10[10]

At the end of 1993, Buhlo͞one Mindstate was voted the eighth best album of the year in the Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics nationwide, published by The Village Voice.[11] Robert Christgau, the poll's creator and supervisor, ranked it fifth best on his own year-end list.[12] In a contemporary review, Rolling Stone critic Paul Evans said the record was more focused than De La Soul's previous albums and also more ambitious sonically: "Musically, Buhloone Mind State raises the stakes; it gets to something rap seldom achieves — a truly gorgeous groove."[13] In 2005, comedian Chris Rock named it the 10th greatest hip hop record of all time in a list published by Rolling Stone.[14]

Track listing[]

All tracks are written by K. Mercer, D. Jolicouer, V. Mason, P. Huston; except where noted.

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Intro"K. Mercer, D. Jolicouer, V. Mason, P. Huston, L. Dickens0:52
2."Eye Patch" 2:27
3."En Focus" (featuring Shortie No Mass and Dres of Black Sheep) 3:15
4."Patti Dooke" (featuring Guru, Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley and Pee Wee Ellis) 5:54
5."I Be Blowin'" (featuring Maceo Parker) 4:58
6."Long Island Wildin'" (featuring SDP and Takagi Kan) 1:30
7."Ego Trippin' (Part Two)" 3:52
8."Paul's Revenge" 0:43
9."3 Days Later"K. Mercer, D. Jolicouer, V. Mason, P. Huston, A. Snyder, T. George2:39
10."Area" 3:31
11."I Am I Be" (featuring Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley and Pee Wee Ellis)K. Mercer, D. Jolicouer, V. Mason, P. Huston, B. Gordy, B. Davis, F. Wilson, P. Holloway5:03
12."In the Woods" (featuring Shortie No Mass) 4:01
13."Breakadawn"K. Mercer, D. Jolicouer, V. Mason, P. Huston, R. Jones, W. Robinson, S. Wonder, S. Greene4:14
14."Dave Has a Problem...Seriously" 0:55
15."Stone Age" (featuring Biz Markie) 4:13

References[]

  1. ^ Huey, Steve. "Buhloone Mindstate – De La Soul". AllMusic. Retrieved September 1, 2011.
  2. ^ Keller, Martin (October 10, 1993). "De La Soul, 'Buhloone Mind State' (Tommy Boy)". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on November 19, 2018. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
  3. ^ Kot, Greg (September 30, 1993). "Hip-hop Humor". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
  4. ^ Christgau, Robert (2000). "De La Soul: Buhloone Mindstate". Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0-312-24560-2. Retrieved September 1, 2011.
  5. ^ Bernard, James (October 8, 1993). "Buhloone Mindstate". Entertainment Weekly. No. 191. New York. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
  6. ^ "De La Soul: Buhloone Mindstate". NME. London. September 25, 1993. p. 37.
  7. ^ Nosnitsky, Andrew (July 24, 2016). "De La Soul: Buhloone Mindstate". Pitchfork. Retrieved July 24, 2016.
  8. ^ Caramanica, Jon (2004). "De La Soul". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 224–25. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  9. ^ Johnson, Brett (November 1993). "De La Soul: Buhloone Mindstate". The Source. No. 50. New York. p. 75. Retrieved June 13, 2012.
  10. ^ Weisbard, Eric (1995). "De La Soul". In Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (eds.). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. pp. 104–05. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
  11. ^ "The 1993 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". The Village Voice. March 1, 1994. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
  12. ^ Christgau, Robert (March 1, 1994). "Pazz & Jop 1993: Dean's List". The Village Voice. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
  13. ^ Evans, Paul (December 23, 1993). "Buhloone Mind State". Rolling Stone. Retrieved June 13, 2012.
  14. ^ "Chris Rock's Top 25 Hip Hop Albums". rateyourmusic.com. Archived from the original on 2015-11-07. Retrieved 1 September 2011.
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