De La Soul Is Dead

De La Soul

1991

Rap group De La Soul teamed up with Prince Paul, one of the best hip-hop concept album producers. Paul is largely responsible for the popularization of the concept of concept albums in hip hop.

De La Soul Is Dead is essentially the concept of a career suicide album: Jeff, a teenager finds a cassette tape copy of a De La Soul album in the garbage. Bullies appear, beat up Jeff, and steal the tape. Ensuing skits feature these bullies harshly criticizing the songs on the album. In the end, they throw the tape back in the trash, exclaiming, “De La Soul is dead.”