Yasiin Bey, best known by his stage name Mos Def, is an American hip hop recording artist, actor and activist from Brooklyn, New York City, New York. Best known for his music, Mos Def embarked on his hip hop career in 1994, alongside his siblings in the short-lived rap group Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. He subsequently formed the duo Black Star, alongside fellow Brooklyn-based rapper Talib Kweli, and they released their eponymous debut album in 1998. He was featured on the roster of Rawkus Records and in 1999 released his solo debut, Black on Both Sides. His debut was followed by The New Danger, True Magic and The Ecstatic. The editors at About.com listed him as the 14th greatest emcee of all time on their "50 greatest MC's of our time" list.
Prior to his career in music, Mos Def first entered public life as a child actor, having played roles in television movies, sitcoms, and theater.

Talib Kweli Greene is an American hip hop recording artist, entrepreneur, and social activist. Kweli earned recognition early on through his collaboration with fellow Brooklyn rapper Mos Def, when they formed the group Black Star. Kweli's musical career continued with solo success including collaborations with producers Kanye West, Just Blaze, and Pharrell Williams. Kweli has supported new artists J. Cole, Jay Electronica, Kendrick Lamar, and NIKO IS. In 2011, Kweli founded Javotti Media.

The Roots is an American hip hop group, formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The Roots are known for a jazzy and eclectic approach to hip-hop featuring live musical instruments. Malik B., Leonard "Hub" Hubbard, and Josh Abrams were added to the band.
Since its first independent album-length release the band has released 10 studio albums, two EPs, two collaboration albums, and also collaborated on recordings and in live shows with a wide variety of artists in many musical genres. The Roots served as the house band on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon from 2009 to 2014, and in the same role on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon since 2014. The Roots' work has consistently been met with critical acclaim. About.com ranked the band #7 on its list of the 25 Best Hip-Hop Groups of All-Time, calling them "Hip-hop's first legitimate band."

Reflection Eternal is an American hip hop duo composed of emcee Talib Kweli and producer Hi-Tek. They released their first album, Train of Thought, in 2000. They have since released a mixtape, The RE: Union, in late December 2009, and their second album Revolutions Per Minute was released May 18, 2010.

Kamaal Ibn John Fareed, better known by his stage name Q-Tip, is an American rapper, singer, actor, record producer and DJ. He embarked on his music career as part of the critically acclaimed East Coast hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest. John Bush of AllMusic called him "the best rapper/producer in hip-hop history," while editors of About.com placed him #17 on their list of the Top 25 Hip-Hop Producers, as well as placing him #38 on their list of the Top 50 MCs of Our Time. In 2012, The Source ranked him #20 on their list of the Top 50 Lyricists of All Time.

Nasir Bin Olu Dara Jones, better known by his stage name Nas, is an American rapper, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. The son of jazz musician Olu Dara, Nas has released eight consecutive platinum and multi-platinum albums and has sold over 25 million records worldwide. He is also an entrepreneur through his own record label; he serves as associate publisher of Mass Appeal magazine and is the owner of a Fila sneaker store. He is currently signed to Mass Appeal Records.
His musical career began in 1991, as a featured artist on Main Source's "Live at the Barbeque". His debut album Illmatic received universal acclaim from both critics and the hip-hop community and is frequently ranked as the greatest hip hop album of all time. Nas's follow-up It Was Written debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, stayed on top for four consecutive weeks, went double platinum in two months, and made Nas internationally known. From 2001-2005, Nas was involved in a highly publicised feud with fellow New York rapper Jay-Z. Nas signed to Def Jam in 2006.

A Tribe Called Quest is an American hip-hop group formed in 1985 and originally composed of MC and main producer Q-Tip, MC Phife Dawg, DJ and co-producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad and MC Jarobi White, who left the group in 1991 after the release of their debut album. White continued to contribute to the band sporadically before rejoining for their 2006 reunion. Along with De La Soul, the group was a central part of the Native Tongues, and enjoyed the most commercial success out of all the groups to emerge from that collective. The group released six albums between 1990 and 2016. The band broke up in 1998 after releasing their fifth album. In 2006, the group reunited and toured the United States. In 2016, they released their sixth album, which was still incomplete when Phife Dawg died suddenly in March 2016, and was completed by the other members after his death.
The group is regarded as a pioneer of alternative hip-hop music, having helped to pave the way for many innovative artists. John Bush of AllMusic called them "the most intelligent, artistic rap group during the 1990s."

Little Brother was an American hip hop group from Durham, North Carolina that consists of rappers Phonte and Big Pooh and DJ/producer 9th Wonder. The group produced four acclaimed studio albums and six mixtapes during their nine-year existence.
Little Brother was highly regarded among fans and critics.

Troy Donald Jamerson, better known by his stage name Pharoahe Monch, is an American rapper from Queens, New York. He is known for his complex lyrics, complex delivery, and internal and multisyllabic rhyme schemes.

Black Star is an American hip hop duo formed in 1997, from Brooklyn, New York City, New York. The duo is composed of rappers Yasiin Bey and Talib Kweli. They released a number of singles and one album, Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star on August 26, 1998. The record received critical acclaim, but only moderate commercial success. Since then the duo has worked together intermittently on soundtracks and other projects.

Dexter Raymond Mills, Jr., better known by his stage name Consequence, is an American hip hop recording artist from Queens, New York City, New York. Consequence debuted in 1996, appearing several times on A Tribe Called Quest's fourth album Beats, Rhymes, and Life, as he is the cousin of foreman Q-Tip. In March 2007, he released his debut album Don't Quit Your Day Job!, under Columbia Records and Kanye West's GOOD Music. Consequence left GOOD Music in 2011, on bad terms, after being signed with the label since 2005. He and West later reconciled, despite Consequence speaking ill of West. Consequence subsequently launched his own record label, Band Camp Records, following his departure from GOOD Music.

Tony Cottrell, better known as Hi-Tek, is an American rapper and record producer from Cincinnati, Ohio. He is best known for his work with Talib Kweli on their Reflection Eternal album and on Black Star. His father is singer Willie Cottrell of the Willie Cottrell Band whom Hi-Tek featured on his second release Hi-Teknology 2.

Wasalu Muhammad Jaco, better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco, is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. He rose to fame in 2006 following the success of his debut album, Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor. He also performs as the frontman of rock band Japanese Cartoon under his real name. As an entrepreneur, Fiasco is the chief executive officer of 1st and 15th Entertainment.
Raised in Chicago, Jaco developed an interest in hip hop after initially disliking the genre for its use of vulgarity and misogyny. After adopting the name Lupe Fiasco and recording songs in his father's basement, 19-year-old Fiasco joined a group called Da Pak. The group disbanded shortly after its inception, and Fiasco soon met rapper Jay-Z who helped him sign a record deal with Atlantic Records. In September 2006, Fiasco released his debut album Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor on the label, which received three Grammy nominations. He released his second album, Lupe Fiasco's The Cool, in December 2007. The lead single "Superstar" became his first top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.

The Clipse is an American hip hop duo, formed by brothers Gene "Malice" Thornton and Terrence "Pusha T" Thornton, in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 1992. The group was affiliated with the production team The Neptunes, and in 2001 signed to their imprint Star Trak Entertainment.

Slum Village is a hip hop group from Conant Gardens, Detroit, Michigan.
The group was formed by three members, rappers Baatin and T3, plus rapper and producer J Dilla. J Dilla left in 2001 to pursue a solo career with MCA Records. Elzhi joined in his absence, after which Baatin also left due to health complications. Following J Dilla's death in 2006 and Baatin's death in 2009, T3 remains the sole surviving member of the original lineup. Over its history the group has been through several line-up changes, which once included J Dilla's younger brother Illa J, but now the group currently exists as a duo of T3 and producer Young RJ.

Hip-hop may never be able to repay the debt it owes to De La Soul. When the trio of Kelvin “Plug Won” Mercer, David “Trugoy” Jolicoeur (now simply Dave) and Vincent “Maseo” Mason emerged in 1987 they empowered a new generation of MCs and fans to color outside the yellow lines of the asphalt jungle, charting a new course in the process.

Sonically, lyrically and even visually De La Soul challenged the still gestating genre and imbued it with the DNA of irreverent humor, self-reflection and individuality not hindered by ego. Hailing from Long Island, they were good kids in the mad city giving rap a vaudevillian flair with game show inspired skits, reminding us that the present and future were indeed odd. Songs like “Potholes In My Lawn” were wonderfully subversive in their blunt honesty: There’s grass where we live, people literally dig us, but they still steal our shit.

But more impressive than the influence they had on the culture, was the impact they had on each other, allowing the group to evolve with each project. From the colorful yet disparate pallets of Three Feet High & Rising, De La Soul is Dead and Buhloone Mindstate, to the clarion call of Stakes Is High De La’s music has always kept a kaleidoscopic lens on the world around them while reflecting on their place and participation in it.

Despite their well-documented jabs at the music industry and the culture it profits from, De La Soul always played well with others. Helping give birth to the legendary Native Tongues (along with A Tribe Called Quest and The Jungle Brothers) few groups can claim an album guest list that stretches across so many regions and genres. Their catalogue flaunts contributions by everyone from Maceo Parker, Zhané, Ceel-Lo Green, Devin The Dude and Chaka Khan to Slick Rick, Mos Def and Busta Rhymes without missing a beat. Literally and figuratively they were the original plugs.

After returning to the radio and video charts with the AOI: Mosaic Thump & AOI: Bionix, 2004’s The Grind Date ushered in a new era for the group as their first album not released on Tommy Boy Records. It was a lean, skit-free declaration of independence flexing chunky drums and battle-ready rhymes that bridged the gap between their day one fans and the digital minded millennials. They followed up this effort by collaborating with Gorillaz on the Grammy Award winning track “Feel Good,” and several other songs while also touring and participating in a special series of shows sponsored by SCION. The latter introduced them to their band Rhythm Roots All Stars and a creative partnership was born.

With more than a decade passing since their last album, in 2015 De La Soul called on their legion to repay the aforementioned debt and fund their newest work, and the Anonymous Nobody. In an unprecedented response the group raised over $600,000 via Kickstarter to bring their vision to life.

“Sometimes you feel like you just want to do something where you’re not trying to make it an event,” Dave says of the title. “You just want to contribute and that’s what this is really about. This album is about lending to the scape of music in 2016, trying to give something, not for the sake of we want to balance what’s going on or fix hip-hop. We just want to say something to the creative aspects of music.”

Groundwork for and the Anonymous Nobody was laid via a series of jam sessions with the band that would serve as the source material for sampling and replays.

“This process was pretty new and we loved the challenge,” says Pos. “We’d never taken a band, put together a jam session, then treated the music as samples or looping it up. We’d go back and listen to a 20-minute jam session and pick out parts that moved us like putting a needle on a record.”

Flush with thick drums and vibrant melodies and the Anonymous Nobody flaunts the sonic genome of vintage De La Soul, most notably the avante garde Buhloone Mind State and the aforementioned The Grind Date. But it stands firmly as a wholly original body of work.

Recording started at The Bomb Shelter and was later moved to Vox Studios, one time used by legends like Frank Sinatra and Sammie Davis, Jr. Here the old analog boards were used to give the album a warm, timeless sound. One of the first songs recorded was the smoky victory lap, “Royalty Capes.” An unorthodox 9 bar loop of saxophone was slowed down and reconstituted for Pos and Dave to “squeeze the blood out of felt tips.”

“It was one of those rare moments where he wrote his part first,” Pos recalls. “He said it just sounded like royalty walking in and he put his rhymes down and I followed his lead.

Dave also had an idea involving a female voice speaking after the opening horns so I called my peoples Gina Loring to give it a go.”

However, in true De La fashion the process didn’t always follow the blueprint. The resplendent “Memory Of” featuring Estelle and Pete Rock began as a collaboration between the British soul star and the Chocolate Boy Wonder. When the group was first soliciting contributions to the album she direct messaged Pos on Twitter offering the song.

“It was a demo from stuff that Pete Rock gave her. We thought it was such a great record. But I said this can’t work for a live project. But when I let Dave hear it he said ‘Nah this gotta go on this album. If Pete is cool with it we’ll replay it and insert verses.’” Producer and friend Dave West connected De La with Detroit producer Pirahnahead who added a lush string arrangement.

“That song was amazing when we heard it raw as it was,” adds Dave. “But I appreciate that we can see further sometimes. Break things down and then rebuild them again.”

Even the consensus group favorite, “Whoodeeini,” (featuring 2 Chainz) didn’t just happen in the typical way. The group originally reached out to the Atlanta trap star to provide a hook for the spacey narrative, but he insisted that he wanted to do a full verse. Knowing his lyrical prowess from his days with Disturbing The Peace, De La once again bunked expectations and ended up with a tenable tag team.

“Sometimes that additional instrument is a human being and adding 2 Chainz was just what we needed,” says Dave.

and the Anonymous Nobody wins because it reaches forward without leaving De La’s core fan base behind. The bouncy “Pain” featuring Snoop feels like their classic “A Roller Skating Jam Called Saturdays” but slowed down to a Sunday afternoon pace, and “Property Of Spitkicker” is littered with lyrical Easter eggs from ghosts of albums past. But ambitious cuts like “Drawn” featuring Little Dragon challenge listeners to think outside of the box with its expansive instrumental punctuated by Pos’ confessional in its waning moments.

“I don’t mean to sound egotistical but the more the conversation comes up about our music I begin to feel like we’re our own sub-genre,” says Maseo. “Every time they hear the record they just say ‘It’s just De La. It’s De La.”

De La as a brand has always stood for uncompromising creativity that still adheres to hip-hop’s foundations of clever wordplay over superlative soundscapes. Maintaining that quality over several decades is what places them among the elite, and having the fans support that legacy today is a testament to their effort.

“I think that De La Soul has and will continue to be a name that is synonymous with freedom,” says Dave. “I don’t think they have an expectation of what De La is supposed to do, but there is a definition of what De La does. If I could put it in a word musically it’s freedom. People don’t tie us to any real category or heading when it comes to our music and who we are as a group. We can be anywhere and do anything. We don’t have boundaries or borders. I think it’s a pleasant place to be in.”

Creating music without borders has allowed for a loyal and growing populace to claim citizenship in that special place where De La Soul and all of the other “anonymous nobodies” call home.

“I think it’s a really honest piece of work and we’ve put a lot into it,” Pos concludes. “You will feel it even if you’re not a fan of us. You can tell quality.”