Yasiin Bey Discusses De La Soul’s Impact On His Artistry And Career
Yasiin Bey showed love to De La Soul, who he said helped shape the early days of his artistry. During a discussion with Audible, the Brooklynite expressed gratitude to the legendary trio, who gave him a glimpse of the “realities” he observed around him. He also spoke about how hearing a cut from Common’s Can I Borrow A Dollar? altered the trajectory of his life, helping him believe he could become a rapper.
“Watching the world just be on fire, you know. Or at least, my community, with the crime and the drugs. And there was a very indifferent attitude towards what was happening to us, too,” the artist formerly known as Mos Def recalled. “There [were] no telethons for crack babies. So I thought ‘this popular cultural narrative isn’t working for anybody.’
“So I started writing, just about what I was seeing, and about what I felt. And my brother, God bless him, we used to watch TV. Video Music Box. And Common’s ‘Easy’ came on from Can I Borrow A Dollar? And my brother was like, ‘We can do this!’ So he just started making [connections] with local talent shows. And a year or two later, lo and behold, I got the deal,” he said.
As he continued, the Black on Both Sides emcee recalled digesting various music across genres. But for Yasiin, De La provided a sensibility to the game he wasn’t seeing. “As a teenager, though, it was a lot for me. Because at the time, I was listening to just as much Miles Davis as I was Rakim and De La Soul. I was even interested in Jimi Hendrix, Bad Brains, and all that sh*t. But thank God for De La Soul. Because apart from them… I just had a different expression, something different that I wanted to see that I wasn’t seeing.”
In April 2023, Audible announced it would honor Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary with a slate of Audible Originals programs profiling Snoop Dogg, Lil Kim, Yasiin Bey, and other cultural figures.
Words + Music: From the Streets, to the Suites by Snoop Dogg and Sheena Lester’s The Greatest Day: The Epic Story Behind Hip-hops Most Iconic Photograph were the first two episodes from the series, premiering on June 15, 2023.
More from VIBE.com
