For Promotional Use Only: De La Soul - The Impossible: Mission TV Series: Pt. 1 (October 20, 2006)

In 2006, De La Soul found themselves in a situation they were unfamiliar with: for the first time in their long and storied career, they were without a label home. Their deal with Tommy Boy Records effectively ended when the label folded in the early part of the millennium, and the group’s second partnership, with Sanctuary/BMI, ended after the release of a single album, The Grind Date. So Posdnuos, Dave, and Maseo decided that keeping the trio’s legacy alive was priority one, touring all over the globe while recording new music whenever the muse struck.

One of the ways they kept the De La Soul name active within the culture was by embracing an artform that isn’t exclusive to the genre, but was certainly defined by it: the mixtape.

In 2006, the group self-released The Impossible: Mission TV Series: Pt. 1, which its original cover art claims is made up of “declassified material, freestyles, and compositions”, which is pretty fucking accurate, really. Ignore that confusing album title: I still haven’t been able to figure out just what these guys were aiming for by swiping the Mission: Impossible name, calling this a “TV series” (the hell?), and then affixing a “Pt. 1” at the end there, even though there have been zero attempts made toward a follow-up. (Shades of the AOI trilogy that, some still hope, will be finished someday, at least according to Maseo. I’m not quite that optimistic.) The rest of the description tracks, though: this mixtape consists of freestyles De La recorded over other artists’ beats, some of which are pleasant surprises, while the rest of the ranks are filled with unreleased original efforts and, both most amusingly and excitingly, tracks Pos and Dave pulled out of their vaults recorded during the Prince Paul era, tracks nobody had ever heard until this point.

Don’t let the fact that you can easily purchase The Impossible: Mission TV Series: Pt. 1 dissuade you: this is most certainly a mixtape, as there is no fucking way some of these tracks could ever be released legally, so the “For Promotional Use Only” tag still applies. But the way De La Soul constructed this effort makes it play as substantially as an album, as opposed to a compilation of randomness, so we’ll treat it with the reverence of such.

1. IMPOSSIBLE INTRO

A quick, mostly instrumental mixtape intro with vocals scratched in by DJ Rhettmatic for flavor. Nobody is here to actually introduce the project to the audience, which was a bold move. Still, the music itself was pleasant, and the air raid siren it transitions into toward the end leads nicely into…

2. LIVE @ THE DUGOUT ‘87

Kind of fucking loved this one. “Live @ The Dugout ‘87” marries the old-school party vibe with dark, dank basement boom bap (represented here by an instrumental lifted from the Wu-Tang Clan mixtape cut “Watch Your Mouth”, released during the 8 Diagrams promotional run), doing so fucking perfectly. Pos and Dave, adopting the slightly-distorted over-the-phone vocal runner from the song intro (itself building upon the Mission: Impossible “Your mission, should you choose to accept it” theme that the mixtape’s title skirts around to avoid a copyright claim), mix b-boy lyrical tropes (and, in Pos’s case, lyrics from Blondie’s “Rapture”) with a take-no-shit attitude, turning in what is easily one of the hardest De La Soul songs in their entire goddamn catalog. Trugoy ends the track by denouncing inferior artists: “… they went platinum / But how’s that good when you lyrically wood?”, and then “Live @ The Dugout ‘87” trails off into over a minute of intermission that is unnecessary as hell, but the beat still plays for the majority of it, so at least it’s an opportunity to hear some more of that. God damn. *chef’s kiss*

3. VOODOO CIRCUS

Over a Supa Dave West instrumental that plays like of like Jeru the Damaja’s “Ya Playin’ Yaself” if it were produced by Erick Sermon, Plugs 1 and 2 kick some stream-of-consciousness verses that ultimately go nowhere. Neither Pos nor Dave have all that much to say here: ostensibly this is all boasts-n-bullshit, except Trugoy takes a mid-song break to have an argument with his girl for some reason, while Posdnuos feels it appropriate to treat fans of crappy rap music like a piñata, threatening to “split ya asshole / then let all the wack shit fall out.” So, um, you’re talking about how fucking stupid “Voodoo Circus” was, right? Skip this one with the force of a world leader trying to get out of a meeting with Trump.

4. FRIENDS

The content shift on “Friends" can only be described as “bonkers”. Over a beat jacked from a Jaylib interlude, Pos delivers a verse about how the rap game isn’t for everyone and that being vigilant about not getting screwed over is key (given that De La Soul is still being fucked over by their former label, Tommy Boy Records, to this day, I’d say the man knows of what he speaks), while Dave raps about… well, about fucking. The hell? The second verse is among the most explicit these guys have ever committed to wax, and somehow the phrase, “Twats are gorgeous, but I fucks with ya mind” is spoken right before euphemisms for motorboating and oral sex are exchanged. Somehow this all relates to the concept of having “Friends”, by the way. Not necessary listening in the least.

5. WHAT THE FUCK #1

The absolute best aspect of The Impossible: Mission TV Series: Pt. 1 is how the members of De La Soul use it as an opportunity to pull unreleased material out of the vault ever so briefly, teasing an era of music that never actually happened via these “What the Fuck” interludes. The first such entry features Pos introducing a song tentatively titled “De La Soul’s Poster”, recorded during the De La Soul Is Dead sessions (so it’s safe to assume Prince Paul had a hand in its construction). The beat is incomplete and erratic, but there’s potential to be found, and Pos’s early flow certainly drums up the nostalgic feelings. The fact that the group cuts the track off early and talk shit about it for a good while (most of Pos’s swipes aimed at his own performance) is classic De La Soul, to be fair, but I, for one, would have loved to hear more of this.

6. GO OUT AND GET IT (FEAT. BÖNZ MALONE)

Kicks off with an intro from an uncredited Bönz Malone that is similar to his contributions to The Grind Date, so it’s very likely “Go Out and Get It” was recorded during those same sessions. Ostensibly a track about stressing the importance of working for what you want out of this world, since nobody’s just going to hand your dreams to you, neither Pos nor Dave ever received that memo, since they don’t get e-mails on their phone: instead, both men launch into bars that are all over the place, with Trugoy fixated on the number “one” for reasons not made clear within the context. The uncredited instrumental was an okay delivery mechanism for “Go Out and Get It”, but it’s easy enough to discern why it was dropped from any proper album.

7. BEEF

Spoken-word interlude. Sigh.

8. REVERSE YA STEPS

This one was slight, but overall it was alright. (How do you like them bars, son? My new single drops Tuesday!) Using a bouncy Oh No instrumental and a boxing motif that gets dropped and picked up as needed, Pos and Trugoy the Dave each take a verse in an attempt to prove how their microphone prowess somehow translates into physical dominance in the real world (read: they threaten to beat your ass). The hook is lazy garbage, and the lines themselves travel the galaxy with no real destination in mind, and yet I found “Reverse Ya Steps” enjoyable enough as an outtake-slash-mixtape exclusive. There’s no fucking way this could have ever appeared anywhere else, but it sounded just fine to me on here.

9. YOU GOT IT (FEAT. BUTTA VERSES)

As inconsequential as “you Got It” ultimately is, it’s still fun as hell, and Pos, Dave, and guest rapper Butta Verses seem to be having a god damn motherfucking ball dancing around Bobby Byrd’s “I Know You Got Soul” in a way that both pays homage to Eric B. & Rakim’s classic of the same name and ignores it entirely. Byrd’s vocals are worked into the verses themselves, which come at the listener at a rapid-fire pace as the microphone is passed around like a hot potato. Everyone sounds engaged as hell on “You Got It”, and even Pos’s fourth wall-breaking toward the end (when he tells the listener to “take a bite from out of this mixtape”) can’t disrupt the vibe. You may never seek this one out again, but you’ll be happy to have heard it at least the once.

10. WHAT THE FUCK #2

This second trip to the vaults would have been a bit more special had producer Prince Paul not released it his damn self a year prior on his Hip Hop Gold Dust compilation (with a slightly different mix, but identical otherwise). Which makes De La’s inclusion of “Mindstate” (or, as Paul refers to it, “My Mindstate”) a headscratcher, at least until you hear Pos’s story about its inception, which is hilarious. Recorded during the Buhloone Mindstate sessions, “Mindstate” was submitted to the label just to fuck with the suits: the group had no intention of ever including this on the album. Depressingly, some of the execs actually dug the track, even though it’s garbage: the lyrics are purposefully awful, and everything about the song, save for the beat, is motherfucking lazy. “Mindstate” is so awful that it’s somehow offensive to my senses. But Paul’s beat grew on me, and at the very end, after having let this one play in its entirety, Pos admits that he actually thinks the song is kind of dope, so whatever, as long as he’s happy, I guess.

11. JUST HAVIN’ A BALL

The type of song that could only exist on a mixtape, “Just Havin’ A Ball” recalls the hangout vibe from the intro to the album version of A Tribe Called Quest’s “Can I Kick It?” mostly by using the same Gene McDaniels “Jagger the Dagger” sample throughout. Dave and Pos spit some inconsequential shit, both of our hosts debating whether or not they should rap about other women because their significant others may get upset before choosing to do so anyway (Trugoy much more so than Pos). Tribe receives a shout-out at the end because, well, given the circumstances they fucking should, as do Prince Paul, Maseo (what, was he not a part of this mixtape?), and “De La family”, a way for them to honor their fanbase. I liked the music here, and the vibe was pretty chill throughout, but the bars were pretty eh.

12. WHAT IF?

In the vein of the “What the Fuck” interludes, except here we’re introduced to a peek at an alternate timeline, one where De La Soul had successfully lobbied for the J. Dilla instrumental that was ultimately given to Slum Village for their own “Do You”. I appreciated the fact that the group separated this intro onto its own audio track, if nothing else.

13. RELAX!!

Not entirely sure why Pos was so enamored with this particular Dilla donut: EPMD’s “So Whatcha Sayin’” is mimicked so thoroughly on “Relax!!” that some of Erick Sermon’s vocals are drawn into the mix. It’s also quite boring, for the most part: the beat has an inherent bounce (to the ounce) that is hard for anyone to ignore, but Pos and Dave’s lust raps aren’t a great fit for it, their respective flows going against the presented grain a bit too starkly. Everyone involved may have had some fun recording this, but there was no real reason for “Relax!!” to exist.

14. WASN’T FOR YOU

Speaking of tracks that exist for no obvious reason, I bring to your attention “Wasn’t For You”, a reworking of the De La Soul-featured, Handsome Boy Modeling School song “If It Wasn’t For You” that eschews the original Dan the Automator and Prince Paul instrumental (along with their other song collaborator Starchild Excalibur) in favor of a beat from Ge-ology (borrowed from his own “Driven (Frum Dey Won)”) that sounds fine, but could have, and should have, gone toward an original concept instead. Pos and Dave’s verses are exactly the same, with the two Plugs rapping platitudes towards various inanimate objects (at one point Trugoy’s waxing poetically about his pen), and while the performances are decent, I kept expecting the Handsome Boy instrumental to kick in. The Impossible: Mission TV Series: Pt. 1 is a mixtape, so this type of remix fuckery is fair game and all, but seriously, who asked for this? Raise your hands so that I know where to direct my rage. The instrumental interlude at the end was also an… interesting choice for a mixtape. Not good, per se, but interesting.

15. FREESTYLE (DAT SHIT) 2006

Just for the hell of it, De La Soul swipes the beat from Diamond D and the Psychotic Neurotics’ “Freestyle (Yo, That’s That Sh..)” to provide listeners with, um, a freestyle. Maybe the faster pace of the Diamond D production (with an assist from Large Professor) deserves all the credit for this, but both Pos and Dave sound refreshed and reinvigorated, attacking the microphone with a zeal reminiscent of their younger, hungrier days. Engaging, and you wouldn’t shut it off if it popped up in shuffle, but you can also just seek out the original song, right?

16. WHAT THE FUCK #3

The final track pulled out of the vaults (read: hard drive) is nicknamed “De La Slow”, and it starts off sounding like an interlude from both 3 Feet High and Rising and De La Soul is Dead (fitting, as it was recorded somewhere in between those two projects). The instrumental is pretty good, simple but thumping, and the lone verse we get to hear kind of bangs, but it’s abruptly cut off and “flushed” by Trugoy, who apparently hated this shit, so that’s the end of that chapter. It’s too bad: horrible title aside, the crawling tempo of “De La Slow” coulda been a contender.

17. FREEDOM TRAIN

Pos and Dave run with an uncredited DJ Premier-esque backing track (supposedly provided by 9th Wonder) that sounds so good, it makes that long-promised collaboration De La Soul is supposedly recording with both Preemo and Pete Rock seem like a fine idea. “Freedom Train” is a bit darker in atmosphere, but its vibe is a celebratory one, as Pos confirms something that was alluded to way back during the intro of “Live @ The Dugout ‘87”: De La Soul were no longer confined to the whims of a record label. (Which is why their last project, and the Anonymous Nobody…, was crowdfunded.) Both Pos and Trugoy sound relieved, really, to no longer have legal ties to corporate executives, and “Freedom Train” acts as a victory lap of sorts. A fine song.

After several silent audio tracks, The Impossible: Mission TV Series: Pt. 1 ends with the following:

33. SKIP TO MY LOOP (EXTENDED)

In an obvious bit of trolling, De La Soul cap The Impossible: Mission TV Series: Pt.1 with an “extended” version of the Prince Paul-produced, 3 Feet High and Rising-era  B-side “Skip To My Loop”, which wears out its welcome extremely fucking quickly. Paul and De La restart the instrumental so often that you’ll be driven mad if you force yourself to sit through the entire song as I did, and the group do their best to annoy the shit out of the listener with off-key vocals, frustrating repetition, and, in an attempt to mirror your thoughts, simply shouting, “Stop!”, at random intervals. It’s funnier in theory than it is in execution. Have you ever watched the “Patience” episode of Wonder Showzen? That.

SHOULD YOU TRACK IT DOWN? Sure, maybe. There’s certainly enough good stuff on here to appease any De La Soul diehard, and the willingness of both Pos and Dave to spit their rhymes over borrowed instrumentals that bear little resemblance to those they would select for their own projects is eye-opening and enjoyable as fuck. I have some nitpicks regarding the “What the Fuck” interludes, mostly that I wanted to hear an entire album’s worth of them, but that’s more of a rap nerd-type of thing. Pos and Dave seem to have had some fun constructing The Impossible: Mission TV Series: Pt. 1, as it embodies the spirit of De La Soul in their prime, what with the goofy interludes mixed in with the shit-talking that these guys excel at. I wouldn’t recommend you listen to The Impossible:Mission TV Series: Pt. 1 if you’ve never listened to a De La Soul album in your life, but then again, you wouldn’t be reading this review if you weren’t already familiar with the trio’s work, so I may be preaching to the choir here. (And doing a wonderful job, I might add.) I will say that The Impossible: Mission TV Series: Pt. 1 was ultimately so enjoyable (even with its few missteps) that it’ll make you wish that these guys were capable of actually finishing a series that they start (*cough* AOI *cough*).

There’s also a Japanese version of The Impossible: Mission TV Series: Pt. 1 that switches things up quite a bit. Do you want to learn more? Well, Patreon subscribers can read more about it here. And if you’re not already subscribing, what’s stopping you? There’s a lot of bonus content there!

-Max

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