High and Rising - A Book About De La Soul

@Sat, May 23

Started reading last night, bringing me back to when I was really into De La Soul. 

I played the hell out of that tape for years. And listening to it again recently, it’s still amazing. 

Especially in light of my recent venture into music making. I think they were one of the big reasons I kind of always wanted to play around making music. 

@Fri, May 29

Enjoying the book so far, though I was hoping for much more detail about their debut album, since I loved it so much. I was someone who was a little disappointed after hearing their second album, I guess I wanted more of the same as the first, which I didn't get. In addition, at the time I had kind of moved on to some other types of music, so they got left behind.

But that debut album was so important to me, I was so happy when it was released on streaming finally.

Oh, back to the book, I'm enjoying it. It's giving me a new appreciate for them, and I will definitely go back and listen to their other albums, now that I have a much better understanding of what they were going through on each one.

I also appreciate how personal this book is to the author, it's not just a biography of the group, it's also sort a biography of him as he grew up listening to Da La Soul.

@Sat, Jun 6

Getting near the end now. I really like how the author continues to mix in his own life and experiences during his journey with De La Soul. 

As well, he doesn’t just gush about all the albums, he honestly gives his opinions. 

We often have that kind of relationship with bands or singers we like, we get upset if it wasn’t exactly what we wanted. 

Change too much and we complain. Don’t change enough and we complain. 

He really made me think of bands and what they go through behind the scenes. They have to deal with their own real lives, record label expectations, fans' expectations, family and friend relationships. We mostly just experience the end product, but don't really know what went into making it.