De La Soul - The Impossible Mission: TV Series, Pt. 1

"No longer backed by record companies but back by popular demand" raps Posdnuos in "Freedom Train," the penultimate song on De La Soul's label-less mixtape Impossible Mission: Tv Series, Pt. 1, a collection of older previously unreleased tracks, as well as new material, all of which helps to firmly establish the group as one of hip-hop's legends. Not that Impossible Mission compares to 3 Feet High And Rising or De La Soul Is Dead or even Aoi: Bionix, because it doesn't -- those were all focused and pointed albums, while this one, being a mixtape, is a little more across the board -- but it contains a lot of strong work, both in the new songs as well as in the older tracks (especially the excellent "Mindstate," found on "What the F*@k #2," and apparently recorded during the Buhloone Mindstate sessions and played for Tommy Boy execs just to scare them, though there was never any intention of including it on the album). Read More