The Grind Date
| The Grind Date | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by De La Soul | ||||
| Released | October 5, 2004 | |||
| Recorded | 2002–2004 | |||
| Genre | East Coast hip hop, alternative hip hop | |||
| Length | 52:43 | |||
| Label | AOI/Sanctuary Urban 06076-87512 |
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| Producer | Posdnuos, Supa Dave West, J Dilla, Madlib, 9th Wonder, Jake One | |||
| De La Soul chronology | ||||
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| Singles from The Grind Date | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 80/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllHipHop |   |
| Allmusic |  |
| HipHopDX.com | |
| Los Angeles Times | |
| Pitchfork Media | (8.2/10) |
| RapReviews.com |  |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Tiny Mix Tapes | |
| USA Today | |
| Vibe | |
The Grind Date is the seventh album from hip-hop group De La Soul, released on October 5, 2004. The album was originally intended to be the final album of the Art Official Intelligence (AOI) trilogy, but as the album quickly changed focus, the group decided to put AOI III on hold and finish The Grind Date as a stand-alone work.
The Grind Date is a notably brisker, and leaner work than the group's previous albums, and features a top of the line array of production talents including the late J Dilla (who was part of A Tribe Called Quest's production unit, The Ummah), Madlib ("Shopping Bags (She Got From You)"), and 9th Wonder ("Church"). Producer Supa Dave West, who handled the majority of the AOI albums, also contributes five tracks to the album. "Rock Co.Kane Flow" featuring MF DOOM, was produced by Jake One, and sees Posdnuos addressing some recent trends in Hip hop with the line "Unlike them, we craft gems / so systematically inclined to pen lines / without sayin a producer's name, all over the track". The well received collaboration also brought attention to the then-unknown Jake One.
The album is light on guest appearances and features a total of four guest MCs, including Common. Unlike every De La Soul album before it, The Grind Date contains no skits at all, although a short musical prelude does precede the first song "The Future". The album's conceptual cover and sleeve booklet, based on a 2005 calendar, was designed by Morning Breath Inc.
In November 2014, The Grind Date will be reissued by BMG Rights Management to commemorate the album's tenth anniversary. .
The album met with a great deal of critical praise, as of February 25, 2008 according to Metacritic, the album has received an average critic score of 80%, based on 21 reviews, thus giving it the "generally favorable reviews" tag.
Pitchfork Media writer Jamin Warren praises the album writing, "The Grind Date brings together an unimaginable team of the underground's hottest producers and meshes their idiosyncrasies without dissidence." RapReviews who rewarded the album with a perfect score wrote, "They were just waiting for the right time to kick precisely the right rhyme, so that "The Grind Date" would go down not just as an important date in rap history but in the pantheon of all musical endeavours since the dawn of mankind. It's that damn good."
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Wikipedia