De La Soul 'Cabin in the Sky' Review

For much of the past year, Mass Appeal Records has curated a series of releases called “Legend Has It…,” a seven-album spotlight of hip-hop’s golden era. The first five installments — Slick Rick ’s Victory , Raekwon ’s The Emperor’s New Clothes , Ghostface Killah ’s Supreme Clientele 2 , Mobb Deep ’s Infinite , and Big L ’s Harlem’s Finest: Return of the King — have sometimes sounded like weathered reminders of past glories. (The final installment in “Legend Has It…,” Nas and DJ Premier ’s Light-Years , drops Dec. 12.) But with De La Soul ’s Cabin in the Sky , the series really achieves a goal, stated in a press release earlier this year, of “preserving the past, celebrating the present, and pushing hip-hop into the future.” Ironically, that future involves le