De La Soul are best known for the storming of the genre barricades that begun in the late ’80s and exploded into full-scale revolt in the ’90s. The Long Island triumvirate were the self-proclaimed exponents of D.A.I.S.Y. (Da Inner Sound Y’All) which was their own shorthand for purloining funk, soul, pop, jazz, reggae and psychedelia and fusing an intoxicating alternative to the macho posturings and dense monolithic collages of rap. Three Feet High And Rising was their epochal 1989 calling card that is as important a statement of passionate hip-hop intent as Straight Outta Compton or Rebel Without A Pause.

Twelve years later and the D.A.I.S.Y. age has given way to Art Official Intelligence (A.O.I) – De La Soul’s realisation of the monumental ambition of recording and releasing a trilogy of albums that has now reached Episode II. Their resident spin master Vincent Mason, or Pasemaster Mase or more popularly Maseo, has dropped into town to drop as much tasty old skool treats as frugal club opening times permit. DJ, producer, rapper, MC, hippie-hopper, label owner – it’s all the same gig to Mase. “All of it is part of me, it just has different titles,” Mason explains. “It is inspiring and informing to go out on my own like this and touch base with our audience. It always helps me focus on what kind of records I should be making.”

And the records they are making continue to assault the charts and re-affirm their title as one of hip-hop’s staunchest survivors, even if presented in the soundbyte unfriendly format of a triple set. “The idea came up after we did the Stakes Are High album,” Mase reveals. “When the record was over we were touring in the UK and Europe and talking in the tour bus about what our next project was gonna be. We got talking about the Wu-Tang and Gang Starr double albums and we thought, ‘Hey! Let’s do a triple album!’ On top of that idea, we decided to work with people we loved and respected. We said to ourselves – ‘let’s not just collaborate with these people or have them for who they are, but lets implement them as if they were an instrument and not merely a vocalist or featured figure’.”

De La Soul’s game plan spawned stunning results, such as the Grammy-nominated ‘Ooh’ featuring Redman and ‘I C Y’All’ from Busta Rhymes. They even hooked up with the legendary Chaka Khan, who according to Maseo was, “A diva we grew up with because our parents used to listen to her.”

For Maseo, the success of the project rejuvenated his passion for hip-hop. “When I hear all these eighteen and nineteen cats doing hip-hop today I gotta open myself up a little more and listen to where they are coming from,” Mase muses. “A lot of hip-hop artists shouldn’t be afraid to show their age and where they are currently at their lives. It (hip-hop) is the number one selling music in the world. It has brought a lot of ethnicities together and cracked down a lot of social barriers.”

For every confrontational jumped up rapper toting a gun and a bad attitude, there are a plethora of dedicated lovers of hip-hop’s original aims of articulation, understanding and fun. Jurassic 5 and Outkast are two of the most popular acts of our times, who along with fresh youngbloods such as Ugly Duckling have acknowledged their debt to DLS. “It’s wonderful when I run into cats like Ugly Duckling and they’re telling me how I have inspired them,” observes Mace.

“In the same vein, take Lauryn Hill. Most people say she is a female rapper and MC with this added emphasis on the ‘female’. I don’t classify like that or stress the female part because she can take out most male rappers. I don’t call Ugly Duckling white rappers because they’ll take out a lot of brothers and smoke a lot of MCs. It’s important that everybody brings their own thing to the table.”

As a New Yorker who grew up in Brooklyn and moved to Long Island, Maseo is obviously very affected by the events of last September and interested in hip-hop’s response to date.

“It’s very touchy. A few MCs have metaphorically mentioned the World Trade bombing, but most are steering away from elaborating on it. I touched on it when I was working with a group called Even Hugo. We did our own version of ‘Guns of Brixton’ by The Clash and I rapped about some of my personal feelings concerning Bin Laden and our own President Mr. Bush. I don’t believe in either one of them. We live in a world of hypocrisy – who do I believe in at this point?”

Maseo is visibly moved, but we have to wind it up to allow the big man to honour his remaining promotional commitments and get his record box in order. Mase is an articulate, intelligent and perceptive conversationalist, and coupled with his remarkable talents, he just goes to show that three still is the magic number.