Some MCs listen mainly for groove, voice and production rather than words. In a Guardian playlist feature, De La Soul’s Pos describes a musical life shaped by soul and R&B records more than by the lyrics on them.
What is this playlist feature actually about?
The Guardian runs a regular format in which musicians go through the songs that shaped them. Typical prompts include the first song they loved, the first record they bought, and tracks they enjoy but rarely admit to. The latest edition features Pos, a rapper with the hip hop group De La Soul. According to the Guardian, his choices lean heavily on soul: he picks Barry White as bedroom music and says Stevie Wonder brings him to tears. The format is personal rather than critical. It works less like a ranked list and more like a short memoir told through records. The appeal for readers is seeing which influences an artist chooses to own up to, and the small domestic details that come with them.
Who are De La Soul, in brief?
De La Soul are a hip hop group, and the Guardian calls them among the genre’s greats. The Long Island department store Pos mentions points to where he grew up, and the group is widely linked with that area. Within hip hop, the group is generally associated with a playful, sample-rich style that took from a very wide range of older records. This article does not go into the group’s discography, line-up history or business affairs, because none of that appears in the source material behind this piece. What matters here is that Pos is speaking as a working MC, someone whose craft is putting words over music. That is why his comment about lyrics stands out.
What did the rapper say about lyrics?
The headline quote, as reported by the Guardian, is that it may seem strange for an MC, but lyrics have never been central to how he experiences music. The point is not that words are worthless. It is that what first draws him to a song is something other than the meaning of its lines. For a performer whose job involves writing and delivering verses, that is a candid thing to say. It separates two roles that are easily confused: the person who makes the music and the person who listens to it. Many artists approach their own work in one way and other people’s records in quite another. The full interview may expand on this, but the summary available does not go into more detail.
How can someone who writes rhymes not care about lyrics?
Listening is not one activity. Some people follow a song’s story, while others respond first to melody, rhythm, the grain of a voice or the way the instruments sit together. Hip hop production has long rewarded the second kind of listening. Producers and rappers who dig through old records are often hunting for a drum pattern, a bassline or a few bars of horns they can loop, and the words on the original may be beside the point. A rapper can be meticulous about their own verses and still hear other music mainly as sound and feel. Singers are often used the same way, as texture rather than storytellers. Seen like that, Pos’s remark fits a common habit among people who make records out of other records.
Why does soul and R&B dominate his choices?
The names the Guardian highlights are Al Green, Melba Moore, Barry White and Stevie Wonder. That leaning is typical of many rappers of his background. Hip hop grew out of DJs playing and looping soul, funk and R&B records, so those genres sit at the root of its sound. For a listener who cares most about groove and vocal tone, classic soul offers a lot: warm arrangements, expressive singers and rhythm sections built for movement. Choosing Barry White for romantic moods and Stevie Wonder for emotional release suggests he uses these records for particular feelings and occasions. The source does not say whether any of these artists were sampled in his own group’s work, so this article makes no claim about that.
What part did his family play in his first musical love?
The Guardian reports that the first song Pos fell in love with came through his father. His father had a strong singing voice, sang in a choir and carried himself with a certain cool. He would sing Al Green’s Love and Happiness around the house. Pos says his father looked so much like the singer on the record sleeve that, as a child, he believed his father really was Al Green. The story shows how early musical attachments often form: through a parent’s voice in a domestic setting rather than through radio or a deliberate choice. It also fits his later comment about lyrics. What stayed with him was a voice, a presence and a face on a cover, not necessarily the words of the song.
What was a record shop inside a department store?
The first single Pos bought, the Guardian reports, was Melba Moore’s Underlove, from Abraham & Straus, a department store on Long Island with a small record section inside. For a long time it was common for general stores to sell music next to clothes, homeware and electronics. These counters gave many young people their first chance to choose and pay for music themselves, often with limited stock that reflected local tastes and current chart records. Buying a single was a significant purchase for a child and helped form an early sense of taste. The source does not say how long that record section operated or what else it stocked, and this article does not guess.
Who was Kashif, and why do producer credits matter to some listeners?
According to the Guardian, Pos later found out that Underlove was produced by Kashif, and he went on to love everything Kashif produced. This is a familiar path for listeners who care more about sound than words. Once you notice that a group of records you like share a producer, the credits become a way to find more music. Following a producer means following a particular approach to arrangement, rhythm and sound, whoever the singer happens to be. For someone who would later make records himself, paying attention to the producer is an early sign of interest in how music is put together rather than what it says. The source does not specify which other Kashif productions he means.
Which guilty-pleasure rock song does he admit to?
The Guardian’s summary teases that Pos secretly loves a “cheese-rock” hit, the kind of song a hip hop artist might not be expected to choose. The material available for this article does not say which song it is, so it cannot be named here. Guilty pleasures are a standard part of this format because they cut against an artist’s public image. For a rapper known for soul-based influences, admitting to a rock anthem adds some contrast and humour. It also makes a broader point. Musicians’ private listening is often far less tied to genre than their public output, and enjoying a song for its hook or its sheer size does not require it to be cool.
What does the interview show about how musicians listen?
Read as a whole, the piece points to a gap between what artists produce and how they listen. A rapper’s public work is built on words, yet his reported memories are about voices, appearances, producers and moods: a father singing, a sleeve photograph, a single bought at a department store counter, a producer’s sound followed from record to record. That fits hip hop’s history as a form built from the textures of earlier music. It is also a reminder that listening habits are personal and often formed in childhood, before taste becomes part of a professional identity. This article has stayed with what the Guardian reports. The full interview may include more choices and explanations than are covered here.
Sources and further reading
- The Guardian, music section: the honest playlist interview with De La Soul’s Pos, the source for all reported details
- General reference works on the history of hip hop and its roots in soul, funk and R&B
- Music journalism on sampling and record-digging in hip hop production
- Record liner notes and credit databases, for how listeners trace producers across releases
Surfaced from the rss:guardian_music signal “musician’s personal playlist”. AI-assisted draft, editorially reviewed.
