About

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". – Wiki

“The Grind Date has an economy to it that suits De La Soul’s new workmanlike perspective; at 12 songs it’s the most concise album they’ve made yet. Every song seems carefully put together, both by De La and their impressive collection of producers and guest MCs. If The Grind Date is meant as a showcase of the tools De La have at their disposal, it’s also a similar showcase for a handful of today’s stars. The trio is boosted greatly by how solid the musical tracks are, due to the hard work and creativity of the album’s five producers: Supa Dave West, J. Dilla, Madlib, 9th Wonder and Jake One. Hip-hop today is a producer’s world, and De La Soul knows it. They’ve selected some of the hottest producers around, and each came up with tracks that suit De La well, keeping things simple while using sweet soul sounds to hook the ear and fresh beats to move heads and feet. This is the first De La Soul album where an instrumental version would be something worth listening to for non-DJs.” – Popmatters

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