| Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | De La Soul |
| Cover: | Art Official Intelligence Mosaic Thump.jpg |
| Released: | August 8, 2000 |
| Genre: | Hip hop |
| Length: | 66:46 |
| Label: | Tommy Boy |
| Producer: |
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| Prev Title: | Stakes Is High |
| Prev Year: | 1996 |
| Next Year: | 2001 |
Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump is the fifth studio album by American hip hop group De La Soul. It was released on August 8, 2000.
The album was the first in a planned three-disc installment, which was originally intended to be a three-disc album. Among the guests on the album are, Redman, Tash and J-Ro of Tha Liks, Xzibit, Busta Rhymes, Mike D and Ad Rock of the Beastie Boys, Busy Bee, Freddie Foxxx and soul diva Chaka Khan.
Unlike their previous album, Stakes Is High, Mosaic Thump returned De La Soul to chart territory again thanks to the hit singles "Oooh." and "All Good?". The album was also nominated for a Grammy.
The Japanese version of the album featured album art by celebrity hip hop-inspired manga artist Santa Inoue.[1]
Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump generally received overall positive reviews from critics. James Poletti of Yahoo! Music gave the album an eight out of ten star review. "In keeping with the current vogue for hip hop albums with more guests than Letterman, over 50 per cent of this album features appearances from everyone from Redman to Chaka Khan", which he said may or may not have something to do with finding a unique voice in hip hop. "The really refreshing change with De La Soul is not simply their lack of bullshit but their proud rejection of hip-hop's nihilism."[2] Michael Goldberg of Neumu gave the album the same eight out of ten star review and simply said that the number of guest stars in the album, "keeps things lively". "The grooves are righteous and the vibe is right" Goldberg stated.[3]
Robert Christgau stated: "Once pranksters whose greatest pleasure was disrupting the groove they adored, they've evolved into hip-hop's purest musicians. Partly our ears have changed and partly theirs have, so that their brilliant hunches now sound like glowing accomplishments. As they leapfrog around from Busta to Beastie, from herky-jerk drum and bass to diva anthem, from playground old-school to love-men ballad, this holds steady as the Temptations album of dreams, with Smokey and Holland-Dozier-Holland playing king-of-the-mountain and James Jamerson and Benny Benjamin doing God's work below. The lyrics are intelligent of course, clever and moral and street-conscious and just gnomic enough, but their art is in their beats and flow and tunes too. Hip-hop as a great black music, as amenable as jazz itself to young turks turned old masters."[4]
In their home country of the United States, Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump debuted at number 9 on the Billboard 200, selling 81,000 copies in its first week.[5]
| Peak Position | |
| European Albums (European Top 100 Albums)[6] | 23 |
|---|---|