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The Grind Date
by
The Grind Date Image
Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 23 Ratings

  • Summary: The group's first release on its own AOI label features guests such as Ghostface, MF Doom, Sean Paul, Common and that noted MC Spike Lee. Production assistance comes from Madlib and 9th Wonder.

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 21
  3. Negative: 0 out of 21
  1. RapReviews.com
    100
    They were just waiting for the right time to kick precisely the right rhyme, so that "The Grind Date" would go down not just as an important date in rap history but in the pantheon of all musical endeavours since the dawn of mankind. It's that damn good.
  2. Urb
    90
    Worthy of being considered among the year's finest. [Dec 2004, p.106]
    All this publication's reviews
  3. Lost At Sea
    85
    The Grind Date is almost shockingly excellent. This is De La Soul at their most focused – no skits, no filler, no weird interludes.
  4. The Wire
    80
    The best thing they've done since Stakes Is High. [#250, p.73]
    All this publication's reviews
  5. Neumu.net
    80
    By corralling five hungry producers with a flair for the earthy funk and slippery samples that guided some of De La's best albums, the veteran trio have recorded the true successor to 1996's Stakes Is High.
  6. Spin
    75
    Their jabs cut and the beats burn. [Nov 2004, p.118]
    All this publication's reviews
  7. Rolling Stone
    40
    There's little personality and no surprises here.

See all 21 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 13
  3. Negative: 0 out of 13
  1. LawrenceP
    Oct 17, 2004
    10
    De La Soul is back to save hip-hop again. Put that 213 cd back on the shelf. "grind date" is the best hip-hop song of the year.
  2. DavidJC
    Oct 12, 2004
    10
    So different from anything I've heard before. Amazingly catchy beats create a rich and diverse landscape for the lyrics. This is the So different from anything I've heard before. Amazingly catchy beats create a rich and diverse landscape for the lyrics. This is the first De La release I've got and from the quality of this release I think I'm going to get many more Classic!… Expand
  4. AlexH
    Dec 1, 2006
    10
    One of the best hip hop cds I've heard in the last few years. Check out the MF Doom track. If you like it, i also recommend Handsome Boy One of the best hip hop cds I've heard in the last few years. Check out the MF Doom track. If you like it, i also recommend Handsome Boy Modeling School and Dr. Octagon ...… Expand
  5. PittBalls
    Oct 18, 2004
    10
    This Album is beautiful.
  6. tomc
    Mar 13, 2005
    10
    super album from the smoothiest rap band ever!!!
  7. DaneC
    Sep 3, 2005
    10
    Still supporting the DA Inna Sound Y'all age of rap, (although now not using the D.A.I.S.Y. abbrivition), De La Soul have bounced back Still supporting the DA Inna Sound Y'all age of rap, (although now not using the D.A.I.S.Y. abbrivition), De La Soul have bounced back from the Commerical sound of the AOI albums and there old record labels refusual to release an album to create what can only be deseribed as a masterful peice of work. I mean, it has with MF Doom, Flava Flav and Common rapping on this album, and Jake One and Madlib producing all one one 13 track album, and you even get to hear sean paul accually sound good on a track. Brilliant. Buy now.… Collapse
  8. AndyR
    Dec 9, 2004
    7
    A solid album, though over rated. Still does not touch the originality of the early De La days. Who knows, though, it may grow on me.

See all 13 User Reviews

Awards & Rankings

76
#76 Best Album of 2004