“I love daisies! I love daisies! I love pushin’ up your favourite daisies!” De La Soul MC Pos declared, over 30 years ago, in the build-up to the first verse of D.A.I.S.Y Age. The image of the pivotal hip-hop group as upbeat flower-hugging hippies has followed them ever since, despite assertations by Pos, when I spoke to him for Buzz earlier this month, that this had never been their manifesto.
“It wasn’t as if it was a mission statement creatively for us,” he said. “The way we just had fun and wanted to present ourselves, we saw nothing holding us back. “We were a like-minded people who allowed each other to feel comfortable in a room.”
After anniversary celebrations for the 1989 breakthrough release 3 Feet High And Rising were postponed because of you-know-what, De La Soul returned to Cardiff without a cause, without a mission statement – but, inevitably, with great life, warmth and energy, like the first day of spring.
I’ll always marvel at those times when an artist can truly get a big room bouncing, and Pos and Dave have spent three decades writing the book on hypnotising a crowd with an outstretched hand. Pure daisy energy has kept that first album fresh, and the fellas young – though now in their 50s, for all the best reasons it was clear the kids never grew up.

These are rappers at the top of their game, with three decades of never-dwindling relevancy and quality in the face of the very worst curses of an industry that threatened to torpedo their legacy, from a watershed moment in music to some 90s record store curio. DJ Maseo wasn’t present, but praying all is well, the three founding members look to be – in Pos’ own words – “transitioning” to a brand new phase. A new album is on the cards, all their original albums are to stream online at last, and a fervent desire to never grow stale remains.
Tramshed, Cardiff, Sat 19 Mar
words JASON MACHLAB photos EMMA LEWIS

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