It was kinda nuts to grow up in the late 80's / early 90's listening to rap before all of the restrictions around sampling began. But I listened to CDs all the time in the 90's before I did what most young adults did with their CD collections... That is to buy an external hard drive, spend a week dropping all the music into it and going back to Second Spin, Amoeba or Plan 9 or wherever to sell them back. For a VERY long time, De La Sou's first two albums (3 Feet High and Rising / De La is Dead) were unavailable to stream. You could find a 3-Feet CD on ebay going for like $100 or more. Clearing music samples was arduous, time consuming and expensive for music labels after a court decision in 1991. After that, licensing music to use as samples slowed to a trickle. But during that time where artists recorded with no regard was incredible. Our exposure to obscure artists by way of sampling was amazing because it was everywhere. Unbeknownst to most of us De La Soul, Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, 3rd Bass, etc. heavily, HEAVILY used samples in their recordings. Samples of songs we'd never heard or been exposed to. And even today, 40 years later, a song that I just assumed was completely created by an artist I realize wasn't. Like today, when I'm listening to this album for the first time, I get a whiff of "oh! I've heard that beat before" I get super excited and follow it down a rabbit hole. And sure enough, five mins. of racking my brain I come across it. "Three Minute Rule" By the Beasties sampled Brave & Strong and another one... "Poet" sampled by De La Soul on "Description" just makes my day. So, today when I'm listening to There's a Riot Goin' and I think, 'this is old, outdated, has little importance, etc." I'm able to stop and consider its impact on the artists that I grew up with which prompts me to do more. Like ACTUALLY click the Wikipedia link for an album for once. The terms 'apathy' and 'pessimism' leaped out at me and yeah. I get that from this album. There are some good grooves but also a lot of apathy here. https://www.whosampled.com/Sly-%26-the-Family-Stone/Poet/