Interview with Posdnous of De La Soul “The Art of being a Mercenary”
“Ayo Plug 1 your on my man!”
Since “3 feet High and Rising” I have been a listener to this man and his crew of some the illest implementation of sampling and inventors of the skit. He carries different names at times and also is the inventor of the Hip Hop Quotable as well. He has been one of Hip Hops most dynamic Emcee’s while remaining humble and respected by his peers. He also has a shoe fetish like most of us, and even has his own Nike SB Dunk to prove it. Revolutionary and innovative in every sense of the word the man has been a Influence on us with out you even knowing it. Ladies and Gentlemen of Nice Kicks I give you Posdnous from De La soul.
Posdonus from De La Soul
Vulkan - Nice Kicks: So how has the Rock the Bells Tour been going for you?
Posdnous - De La Soul: The tour is excellent! Every artist is part of a unique legacy and energy that adds so much to the tour. We all know each other and at some point we all have done shows or toured extensively together so it’s been a blast!
Vulkan: When we met at Rock the Bells in Miami you were wearing the Baby Bear Dunks. Do you collect a lot of SB’s?
Posdnuos: I have a lot of footwear! Yes, I do have alot of SB’s because I am into footwear with multiple colors and textures that push the bar. The SB department at Nike has always taken those chances and paired up with great people to create great product.
Posdonus from De La Soul
Vulkan: What was the first time as kid you saw a shoe and it made you really start collecting?
Posdnuos: It wasn’t until I was about 16-17 and was maintaining a steady job at Burger King when I started to buy a lot of sneakers. Even then I was always into finding shoes that were a bit different than what everyone else was wearing. If everyone was wearing the usual suspects like Nike, Adidas, or Puma I would wear Tiger (Asics), Saucony (before everyone went crazy with the Spotbilts) and Kaepas.
Posdonus from De La Soul
Vulkan: Is the rest of De La Soul as passionate about sneakers?
Posdnuos: Dave (plug 2) I would say loves kicks, but he may not go to the extreme in comparison to me to seek them out. Me and him back in school was definitely into standing out with our footwear and once we made it in the business to be able to travel all over in the early 90’s,we took advantage of gathering unique kicks to our arsenal.
Vulkan: What does Plug 1 do when hes not recording on a personal level?
Posdnuos: Hanging out with my kids! (my oldest daughter actually has a sweet tooth for the kicks as well and her Mom’s hate when I buy her a bunch of shoes. I love to read books from graphic novels to non fiction books but personal time is very rare for me.
Posdonus from De La Soul
Vulkan: We all know about the De La Soul Dunk? Did that shoe give you guys more exposure to people who didn’t know who De La Soul was?
Posdnuos: I personally don’t think so. I have run into kids who did have the Dunk Hi on and weren’t very familiar with us but just loved the colors, but on a whole since the shoes were very limited it was distributed in circles of people who are familiar with who we are and what we mean to Hip Hop.
Posdonus from De La Soul
Vulkan: Who are the people that made that happen and how did that come about?
Posdnuos: Robbie Jeffers who was still working with Nike SB at the time was the main person who planted the seed to Sandy Bodecker and others. I met him along with other SB workers at the ASR convention in San Diego. We were actually in town to perform at the annual function that was called “street scene” but was invited to the ASR convention by LRG Clothing. We had done an ad campaign with them (LRG) not too long before. So we came through their booth to sign some autographs. After that we decided to walk around a bit at the convention and we were passing the SB booth and a couple of the dudes in the booth who saw us looking in asked us to come in. Robbie eventually came in to check in on the booth. We invited him to the show with a few others, later on that night we exchanged information and everything grew from there for the De La Soul project.
Vulkan: We seen video of you talking about another Nike collaboration can you give us little info on that?
Posdnuos: We are working on a full length album with Nike for their Nike Plus Originals Project where we provide 45 minutes worth of new music. We are still in the middle OF finishing that up now. [also Pos did acknowledge a new shoe being in the works but not the samples in this story]
Posdonus from De La Soul
Vulkan: What are your top five sneakers of all time and why are they?
Posdnuos: They are too many to name! But for one shell toe Adidas’s! That is a part of my memories of identifying with the growing hip hop culture. Second would be Suede Puma (Clydes), they were so dope to pop and breakdance in. I was into shoes that fit more to the form of my feet in that era so you couldn’t go wrong with those. The Original Air Jordan (Black/Varsity Red). It was so slender to me compared to even the Dunk and the colors just looked incredible. Of course the De La Dunks, just very proud on the work we as a group put in on those sneakers. Beyond it being what we helped design, it really appealed to me as a sneaker purchaser! Also I liked how we didn’t care to make one style in Low and High but freak each style differently so even If you prefer high over lows you may have still try to get the lows cuz it’s just more clean (less busy). The Air Sabaku (NIKE) especially the Turquiose/Dark Obsidian joint with the Shogun Warrior on the back!! Those joints in any color feels so comfortable on my feet and look like shoes. I’ve walked up in clubs with no hassle with those on!!
Vulkan: What message do you have for people in the sneaker lifestyle out there reading this?
Posdnuos: Don’t go broke buying sneakers!!!!! Hell I’m blessed to get 95% of mine for free otherwise I wouldn’t have all these damn boxes in my crib!! My family gets my money over sneakers anyday!!!
Constructed Entirely by Vulkan the Krusader for Nice Kicks
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21 Comments »
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they’re both very nice, but i’d like to see another high
Comment by kevin — October 18, 2008 @ 5:53 pm
damn kicks is MEAN!!! puts my dela’s to SHAME!!!
Comment by zeebling02 — October 18, 2008 @ 5:58 pm
i like them silver ones!!
Comment by SneAKeR FrEaKEr — October 18, 2008 @ 6:26 pm
will those ever relaese to the public?
Comment by anthony — October 18, 2008 @ 6:37 pm
THEY’RE NICE, YEAH..
Comment by oldjumpman — October 18, 2008 @ 6:39 pm
look at that sole, nice!! sexy shoes!!
Comment by zane — October 18, 2008 @ 7:11 pm
those clear buttoms are crazy… when are thse coming out?
Comment by kstate — October 18, 2008 @ 7:15 pm
cool interview, i kinda figured that they were into sneakers, but looks like they still strong at it
Comment by JoseBronX — October 18, 2008 @ 7:44 pm
These are his samples they will never ever come out. A new De la shoe is in process but not these.
Comment by vulkan — October 18, 2008 @ 7:59 pm
the silver ones r wack but the other ones r nice
Comment by greenmaker24 — October 18, 2008 @ 9:37 pm
i feel ya greenmaker24…..those silvers are hot garbage. will someone please tell me why they like them? if a freakin plain silver shoe for crying out loud. people only like them cause played out de la soul is holding em
Comment by JOE THE PLUMBER — October 18, 2008 @ 11:32 pm
I can’t speak on the behalf of everyone, but the silver sneaker is straight because of the color itself. The color has a pop to it, mainly because it draws attention. Not only that but you gotta come correct when rocking these (,which not everybody can do). de la soul has nothing to do with the silver shoes being liked (,in my regard) b/c it’s a simple, however, hot colorway!
Comment by wsjones1981 — October 19, 2008 @ 10:41 am
When I first looked at the article, I wasn’t to crazy about to silver dunks, but as I read the article and saw the pic with the AOI (Art-Official Intelligence) on the back, I understood why they were made. That was the theme of the AOI series. Still not big on the silver color, but they represent something dope..
Comment by edubzzz — October 19, 2008 @ 11:33 am
in response to Greenmaker and Joe The Plumber. i agree with them. The silver joint is wack thats why it NEVER came out. it was made by one of the dudes from SB as samples right when we decided to do a shoe with NIKE SB. we were fresh off of the Bionix album that had us in the space suits on the cover so thats why the person at SB took a shot at showing us that(which was an idea of his) to see if we liked it and then we could’ve build on more to that style.
we immediately let him know we wanted something more interesting in texture and colors which led us to start fooling around with the color scheme and style we presented to them which became the De La Dunk Hi we put out and then of course the cleaner version we did in Lo’s so we were never ever trying to or is going to release that silver shoe.
The other pic is the 1st sample of what eventually became our De La Dunks in Lo’s. we got rid of the clear Bottoms with the Medallion inside which represented the Medallions we wore on our first album cover
When i gave Vulcan the pics i did so because i thought it would be great to show the sneaker Heads and De la heads the prototypes that never came out that we fiddled with oppose to my favorite sneakers that everyone reading this may own themselves.No different than putting out unreleased De la music… i was just showing you an unreleased shoe.
we are working on a show with Nike for the Nike plus original project we are doing with them as well as a possible shoe with Nike apparel for the 20th anniversary of 3 Feet high so stay tuned to those.
Pos Plug Won
Comment by Pos Plug Won — October 19, 2008 @ 1:39 pm
Im going to hell…
Comment by Bigg Chigg — October 19, 2008 @ 3:32 pm
i love those shinsegumi sabaku joints too haha
Comment by papercraft — October 19, 2008 @ 10:10 pm
not keen on either
Comment by Spoonhead LDN — October 20, 2008 @ 6:30 am
It’s beyond kicks so thanks to De La for putting out classics that have stood the test of time…also, BIG thanks for my de la highs since those remain one of my most cherished SBs
Comment by nikeindabutt — October 20, 2008 @ 9:28 am
Ya’ll changed my previous comment!!! What about FREE SPEECH!!! My comment was supposed to say…AHEM…and I quote.”Pos Plug Won, blow it out your ass”. Thank You
Comment by Bigg Chigg — October 20, 2008 @ 2:23 pm
I will get these asap. Bionix is definitely in my top three of favorite hip hop albums of all time. Not many people can stay as consistent as De La and keep it original and fresh at the same time. I’m glad they were celebrated at the Hip Hop honors because they needed to be. Can’t wait for the next LP.
Comment by Optimus Prime Rib — October 20, 2008 @ 2:56 pm
them are the most ugliest shoes i have ever seen
Comment by mark jackson — October 29, 2008 @ 11:07 am