Seven years after its debut album, De La Soul was still one of the most unpredictable and risk-taking groups in rap. On their fourth record, Stakes Is High, the Long Island natives continued to thrive on the abstract and the cerebral. Instead of the lightheartedness that characterized 3 Feet High and Rising, they favored a harder, tougher approach that's closer to their second album, De La Soul Is Dead. Jazz remained a strong influence for the group, who sampled the improvised works of Milt Jackson, Lou Donaldson, and Chico Hamilton, as well as classic soul by the likes of the Commodores and Sly & the Family Stone. This eclectic approach was more in keeping with alternative rock and acid jazz circles; in 1996, rap's hardcore seemed much more interested in gangster rap.

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