Letter to the Orator
Please please drop it now
BY ZACH KLASSEN

Dear Del,

Del tha Funkee Homosapien (pictured left), Devin the Dude (pictured right), Bukue One, Serendipity Project. 9 pm Saturday, Nov. 10 • Wow Hall • $20 adv., $25 door

I am man enough to admit it: I miss you. Where have you been, man? I mean, it’s not like you totally fell off or anything — the Hieroglyphics albums kill, and your guest spots on other tracks are on point — but I’ve been patiently waiting on that solo album to drop for the better part of a decade now. Your new effort is starting to sound as mythic as Detox, and I’m getting a little antsy. At this point, I can only take so much more of this snap music with Teddy Tonematch on the hook. Don’t get me wrong, though; I like what the South has been doing with the rap game lately. When I’m drunk on the dance floor and the DJ drops a song that not only accommodates my debilitated motor skills with a drank-laced bpm but tells me how to dance at the same time, it’s pure gold. Still, I need more substance in my life, more clever wordplay and your idiosyncratic delivery. Tracks like “Mastermind,” “At the Helm” and “Mistadobalina” are classics and have kept my inner backpacker satisfied for years — but it’s time for something fresh. Tell you what — if you play some of your latest tunes on the tour, I’ll be the first one to buy 11th Hour in 2008. Hopefully, Hiero cameos and some of your own production will still apply — or have you gone hyphy with it? You are from Oakland, right? I hear thizz is what it is nowadays. No, no, you wouldn’t pull an MC Hammer and drop a Look Look Look on us. Plus, you have a legit, underground heavyweight on tour — Devin the Dude. Like you, his career has mostly been kept out of the mainstream spotlight, but when approached by some of today’s top artists, the Dude abides, working with everyone from Dr. Dre to UGK.

Well, I gotta run. I just thought I’d check in and see how things were coming along. But I’m not worried. Like you said: “I record it, sold it, told it to you / Mr. Del wouldn’t tell you nothin’ that ain’t true.”