Every so often, as I listen to the music of De La Soul, I have a wonderful experience. I hear something that I have never before heard. Or, rather, I hear something that I have heard numerous times. However, on this particular listen--["listen while you hear it" Posdnuos raps in "Patti Dooke"]--I discover a connection that I have never before noticed.

For example, in listening to the song "Patti Dooke" (1993) on the group's album Buhloone Mindstate, I hear the words "Robbin' and thievin' is one who infiltrates with a Colgate frown". On hearing this, I remember the song "Rap De Rap Show" (1991) from the group's previous album De La Soul Is Dead where Prince Paul says:

Both of the songs that mention tooth-brushing explicitly deal with the record industry's "white appropriation and attempts at ideological recuperation of black cultural resistance" (BN 5). Thus, tooth-brushing appears to symbolize a selling-out through excessive whitening. I am pleased and amazed to discover tooth-brushing as a theme that circulates throughout De La Soul's work.