Buhloone Mindstate

Buhloone is a phonetic spelling of the English noun "balloon". Posdnuos described the title as meaning "we're popular but not trying to make pop music."^[1] This theme is laid out in the intro track, which starts with the sound of a balloon being inflated; then the hookline "it might blow up, but it won't go pop" is repeated over and over, until the sound of a balloon popping replaces the final word "pop".

De La Soul continued its early- to mid-1990s experimentations with jazz by featuring jazz veterans Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley, and Pee Wee Ellis, on the songs "Patti Dooke" and "I Am I Be". "Patti Dooke" deals with what the group sees as the mainstream's efforts to control the direction of black music. Posdnuos raps:

I'm known as the farmer

Cultivatin' mate without mendin'

Bendin', compromising any of my styles to gain a smile

Listen while you hear it

There's no pink in my slip

I reckon that the rhythm and the blues in the rap got me red

While the boys from Tommy playing bridge crossin' to a larger community

Yet they're soon to see I have a brother named Luck

The Japanese rappers Scha Dara Parr and Takagi Kan make an appearance on "Long Island Wildin'", while Biz Markie appears on "Stone Age", and Guru does the spoken chorus of "Patti Dooke". Dres of Black Sheep appears on "En Focus", and the album heavily features Shortie No Mass. The album was preceded by the single and video "Breakadawn", which features samples from Michael Jackson's "I Can't Help It" and Smokey Robinson's "A Quiet Storm".

More information Initial reviews (in 1993), Review scores ...

Professional ratings

Initial reviews (in 1993)
Review scores
Source	Rating
Chicago Sun-Times	[2]
Chicago Tribune	[3]
Christgau's Consumer Guide	A[4]
Entertainment Weekly	A+[5]
Music Week	[6]
NME	8/10[7]
Select	[8]
The Source	[9]

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More information Retrospective reviews (after 1993), Review scores ...

Professional ratings

Retrospective reviews (after 1993)
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[10]
Pitchfork	9.1/10[11]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[12]
Spin Alternative Record Guide	8/10[13]

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At the end of 1993, Buhloone Mindstate was voted the eighth best album of the year in the Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics nationwide, published by The Village Voice.^[14] Robert Christgau, the poll's creator and supervisor, ranked it fifth best on his own year-end list.^[15] In a contemporary review, Rolling Stone critic Paul Evans said the record was more focused than De La Soul's previous albums and also more ambitious sonically: "Musically, Buhloone Mindstate raises the stakes; it gets to something rap seldom achieves – a truly gorgeous groove."^[16] In 2005, comedian Chris Rock named it the 10th greatest hip hop record of all time in a list published by Rolling Stone.^[17]