De La Soul’s Posdnuos: “Tupac saved me from getting beat up in the Bay Area”

1Which ’90s sitcom did De La Soul turn down the opportunity to star in? Posdnuos: “The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air.” CORRECT. “We had the same managers as Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. They thought that any of the three members of De La Soul should try out for the TV show, but we didn’t – we were so in touch with music. These days, artists say, ‘Let me rhyme, sing, tap-dance, pole vault!’ Back then, it was like, wait a minute, you want us to do something other than rhyme?! We can’t do that. We didn’t even take it seriously. We were asked to try out for all the movies that rappers were in – whether it was Who’s The Man?, Juice or Bamboozled – but we were more into the craft of music.” 2De La Soul won the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for your feature on Gorillaz ‘Feel Good Inc.’ Name any of the four acts you beat. “Ay-ay-ay! We opened the show with Madonna, but I don’t think she would have been in that category.” WRONG. You beat: Black Eyed Peas and Jack Johnson (for ‘Gone Going’), Foo Fighters and Norah Jones (‘Virginia Moon’), Herbie Hancock and Christina Aguilera (‘A Song For You’) and Stevie Wonder and India.Arie (‘A Time to Love’). “I would have neve...