I read halfway and stopped at the part where you said you skipped out on Stakes Is High before returning to skim the rest, because I think you’re extrapolating your own personal experience onto a populous that doesn’t exist. Nobody has overlooked De La Soul. This is probably the most traveled band in hip hop history, a group that’s perennially on tour and one that I’ve seen more times than I remember going all the way back to 90's. I live in Toronto, Canada, so maybe it’s a little different than where you live (I’m not sure where that is), but we don’t even have to try to stumble on a De La live show because the band will seemingly play any festival that asks (I’ve seen them by accident more than once). As far as their recorded music goes, skipping out on Stakes Is High is like taking a pass on Radiohead’s OK Computer and then wondering what ever happened to that band. The group went on to release the first two parts of a pretty great trilogy before the third was derailed by either illness or label issues, depending on who you ask. Grind Date, another good album, came after that. The fact that their Kickstarter mission garnered multiples of the dollar amount they initially asked for is a testament to the reality that everybody loves De La Soul.