by Marisa Brown\n\n"No longer backed by record companies but back by popular demand" raps Posdnuos in "Freedom Train," the penultimate song on De La Soul's label-less mixtape Impossible Mission: TV Series, Pt. 1, a collection of older previously unreleased tracks, as well as new material, all of which helps to firmly establish the group as one of hip-hop's legends. Not that Impossible Mission compares to 3 Feet High and Rising or De La Soul Is Dead or even AOI: Bionix, because it doesn't -- those were all focused and pointed albums, while this one, being a mixtape, is a little more across the board -- but it contains a lot of strong work, both in the new songs as well as in the older tracks (especially the excellent "Mindstate," found on "What the F*@k #2," and apparently recorded during the Buhloone Mindstate sessions and played for Tommy Boy execs just to scare them, though there was never any intention of including it on the album). For the most part, the rhymes are all pretty good, with lines like "Me without your balance just wouldn't sit right/Like written wouldn't be past tense without ten" (from "Wasn't for You") reminding fans why De La has had so much success throughout their 15-plus years in the game. They're veterans, that's clear, but they're still very impressive. The production on Impossible Mission is pretty great too, with beats from longtime collaborator Supa Dave West as well as Geology, J Dilla (recycled from Slum Village, however), and Oh No, though the majority of the songs have no producer listed, which is fairly annoying, but does attest to the record's quasi-illegitimatacy. In releasing a mixtape, De La Soul is declaring that they're making music because they love making music, and not because of the money they're going to get from each album. Yeah, they're still trying to sell themselves, proffering their wares, hawking their goods to all interested buyers, seeing if any record label is interested and/or if they even need one, but it's all secondary to the music, the rhymes over the beats, the basics, which is all that we want to hear, anyway.