The last we heard of First Serve it was 3am in a Parisian suburb at an out of control house party with ‘The Goon Time Mixtape’ blasting into the night. That was just a taste of things to come from De La Soul’s Plug 1 & Plug 2 present ‘First Serve’; a dynamic hip-hop group, an album, a concept, the soundtrack to a movie that has yet to be made and a fable for our times.

‘First Serve’ is many things, but at its heart it is the story of two young boys from Queens, New York with big dreams and larger rhymes. Two friends, Deen Whitter (aka Plug 2 / Dave) and Jacob ‘Pop Life’ Barrow (aka Plug 1/ Pos), friends from seventh grade, are by their own admission, “different, but the differences seem to complement everything we do.” Their name ‘First Serve’ comes from their motto, “First come, First Serve, get what you deserve.”

We get a glimpse into their world in the form of the ‘Mrs. Whitter’ skit where we see the duo during the early days in Deen’s mother’s basement, the location of years of laying down demos and mixtapes on the hustle in the hip-hop game. With Deen’s mother Eleanor giving them endless flack, the duo don’t get much peace and quiet to sip on a 40oz beer and smoke a joint in their hyper-colour, animated world.

Due to hit the streets in April 2012 (4-2-2012), the ‘First Serve’ album tells the story of two dreamers in a basement struggling to start their musical career, the battles they face, through to the point that they eventually release their debut single, ‘make it big’ and their hard work and persistence finally pays off. As we know that is rarely where the story ends and the story of ‘First Serve’ is no different. Taking place in an animated world that could have been imagined by Hawley Pratt on Magic Mushrooms, the high spirited and often hilarious journey is pure old school hip-hop; skits, disco, beats, funk, quips, burns and hustlin’ all included.