3 Feet High And Rising

Performer: De La Soul
Artist: Q-Tip; Jungle Brothers; Prince Paul; Red Alert; Monie Love
Producer: Prince Paul; De La Soul
Distributor: Alternative Dis. Alliance

Notes: 3 FEET HIGH AND RISING includes a limited edition bonus disc containing rare B-sides and remixes. De La Soul: Trugoy The Dove, Posdnuos, P.A. Pase Master Mase. Additional personnel: Q-Tip, Jungle Brothers, Prince Paul, Red Alert, MC Lyte (vocals); Al Watts, Donald "Kid Wonder" Newkirk, Human Mix Machine Wise, Misha, Popmaster Hight, China, Jette, Andre Myers, Granny (background vocals). Engineers include: Sue Fisher, Bob Coulter, Dan Miller. Recorded at Calliope, New York, New York. They were like a breath of fresh air when they showed up on the scene in 1989, bringing a new vision to the young genre still known as rap. With one album De La Soul helped usher in the New School that dominated hip hop before the rise of Gangsta. Sure, some of 3 FEET HIGH AND RISING may already sound dated, like some strange relic from an imaginary 1989 summer of love, but it's still packed with the energy and humor that made it so irresistible in the first place. Posdnuos, Trugoy and Mase rapped in a lazily melodic code you could spend hours trying to decipher, but once you accepted the "Change In Speak," it was easier to just lay back and let the diverse samples move your butt. The hits still sound fresh--pop chestnuts like "Eye Know" and "Buddy" (featuring the first appearance of A Tribe Called Quest), as well as self-descriptive songs like "The Magic Number." And although the game show theme that binds together the loose frame of the record is a bit silly, it must be remembered that it created the current craze of interludes and asides found on today's rap albums (from Wu Tang Clan to Too Short). 3 FEET HIGH... is the epitome of Afro-centric peace-oriented rap; yet De La Soul moved on very quickly from this manifestation of the style, although they've yet to lose their ingenuity or intelligence. A visit to the D.A.I.S.Y. Age can do you no harm--it might even keep you sane in these days of guns and gangs.

Spin (4/02, p.123) - "...The greatest alt-rap LP ever made..." Q (8/99) - Included in Q Magazine's "Best Psychedelic Albums of All Time" issue. Q (8/99, p.139) - "...Fine and innovative....An antidote to all the guns and macho bluster, it was supposed to herald a new touchy-feely age for hip hop..." Uncut (6/03, p.132) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...The expansive confidence of youth's first flush flows through its grooves..." Alternative Press (8/01, p.112) - Included in AP's "10 Essential '80s Albums" - "...Their revolutionary use of samples and abstract subject matter kicked down the doors..." Alternative Press (01/02, p.100) - "...3 FEET HIGH is a bona-fide classic that changed the hip-hop scene - and music in general - forever..." NME (Magazine) (9/25/93, p.18) - Ranked #3 in NME's list of The 50 Greatest Albums Of The '80s. NME (Magazine) (10/2/93, p.29) - Ranked #19 in NME's list of the 'Greatest Albums Of All Time.'

Skit comedy, abstract rhyming, samples from pop's left field, and a self-consciously intellectual approach to rap became hip-hop staples after De La Soul's 1989 debut, 3 FEET HIGH AND RISING. But despite the group's widespread influence, no one ever has ever come close to appropriating their singular style.

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