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. The most inventive, assured, and playful debut in hip-hop history, 3 Feet High and Rising not only proved that rappers didn't have to talk about the streets to succeed, but also expanded the palette of sampling material with a kaleidoscope of sounds and references culled from pop, soul, disco, and even country music. Weaving clever wordplay and deft rhymes across two dozen tracks loosely organized around a game-show theme, De La Soul broke down boundaries all over the LP, moving easily from the groovy my-philosophy intro "The Magic Number" to an intelligent, caring inner-city vignette named "Ghetto Thang" to the freewheeling end-of-innocence tale "Jenifa Taught Me (Derwin's Revenge)." Rappers Posdnuos and Trugoy the Dove talked about anything they wanted (up to and including body odor), playing fast and loose on the mic like Biz Markie. Thinly disguised under a layer of humor, their lyrical themes ranged from true love ("Eye Know") to the destructive power of drugs ("Say No Go") to Daisy Age philosophy ("Tread Water") to sex ("Buddy"). Prince Paul (from Stetsasonic) and DJ Pasemaster Mase led the way on the production end, with dozens of samples from all sorts of left-field artists -- including Johnny Cash, the Mad Lads, Steely Dan, Public Enemy, Hall & Oates, and the Turtles. The pair didn't just use those samples as hooks or drumbreaks -- like most hip-hop producers had in the past -- but as split-second fills and in-jokes that made some tracks sound more like DJ records. Even "Potholes on My Lawn," which samples a mouth harp and yodeling (for the chorus, no less), became a big R&B hit. If it was easy to believe the revolution was here from listening to the rapping and production on Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, with De La Soul the Daisy Age seemed to promise a new era of positivity in hip-hop. ~ John Bush 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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