FEATURE:
Second Spin
De La Soul – 3 Feet High and Rising
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THIS is me jumping the gun a bit…
IN THIS PHOTO: De La Soul, circa 1990/PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
as De La Soul’s debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising, will be available on streaming services from next month. I am unable to include it in full at the moment. There are a few reasons why I am including this 1989 classic in Second Spin. I normally reserve this feature for albums that are under-appreciated or were ignored the first time around. Instead, this is an album that has always been a gem, but it should be listened to by those who have not heard it. Also, sadly, one of Del La Soul’s founding members, David Jude Jolicoeur (a.k.a. Trugoy the Dove), died last weekend. It was gut-wrenching and unexpected news. Aged fifty-four, it was a Hip-Hop legend leaving us too soon. A final reason to investigate 3 Feet High and Rising is that the album is being re-issued on physical formats on its thirty-fourth anniversary. I will come to some features/reviews for an album that defines the Daisy Age of Hip-Hop. In 1989, at a time when a lot of Hip-Hop was more political and angered, De La Soul beckoned in something different. Hugely innovative and intelligent, there was more emphasis on togetherness, humour and peace. Whilst some fans and artists found this against what Hip-Hop was about, the influence and importance of De La Soul’s masterpiece debut has been recognised. Starting an alternative Hip-Hop movement which would expand in the 1990s, even though the Daisy Age did not last too long – De La Soul’s second album, 1991’s De La Soul Is Dead was emphatically the death of that (as you can see from the album cover!) -, the sampling, spirit and brilliance of 3 Feet High and Rising impacted so many others and was very important.
For anyone who is a fan of De La Soul and this majestic album, here is where you can pre-order an album that should be part of everybody’s record collection. I cannot overstate how important and brilliant 3 Feet High and Rising is. For anyone a little unsure, it will only take a few seconds before it captures you completely:
“3 Feet High and Rising is the debut studio album by American hip hop trio De La Soul. It was released on March 3, 1989, by Tommy Boy. It marked the first of three full-length collaborations with producer Prince Paul, which would become the critical and commercial peak of both parties. Critically, as well as commercially, the album was a success. It contains the singles, Me Myself and I, The Magic Number, Buddy, and Eye Know. The album title came from the Johnny Cash song Five Feet High and Rising.
It is listed on Rolling Stone’s 200 Essential Rock Records and The Source’s 100 Best Rap Albums (both of which are unordered). When Village Voice held its annual Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1989, 3 Feet High and Rising was ranked at #1, outdistancing its nearest opponent (Neil Young's Freedom) by 21 votes and 260 points. It was also listed on the Rolling Stone’s The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Released amid the 1989 boom in gangsta rap, which gravitated towards hardcore, confrontational, violent lyrics, De La Soul's uniquely positive style made them an oddity beginning with the first single, Me, Myself and I. Their positivity meant many observers labeled them a “hippie” group, based on their declaration of the “D.A.I.S.Y. Age” (da inner sound, y'all). Sampling artists as diverse as Hall & Oates, Steely Dan and The Turtles, 3 Feet High and Rising is often viewed as the stylistic beginning of 1990s alternative hip hop (and especially jazz rap)”.
There is a lot to cover when it comes to 3 Feet High and Rising. Because of contract situations and issues with clearing samples, it has been unavailable on streaming services. It has also been hard to get a copy on vinyl for a reasonable price. Such a relief and liberation that this pioneering album is now coming out on a range of physical formats and streaming. It makes it accessible to a new generation and wider audience. I remember when the album came out first time. I was a small child, but I was instantly struck by tracks such as The Magic Number and Eye Know. The Quietus told the story of 3 Feet High and Rising in 2019 for its thirtieth anniversary. They spoke with people connected to the album, including its producer, Prince Paul, and group member Posdnuos. I have selected some sections that caught my eye:
“De La Soul's early moves were fortuitous. Alongside a friend they knew through school - the Stetsasonic member and DJ, Prince Paul - the trio (Posdnous, Maseo and Trugoy the Dove, who later changed his performing moniker to Dave) almost fell in to a way of making music that was an extension of their friendship and lifestyle. That they were immediately embraced and celebrated by their peers was not despite their different sound and style, but because that out-of-nowhere individuality fitted perfectly into hip hop's Golden Era, when the key ingredient that every artist had to have was a singular vision and an unassailable belief in the unlimited possibilities the music could afford them.
“Chuck D (Public Enemy): "Among the great innovators of the classic era, somebody who just decides to say, 'You know man, fuck it. If they're there, then we're gonna totally be on this other side', was De La Soul and Prince Paul. And Prince Paul also comes from the understanding of the most under-rated group of the classic era, and possibly of all time - Stetsasonic. The first hip hop band: the band that made The Roots understand the way they could go in the 90s. In Stet you had minds like Deelite and Daddy-O, and also Prince Paul, whose ideas manifested into De La Soul, these young innovators from Long Island. And when you see a record like that, you go 'What the fuck? These guys is crazier than we are!' That was the beauty of that era: everybody had to carve out their own private Idaho."
Posdnous: "We were the same kids who had every Kool G Rap album, every Rakim song, all the early Juice Crew stuff. We loved Run DMC, knew every lyric to [Boogie Down Productions' debut] Criminal Minded. We were just fans of the music. Whatever was out at that time, that's what we were on, hardcore or not. But regardless of what we were into, we always were all about what we were gonna do when we ever got the chance to get out there. It wasn't like we thought to ourselves, 'We're gonna try our best and make sure we come out as different as possible from what's out,' it's just that it was the natural way how we were. We had the funk and soul from Mase's side, the calypso and soul from Dave's side, and my father's jazz and blues and soul and gospel side, and we just put that all together with our own influences."
The making of 3 Feet High And Rising starred half of the rappers in New York and the occasional random bloke turning up in the studio for no readily apparent reason. As a natural outgrowth of the fraternal and collaborative vibe of the sessions, the Native Tongues collective formed around De La, their friends and like-minded artists the Jungle Brothers the other anchoring point of the unit. Quietly, almost accidentally - certainly without any deliberate attempt at it - this extended family changed the way rap records were made, and altered the industry around them forever.
(Prince) Paul: "That was a very quick record. We did that in two, two-and-a-half months, and the reason it even took that long is 'cos I was still with Stet and I had to go on tour in between us recording, so there was some time taken off until I came back so I could finish the album. And that was a pretty low budget. I think we got about $25,000 in total. Everything came out of that: the recording, and we all got paid out of that."
Pos: "Myself and Dave were in our first year of college, and Mase was still in high school. We were just blown away by everything. We were living out our dreams. A lot of the songs was all stuff that was out of our parents' collections, we would put it together, and Paul would add the spice to it, the recipes that make it right. He would help arrange it with us. It was such a great time."
Paul: "I think the main vibe this time was, 'Yo, wow! I'm in control! And people listen to me! And not only do people listen to me, they respect me!' Which, you know, made me... I wouldn't say 'cocky,' but it was so nice to have people say, 'Yo Paul, what do you think?' Or, 'Whatever Paul says.' And that was amazing. The environment was fun, because Calliope was like a penthouse studio. Acoustically it was horrible but it had so much space. It was so comfortable."
Guru (Gang Starr): "In [Calliope], the main things that were there were a turntable, with a mixer, for sampling and also for scratching. Premier used to bring his [SP] 12 with him, and the disks. We used to do 8-hour lockouts whenever we could get 'em, 'cos that was a busy studio at that time."
Paul: "We'd just all be sitting around listening to stuff. They had a turntable set up and a mixer, and we all had stacks of records. 'OK, play the beat on the main speakers, play it loud... Alright!' And then we'd have something playing, thinking about whatever was on the record... 'Yeah! That'll work, but can we pitch-shift it so it'll fit in key? Yeah, that's good. Oh, yeah! That's hot!' It was just... whatever popped into mind. And I think it almost made me a madman because I had so much control - I wasn't used to that. Every little idea, every little fantasy of wanting to do stuff, I was able to do. And they [De La] were great. Those guys are very artistic, and I learned a lot from them during that time. So it was a good trade-off”.
I want to come to an interesting retrospective feature from Albumism. They wrote about 3 Feet High and Rising in 2019. Thirty years after its release, it was still compelling people to write and explain why it means so much. That will be the case next year when it turns thirty-five. As the album is being reissued and is having this roll-out, I wanted to reference this phenomenal work from Posdnuos, Trugoy, and Maseo:
“It’s hard to oversell how 3 Feet High and Rising was borderline alien compared to anything that had been released before it. There had been other crews that were left of center, like Ultramagnetic MCs and the Jungle Brothers, (more on them in a sec), but De La Soul were positively indecipherable. Pos, Dove, and Mase, along with producer “Prince” Paul Huston came together to craft the definitive oddball hip-hop album that created the lane for others who wanted to “try something different.” And while making the album, Prince Paul encouraged De La to experiment as much possible, try new things, and not be afraid to make mistakes. It’s this wide-eyed and liberated attitude that give 3 Feet High and Rising a lot of its charm.
It made sense that they came together with the aforementioned Jungle Brothers and the fledgling group A Tribe Called Quest to form the groundbreaking Native Tongues clique. The crew became synonymous with outside-of-the-box thinking in regards to hip-hop music, and 3 Feet High and Rising is the foundation for their movement.
When I first heard 3 Feet High and Rising, I didn’t quite get “it.” I was 13, and the album was a bit too odd for me at the time. The group used obscure slang and their lyrics and skits seemed to be filled with in-jokes that were inscrutable except to those in their immediate crew. A classmate had to explain to me that “Potholes In My Lawn” was about people stealing their rhymes; I would have had no idea otherwise. Still, I’d dug the singles, especially the “Buddy” remix, which I’d gotten to know through its low-budget but madcap video. What a difference a couple of years made, as I revisited 3 Feet High right around the time that its successor De La Soul Is Dead (1991) surfaced, now more open to its idiosyncrasies and bizarre moments.
Much of the attention of 3 Feet High centers on its production, handled by Prince Paul. Specifically, it centers on the sample sources for the album. A lot of hip-hop artists mainly subsisted on samples from James Brown and Ultimate Beats and Breaks Records. De La Soul and Prince Paul were one of the first groups to utilize records from eclectic sources as the bricks and the mortar for their tracks. They sampled songs from relatively obscure artists like the Mad Lads and Cymande, and untouched musical ground like Steely Dan and Liberace. The album’s title is taken from a line in an early Johnny Cash song. The type of creativity that De La used on this album is functionally infeasible for a major label hip-hop release in 2019, due to the massive costs associated with the sample clearances. It’s one of the biggest reasons why Tommy Boy Records only recently worked out a deal to get the album onto streaming services.
As mentioned earlier, the album’s subject matter can be hard to decipher, but the group spends the album positioning themselves as rejecting the traditional definition of what it means to be a rapper. “Me Myself and I” remains the group’s anthem in that sense, expressing the importance of substance above traditional style, and how if the music dope, their dress doesn’t really matter. The point was hammered home in the video for the song, which was about rejecting the ultra-machismo driven image of what many associated with being a rapper. The group came to dislike the track, and for years prefaced live performances of it with chants of “We hate this song. We hate this song. We hate this song, but you love this song.”
3 Feet High still holds up as a towering artistic achievement for the group and hip-hop in general. It’s an extremely influential album, and it’s hard to imagine the evolution of abstract or even underground hip-hop without its existence. As mentioned above, De La came out of their experience with the album far less easy going and much more disillusioned. As a result, they followed it up with De La Soul is Dead, their explicit rejection of their “D.A.I.S.Y.”-centered image.
Even though De La Soul have been determined to prevent 3 Feet High and Rising from narrowly defining them as artists, the album is an essential component of their legacy, and the album that connected the most with their fans and other artists. Thirty years later, De La remain one of the best beloved groups in hip-hop music, with an unflinchingly loyal fanbase that follows them across the globe and supports their music whenever they choose to release an album. If this is the fruit that this album bore, then perhaps daisies really aren’t so bad”.
Before ending with a couple of reviews, Billboard marked twenty-five years of a classic in 2014. They did a track-by-track review of 3 Feet High and Rising. I have selected reviews of my favourite songs from the album:
“The Magic Number”
Sets forth the De La Soul agenda and affirms the group as a trio. “Fly rhymes are stored on a D.A.I.S.Y. production/ It stands for ‘Da Inner Sound Y’all’ and y’all can bet/ That the action’s not a trick, but showing the function,” Pos spits, spelling out the acronym, D.A.I.S.Y. Perhaps because of daisies and their symbolic affiliation with sixties counterculture, De La would go on to be labeled as the first hip-hop hippies. Rappers with open minds. A novel concept.
“Ghetto Thang”
One of the rare moments on the album that deals with issues of poverty, “Ghetto Thang” explores the seedier side of hood life. “Infested are the halls, also the brains/ Daddy’s broken down from ghetto pains/ Mommy’s flying high, the truth is shown/ The kids are all alone,” Trugoy spits. In a sense, it’s De La’s attempt at explaining something they can’t ignore. They may look outside their surroundings for inspiration, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t aware of what’s going on.
“Eye Know”
The opening guitar riff from the Mad Lads’ “Make This Young Lady Mine” provides the cheerful backing track for Pos and Trugoy to kick something in the ear of the ladies they’re mackin’ on. Again, more references to the D.A.I.S.Y. age. And who wouldn’t want to get with these easy-going casanovas?
“Potholes In My Lawn”
A song ostensibly about other rappers stealing De La’s rhymes, “Potholes In My Lawn” was the group’s second single and only a minor hit, reaching No. 22 on Billboard’s Hot Rap Singles chart. Reverence for the cut has certainly grown since then. In 2004, via NASA rover, it became the first rap song to be played on Mars. Maybe it wasn’t a big hit here, but on other planets, hey…
“Buddy”
The original version featured the Jungle Brothers and Q-Tip, and while it’s a solid record, the remix, which sees De La recruiting Queen Latifah and Monie Love, is a certified hip-hop classic. Although the remix isn’t on “3 Feet High and Rising,” it’s difficult not to acknowledge its legacy as one of the greatest posse cuts of all time. It’s popularity, reaching No. 2 on the Rap Singles chart, effectively announced the Native Tongues as a formidable rap crew.
“Me, Myself and I”
The song that put De La Soul on the map, reaching No. 1 on the Hot Rap Singles chart and the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. “Me, Myself And I” is built on a sample of “(Not Just) Knee Deep” by Funkadelic, and finds the group firing back at critics in the scene, who had issues with their hippie swag. “Now you tease my Plug One style, and my Plug One spectacles/ You say Plug One and Two are hippies, no we’re not, thats pure plug bull,” Pos rhymes. The tune has been a rallying cry for people who just want to do their own thing and not be judged ever since”.
Of course, there have been impassioned reviews of 3 Feet High and Rising through the years. There are a couple that I want to refer to. AllMusic provided some interesting details and notes in their five-star assessment of the mighty 3 Feet High and Rising. An album that not only is one of the best of 1989 – it is one of the greatest albums in music history:
“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”.
I will end with part of Pitchfork’s extensive review. One of the main talking points about 3 Feet High and Rising is the use of samples. A facet that got the album into trouble and meant that it was denied to so many for many years, it is also one of the defining aspects. Fusing together left-field and eclectic artists into these brilliant songs, it should reignite the question as to whether sampling laws and copyright issues are too stringent. It is potentially denying us of something very special. Artists will have the ability to introduce people to music they might not have otherwise have heard:
“De La Soul were making a point about the power of culture to mobilize people to action or immobilize them with fear. It was an idea they explored more explicitly on their fable, “Tread Water.” There were animals, squeaky organs, friendly humming—at the time, journalist Harry Allen called it the most African song he’d heard in hip-hop—but “Tread Water” also offered perhaps the most ambitious hope on the record, that De La’s music might help us all elevate our heads above the water. In this polar-cap-melting, politically disastrous age, the song feels prophetic.
Today’s debate over sampling is mostly mind-numbingly narrow, shaped largely by big-money concerns that are ahistorical, anti-cultural, and anti-creative. The current regime rewards the least creative class—lawyers and capitalists—while destroying cultural practices of passing on. Post-hip-hop intellectual property law rests on racialized ideas of originality, and preserves the vampire profits of publishing outfits like Bridgeport Music, that sue sampling producers while preventing artists like George Clinton from sharing their music with next-generation musicians, and large corporations like Warner Brothers that continue to disenfranchise Black genius.
By contrast, the processes of sampling and layering on 3 Feet High and Rising and other hip-hop classics of that era demonstrate the opposite: expansively, giddily democratic—Delacratic, even—values.
Pos’s production on “Eye Know” put Steely Dan into conversation with Otis Redding and the Mad Lads, his work on “Say No Go” Hall and Oates with the Detroit Emeralds. The musical chorus of “Potholes in My Lawn” pointed not only to Parliament’s 1970 debut Osmium, but to the African American roots of country and western music.
Together, the sampled sounds of the Jarmels, the Blackbyrds, the New Birth, and even white artists like Led Zeppelin, Bob Dorough, and Billy Joel, make a strong case that all of American pop is African-American pop, from which everyone has been borrowing. Sampling—De La Soul sampling Parliament, Obama sampling Lincoln, Melania sampling Michelle—is nothing less than the American pastime, the creative reuse of history amid the tension between erasure and emergence that is central to the struggle for the republic. No one can ever do it as big as De La Soul did”.
Available to stream and buy from 3rd March, that is also the date De La Soul’s entire catalogue is coming out. It means that you can witness and buy their phenomenal debut album, but you can also hear how the group evolved and changed. Even if they denying their Daisy Age roots and wanted to distance themselves from being seen as hippies or a bit soft, they should be very proud of what they released in 1989. It is so sad that Trugoy the Dove will not be with us to see the reaction to the reissue of 3 Feet High and Rising. He was instrumental in getting it made and ensuring that it is a wonderful album that influenced so many others. As a tribute to the great man, I wanted to show my love for De La Soul’s…
TIMELESS and genius debut album.