Today marks another year we have been blessed by the release of De La Soul's hugely successful and impactful debut album 3 Feet High and Rising, which was first released on the 3rd March 1989.
The landscape of hip-hop and rap at the time of 3 Feet's conception wasn't the most welcoming of environments; when you consider other huge albums of the genre such as NWA's Straight Outta Compton being released a year prior, it comes as no surprise that at the time the scene was a very angry place, and with that attitude came other negative traits associated with anger, such as violence, misogyny, and the over exaggerated macho masculinity which promoted guns and money to be highly significant.
In then stepped three young rappers from Long Island, who alongside producer Prince Paul of hip-hop group Stetsasonic fame begun to craft a record that a complete polar opposite of what rap and hip-hop prominently was at the time. The songs on the album promoted love, peace, and harmony, and rather than lyrical themes such as making lots of money or having sex with lots of chicks, the topics covered themes such as first love, hardships of drug abuse, self-doubt and philosophy, and body odour. The trio would often bring in favoured records from their collections and see what they could splice together, creating all manner of combinations including songs by Hall and Oates, Otis Reading, Steely Dan, Funkadelic, and so on. Upon completion of the tracks, Paul then tasked them with finding a way to string the tracks together, and thus the group opted to record an album-running gameshow skit to tie it all together into one neat little package. The album name is also a reference to the Johnny Cash song Five Feet High and Rising, with the trio opting to change it to three, given there was, y'know, three of them.
The album cost the dudes about $13,000 to make, $2,000 of which went to Toby Mott and Paul Spencer's collective the Grey Organisation, an art collective from London which had emigrated from London to New York only a few years prior. The artwork was created by taking a black and white photo of the band from above as they laid on the floor below Mott as he took the photo from a ladder, then this photo was given a vibrant yellow background with flowers drawn on with Posca paint pens, to compliment the hippie vibe of the record. The album was then released by Tommy Boy Records, a label known for other famous acts such as Queen Latifah, House of Pain, Coolio, and even RuPaul, as well as being credited for the introduction of Latin hip-hop and EDM to mainstream American audiences.
The album was a huge success upon release, receiving mainstream as well as underground success, with singles appearing as music videos on MTV and substantial college radio air time. The success quickly led to De La Soul to go on tour with Public Enemy shortly after the album's release, only further solidifying the band's mass appeal. Critics have since lauded it as "the Sgt. Peppers" and "Dark Side of the Moon" of rap albums, and on almost any listing of the greatest albums of all time you are guaranteed to see 3 Feet High and Rising listed somewhere fairly high in the rankings. 3 Feet is also credited for the creation of the rap album skit, with many acts following its release featuring often humorous skits between tracks. 3 Feet unsurprisingly is also accredited for the surge in popularity of more positive rap and hip-hop albums, alongside other influential groups such as A Tribe Called Quest, who would release their debut People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm a year after 3 Feet's release, and who formed the collective Native Tongues with De La Soul and Jungle Brothers a year prior in 1988. In fact Q-Tip of Tribe Called Quest and Jungle Brothers were also featured on 3 Feet High's 18th track, Buddy.
Sadly, if you are now thinking, shit, I gotta get myself on Spotify to listen to 3 Feet High and Rising today, well sadly, that isn't possible. Due to legal issues between De La Soul and their former record label partners Tommy Boy, 3 Feet High, along with their other later releases, cannot be found on streaming services, following a complaint by De La Soul due to the fact they would receive only 10% of the profits of the album being used on streaming services, whilst Tommy Boy would obtain the other 90%. Still, you could just be old skool and buy the record physically, or at the very least download it digitally. Or y'know, there's YouTube I guess.
Comments