It was 1989. Hip-hop was getting harder, louder, and more aggressive by the minute. Public Enemy was bringing the noise, and N.W.A was busy introducing the world to the reality of the streets. Then, out of Long Island, three guys—Posdnuos, Trugoy the Dove, and Maseo—dropped 3 Feet High and Rising. It didn't sound like anything else. It sounded like a basement party in a galaxy where everyone was wearing neon and peace signs.
They called it the "D.A.I.S.Y. Age." Da Inner Sound, Y'all.
Honestly, the impact of this album is hard to overstate because it basically rewrote the rules of what you could sample. Prince Paul, the producer, wasn't just grabbing a drum break from a James Brown record. He was digging through French language lesson tapes, Johnny Cash, Hall & Oates, and Steely Dan. It was a collage. A mess. A masterpiece.
The Day the Samples Changed Everything
Most people look at 3 Feet High and Rising as a happy-go-lucky record, but that's a bit of a surface-level take. Underneath the humor and the weirdness, De La Soul was pioneering a technical shift in how music was constructed. Before this, sampling was largely about finding a groove and looping it. Prince Paul and the trio treated the studio like a laboratory.
Take a track like "The Magic Number." It’s built on a Bob Dorough song from Schoolhouse Rock!, but then it weaves in Johnny Cash’s "Five Feet High and Rising" (which gave the album its name) and a Beastie Boys vocal snippet. It shouldn't work. It’s too much. Yet, it feels as light as air.
The legal fallout, however, was massive. When The Turtles sued De La Soul over the sample used in "Transmitting Live from Mars," it changed the industry forever. That $1.7 million lawsuit effectively ended the "Wild West" era of sampling. Suddenly, you couldn't just layer fifty sounds and hope for the best. You had to clear every single one. In a weird way, the joy of this album's creation led to the restrictive copyright laws that make making an album like this today almost impossible.
It’s Not Just Hippie Rap
People used to call them the hippies of hip-hop. The group hated that. Posdnuos once famously said they weren't hippies; they were just being themselves. They wore flowers and talked about peace because they didn't want to pretend to be tough guys they weren't.
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That authenticity is why the record holds up.
"Me Myself and I" is the anthem for this. It’s a song about refusing to fit into a box. While other rappers were competing to see who had the biggest gold chain, De La Soul was rapping about "mirror stars" and plug tunin'. They were nerds. They were art students. They were just kids from Amityville who liked weird sounds.
The Skit Revolution
We can't talk about 3 Feet High and Rising without talking about the skits. Love them or hate them, De La Soul invented the hip-hop skit as we know it. The game show theme that runs through the album—hosted by a guy named "Don Newkirk"—wasn't just filler. It gave the album a narrative arc.
It made the record feel like a radio broadcast from another dimension.
- It broke up the intensity of the tracks.
- It allowed the group to poke fun at themselves.
- It created a "world" for the listener to live in.
Before this, albums were just a collection of songs. After De La Soul, the "concept album" became a staple of the genre. You can trace a direct line from the game show skits here to the cinematic interludes on Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D City or the skits on Kanye West’s The College Dropout.
Why You Couldn't Stream It for Decades
For years, if you wanted to hear 3 Feet High and Rising, you had to own the CD or the vinyl. It was a ghost on Spotify and Apple Music. This wasn't because the band didn't want it there; it was a legal nightmare. Because the album used so many obscure samples that were never properly cleared (back when the rules were blurry), the legal fees to get it onto streaming platforms were astronomical.
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Tommy Boy Records and the group were in a standoff for a long time.
It wasn't until 2023, after Reservoir Media acquired the Tommy Boy catalog and worked with the surviving members (sadly, Trugoy passed away just before the release), that the album finally hit digital platforms. Hearing "Eye Know" in high-definition digital for the first time felt like a victory for music history. It was like a lost library had finally reopened its doors.
The Technical Brilliance of Prince Paul
Prince Paul is the unsung hero here. His production style on this record was "kitchen sink" production. He used the E-mu SP-1200, a legendary sampler that only had about 2.5 seconds of sampling time.
Think about that.
To create the lush, layered soundscapes of 3 Feet High and Rising with only a few seconds of memory requires insane creativity. They had to speed up records to fit them into the sampler and then slow them back down. They had to be precise. It was a manual, tactile way of making music that has been lost in the era of unlimited digital tracks.
The drum patterns on "Buddy" or "Say No Go" have a swing to them that feels human. They aren't perfectly gridded out like modern trap music. They breathe.
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What Most People Get Wrong
The biggest misconception about De La Soul's debut is that it’s "soft."
Listen to the lyrics. Posdnuos is one of the most technical lyricists to ever pick up a microphone. His internal rhyme schemes and metaphors are dense. "Potholes in My Lawn" isn't just a funny song about grass; it’s a metaphor for people trying to steal their style. They were protective of their craft.
They weren't just "daisy age" kids; they were fierce competitors who happened to use a different vocabulary than the guys in the Bronx.
How to Listen to 3 Feet High and Rising Today
If you’re coming to this album for the first time, don't just put it on in the background while you're doing dishes. It's too dense for that. You’ll miss the jokes. You’ll miss the way a Stevie Wonder bassline sneaks in under a spoken word clip.
The "New Ears" Checklist:
- Listen on Headphones: The panning and layering are incredible. Sounds bounce from left to right in a way that’s very 1960s psychedelic.
- Ignore the "Hippy" Label: Approach it as a psychedelic collage record, like a hip-hop version of Sgt. Pepper’s.
- Pay Attention to the Drums: Even when the samples are melodic, the beat is always heavy enough to move a crowd.
- Read the Sample List: After your first listen, look up the samples on a site like WhoSampled. It will blow your mind how many disparate pieces of music they stitched together.
3 Feet High and Rising didn't just change hip-hop; it expanded the boundaries of what a pop album could be. It proved that you could be funny, smart, weird, and commercially successful all at the same time. It’s a record that rewards deep listening and remains one of the most influential pieces of art of the 20th century.
To really appreciate the legacy of De La Soul, go back and listen to the albums that came out in 1988 and 1990. You’ll see a massive "before and after" effect. They opened the door for A Tribe Called Quest, Pharcyde, and basically every "alternative" rapper who ever felt like they didn't quite fit in.
Actionable Insights for Music Fans
- Track Down the Physical Media: If you can find an original 1989 pressing of the vinyl, grab it. The liner notes and comic-book-style art are essential to the experience.
- Explore the "Native Tongues" Collective: If you love this album, your next stops should be Jungle Brothers’ Done by the Forces of Nature and A Tribe Called Quest’s People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm.
- Support the Estate: Following the passing of Dave Jolicoeur (Trugoy), supporting the official releases ensures that the group’s families and the surviving members are finally compensated for a work that was tied up in legal limbo for thirty years.
- Dive Into Prince Paul’s Catalog: Check out his work with Gravediggaz or his solo "album-movie" A Prince Among Thieves to see how he evolved the concept-album style he started here.