3 Feet High and Rising

3 Feet High and Rising is the debut studio album by the American hip hop group De La Soul, released on March 3, 1989,[2] by Tommy Boy Records. It was the first of three collaborations with the producer Prince Paul, and was the critical and commercial peak of both parties. The album title comes from the Johnny Cash song "Five Feet High and Rising".[3] The album contains the singles "Me Myself and I", "The Magic Number", "Buddy", and "Eye Know".

"The Magic Number" redirects here. For other uses, see Magic number.
3 Feet High and Rising
Studio album by
De La Soul
ReleasedMarch 3, 1989
Studio
Genre
Length67:24
LabelTommy Boy
ProducerPrince Paul
De La Soul chronology
3 Feet High and Rising
(1989)		 De La Soul Is Dead
(1991)
Singles from 3 Feet High and Rising
  1. "Plug Tunin'"
    Released: June 1988
  2. "Potholes in My Lawn"
    Released: November 1988
  3. "Buddy"
    Released: December 11, 1988
  4. "Eye Know"
    Released: January 30, 1989
  5. "Me Myself and I"
    Released: April 1, 1989
  6. "Say No Go"
    Released: August 24, 1989
  7. "The Magic Number"
    Released: December 11, 1989
  8. "Tread Water"
    Released: 1990

The album was a critical and commercial success. It is consistently placed on lists of the greatest albums of all time by noted critics and publications, with Robert Christgau calling it "unlike any rap album you or anybody else has ever heard".[4] In 1998, it was selected as one of The Source's "100 Best Rap Albums"[5] and in 2020 was ranked 103 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.[6] It was selected by the Library of Congress as a 2010 addition to the National Recording Registry, which selects recordings annually that are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.[7] As of 2023, it is the only De La Soul album to be certified platinum by the RIAA.[8]

Along with the rest of De La Soul's back catalog, 3 Feet High and Rising was not made available for digital purchase or streaming until 2023, due to concerns about the legality of the samples for digital releases.[9]

Musical style

Released amid the late-1980s boom in gangsta rap, which gravitated towards hardcore, confrontational, violent lyrics, 3 Feet High and Rising stood out from this trend by showcasing De La Soul's more positive style.[10] The mirth and intelligence of De La Soul's self-presentation led many observers to label them a "hippie" group; however, this characterization was disputed by De La Soul themselves.[11] On the album, De La Soul sought to explicitly distance themselves from gangsta rap by "lampoon[ing] emerging tropes" such as the growing materialism within the genre.[12] Their lyrics are instead characterized by a variety of "bizarre and surreal" choices of subject matter, such as dandruff, gardening metaphors, and "Dr. Dolittle-esque interactions with animals".[13]

3 Feet High and Rising uses a sample-heavy production style; in addition to sampling from funk and soul tracks, as was popular in the hip-hop of the era, the album also draws from sources such as doo-wop, psychedelic rock, and children's music.[12][11] It has been described as "the first psychedelic hip-hop record".[14] The album has also been noted for its use of unconventional song structures.[8]

Artwork

The album's artwork was designed by Toby Mott's and Paul Spencer's radical British art collective the Grey Organisation (GO).[15] In 1986 Mott and Spencer had moved from London to New York after GO's infamous paint attacks on Cork Street art galleries, where they began working as bicycle messengers. By 1989, GO were exhibiting their paintings around the East Village and working as art directors for Tommy Boy Records and MTV (among others) making music videos for various groups, such as Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest, and The Rolling Stones.[16] GO also began designing album covers for groups such as Information Society and De La Soul, most notably 3 Feet High and Rising.[17]

The album features a recurring lyrical motif of the "D.A.I.S.Y. Age", an acronym that stands for "Da Inner Sound, Y'all".[18] This concept also inspired the design of the album cover, as Mott describes in his essay "Hip Hop in The Daisy Age":

We have come up with the 'Daisy Age' visual concept. De La Soul visit our loft where we lay them down on the floor facing up, their heads making a triangle. We photograph them whilst hanging precariously off a step ladder, one idea being that the cover would not have a right way up. CD's [sic] have yet to be the dominant musical format so the vinyl album sleeve is our most effective way of making a statement. We layer the brightly-coloured hand drawn flower designs made with Posca paint pens on acetate over the black and white photographic portrait print, which is rostrum camera copied. This is well before the time of Apple Macs and scanning etc. [...] The intent of the design of De La Soul's, 3 Feet High and Rising LP cover is to be new and bright, with the overlaying of the fluorescent flowers and text reflecting a synthetic pop cartoon look [...] This is a move away from the prevailing macho hip hop visual codes which dominate to this day.[17]

Group member Trugoy has stated that De La Soul was not originally interested in the flower-adorned cover that the album ultimately featured; instead, he said the group had wanted an album cover that featured "an elevator halfway up with just our faces."[19]

Reception and influence
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[20]
Daily News[21]
NME10/10[22]
Pitchfork10/10[23]
Record Mirror5/5[24]
Rolling Stone[14]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[25]
Spin Alternative Record Guide9/10[26]
Uncut[27]
The Village VoiceA−[28]

3 Feet High and Rising received widespread critical acclaim upon its release. "An inevitable development in the class history of rap, [De La Soul is] new wave to Public Enemy's punk", wrote Robert Christgau of the album in his 1989 "Consumer Guide" column for The Village Voice. "Their music is maddeningly disjunct, and a few of the 24-cuts-in-67-minutes (too long for vinyl) are self-indulgent, arch. But their music is also radically unlike any rap you or anybody else has ever heard — inspirations include the Jarmels and a learn-it-yourself French record. And for all their kiddie consciousness, junk-culture arcana, and suburban in-jokes, they're in the new tradition — you can dance to them, which counts for plenty when disjunction is your problem."[28] Rolling Stone magazine's Michael Azerrad called 3 Feet High and Rising "(o)ne of the most original rap records ever to come down the pike", and described it as an "inventive, playful" record which "stands staid rap conventions on their def ear."[14] When The Village Voice held its annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll for 1989, 3 Feet High and Rising was ranked at number one, outdistancing its nearest opponent (Neil Young's Freedom) by 21 votes and 260 points.[29]

Sampling artists as diverse as Johnny Cash, 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).[30] Writing in retrospect for The A.V. Club, Nathan Rabin credits Prince Paul for helping "create progressive hip hop" with his production on 3 Feet High and Rising,[31] while author John Riordan says "its comedy skits and positive lyrics established the group as a progressive hip-hop act at odds with the increasingly violent image of mainstream rap."[32] Phil Witmer of Noisey cites De La Soul's "sampledelia" on the album as an "old-school" example of sampling being applied to "jarring, collage-like effect".[33] 3 Feet High and Rising is also credited with introducing the hip hop skit, a style of comedic sketch used both to introduce rap albums and as interludes between songs.[34]

On the Billboard charts, 3 Feet High and Rising peaked at No. 1 on the R&B/Hip Hop charts and No. 24 in the Top 200.

Retrospective opinion

3 Feet High and Rising has been included on numerous "best-of" lists. In 1998, the album was included in The Source's "100 Best Albums" list.[35] It was ranked number 346 on Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time",[36] maintaining the ranking in a 2012 revision of the list,[37] then rising to number 103 in a 2020 revision.[38] 3 Feet High and Rising was voted number 138 in the 2000 edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums,[39] while in 2005, it ranked 88th in a survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time.[40] The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[41]

In 2006, Q magazine placed the album at No. 20 in its list of "40 Best Albums of the '80s".[42] In 2012, Slant Magazine listed the album at No. 9 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s".[43] Spex listed 3 Feet High and Rising at No. 5 on its list of the Top 100 Albums of the Century. The album has also been ranked as among the top albums of 1989 by publications including Rolling Stone, The Face, Record Mirror, Sounds, OOR, and Melody Maker.

An NPR retrospective, published in 2023, stated that 3 Feet High and Rising "reshaped the public imagination of what hip-hop could be", and that it "still sounds wondrous and weird" in the musical landscape of the 2020s.[11]

Electronica artist James Lavelle cited 3 Feet High and Rising as one of his favorite albums. "It was definitely a reaction to the slightly more hardcore area of what was going on in hip hop. As a concept record, it's probably one of the best ever. It's like the Pink Floyd of hip hop, their Dark Side of the Moon – the way it musically and sonically moves around, but also the use of language was so unusual and out there."[44]

Macy Gray felt it was "the best record of the past 15 years" in a Q magazine, describing De La Soul as "like the Beatles of hip hop."[45] The Village Voice, meanwhile, described 3 Feet High and Rising as "the Sgt. Pepper of hip hop".

In 2011, 3 Feet High and Rising was among 25 albums chosen as additions to the Library of Congress' 2010 National Recording Registry for being cultural and aesthetical and also for its historical impact.[46]

America's recorded-sound heritage has in many ways transformed the soundscape of the modern world, resonating and flowing through our cultural memory, audio recordings have documented our lives and allowed us to share artistic expressions and entertainment. Songs, words, and the natural sounds of the world that we live in have been captured on one of the most perishable of all of our art media. The salient question is not whether we should preserve these artifacts, but how best collectively to save this indispensable part of our history.

— James H. Billington from the Library of Congress[46]

The track "The Magic Number" was used in the end credits of the 2021 film Spider-Man: No Way Home as a reference to the three iterations of Peter Parker that appear in the film.[47]

Digital release

3 Feet High and Rising, along with the rest of De La Soul's catalogue up until their 2004 release, The Grind Date, was not made available for digital purchase or streaming until March 3, 2023, due to concerns about the legality of the samples for digital releases. Tommy Boy enlisted the music licensing company DMG Clearances to secure clearance for the samples, but talks failed with many of the copyright holders, as they were reticent to become involved with ongoing conflicts between De La Soul and Tommy Boy. After Tommy Boy sold De La Soul's catalog to Reservoir Media, DMG Clearances restarted talks in January 2022 and negotiated licenses for most of the samples. De La Soul interpolated or replayed samples that could not be cleared.[48]

Track listing
3 Feet High and Rising track listing
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Intro"
1:41
2."The Magic Number"
3:16
3."Change in Speak"
2:33
4."Cool Breeze on the Rocks"
  • Mercer
  • Jolicoeur
  • Mason
  • Huston
0:48
5."Can U Keep a Secret"
1:41
6."Jenifa Taught Me (Derwin's Revenge)"
3:25
7."Ghetto Thang"
3:36
8."Transmitting Live from Mars"
  • Mercer
  • Jolicoeur
  • Mason
  • Huston
1:12
9."Eye Know"
4:13
10."Take It Off"
  • Mercer
  • Jolicoeur
  • Mason
  • Huston
1:53
11."A Little Bit of Soap"
0:57
12."Tread Water"
3:46
13."Potholes in My Lawn"
3:50
14."Say No Go"
4:20
15."Do as De La Does"
  • Mercer
  • Jolicoeur
  • Mason
  • Huston
2:12
16."Plug Tunin' (Last Chance to Comprehend)"
  • Mercer
  • Jolicoeur
  • Mason
  • Huston
  • Linzer
  • Randell
  • Crewe
  • Manzel Bush
4:07
17."De La Orgee"
  • Mercer
  • Jolicoeur
  • Mason
  • Huston
1:14
18."Buddy" (featuring Jungle Brothers and Q-Tip)
4:55
19."Description"
1:32
20."Me Myself and I"
3:50
21."This Is a Recording 4 Living in a Fulltime Era (L.I.F.E.)"
3:10
22."I Can Do Anything (Delacratic)"
  • Mercer
  • Jolicoeur
  • Mason
  • Huston
0:41
23."D.A.I.S.Y. Age"
4:43
24."Plug Tunin'" (Original 12" version[49]) 3:43

Track listing notes:

  • On the original issues, "Plug Tunin' (Original 12" version)" is exclusive to CD releases; UK releases move "Potholes In My Lawn" to the final track.
  • Some copies of the bonus disc reissue contain "The Magic Number (Chad Jackson Hip Hop Version)" as track 15 on disc two.
  • Otis Redding is only credited as a featured artist on "Eye Know" on 2023 digital releases.
  • Songwriting credits sourced from 2023 digital release; original release only officially credited sampled artists as songwriters for "Change in Speak" (Patterson & Scipio), "Eye Know" (Becker & Fagen), "Say No Go" (Hall, Oates, & Allen), and "Me Myself & I" (Clinton & Wynne)
  • All tracks are produced by Prince Paul and De La Soul, except "Jenifa Taught Me (Derwin's Revenge)", produced by Prince Paul, De La Soul, & Michael Fossenkemper, and "Description", produced by Prince Paul, De La Soul, and Q-Tip.

Personnel

Information taken from AllMusic.[50]

  • De La Soul – arrangers, production assistance
  • Prince Paul – arranger, mixing, production
  • Trugoy the Dove – arranger
  • Al Watts – mixing, production, engineer, game show host
  • Sue Fisher – engineer
  • Bob Coulter – engineer
  • Dan Miller - engineer[51]
  • Chris Irwin - engineer
  • Greg Arnold – assistant engineer
  • Steven Miglio – layout design
  • Jungle Brothers – performer
  • Q-Tip – performer

Charts

Certifications
Certifications for 3 Feet High and Rising
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
United States (RIAA)[69] Platinum 1,000,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

See also

References
  1. Richard Harrington. "DE LA SOUL'S MIND-BENDING RAP". The Washington Post.
  2. Cantor, Paul. "De La Soul, '3 Feet High and Rising' at 25: Classic Track-by-Track Review". Billboard. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  3. Brian Coleman (12 Mar 2009). Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies. p. 152. ISBN 9780307494429.
  4. "Playboy Feb. 1989". Robert Christgau. Archived from the original on 3 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-16.
  5. "Source Magazine's 100 Best Albums". Raquenel.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-24. Retrieved 2011-08-16.
  6. "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. 22 September 2020.
  7. "The National Recording Registry 2010". Library of Congress. Retrieved April 10, 2011.
  8. Ayiku, Vernon (March 7, 2023). "De La Soul's Albums Ranked from Worst to Best". Exclaim!. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
  9. "De La Soul's music catalog makes streaming debut". 4 March 2023. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  10. "De La Soul 3 Feet High and Rising 30th Anniversary Mixtape mixed by Chris Read - Wax Poetics". Archived from the original on 2019-06-19. Retrieved 2019-09-12.
  11. Wang, Oliver (March 3, 2023). "De La Soul Is Streaming". NPR. Retrieved March 8, 2023.
  12. Jenkins, Craig (March 7, 2023). "De La Soul's Music Is Here to Stay (For Now)". Vulture. Retrieved March 8, 2023.
  13. Kriticos, Christian (March 3, 2023). "A Guide to the Music of De La Soul". Paste. Retrieved March 8, 2023.
  14. Azerrad, Michael (March 23, 1989). "3 Feet High And Rising". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on April 14, 2022. Retrieved June 13, 2012.
  15. Andrew Noz. "The 50 Best Hip-Hop Album Covers". Complex.
  16. Lydia Slater (9 September 2010). "Toby Mott, from the punk of Pimlico to power player". Evening Standard.
  17. "The Art of the Album Cover: De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising by Toby Mott + the Grey Organisation". hypergallery.blogspot.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2013-05-29. Retrieved 2012-12-04.
  18. As stated by Maseo, "the stereotype and the stigmatism [...] was put on us with the hippy concept when D.A.I.S.Y. just was an acronym for Da Inna Sound." Hernandez, Victoria (May 11, 2016). "De La Soul Reflects On Da Inna Sound For 25th Anniversary Of "De La Soul Is Dead"". HipHopDX. Retrieved September 27, 2023.
  19. "The 90 Greatest Albums of the '90s". Spin. September 1999.
  20. Bush, John. "3 Feet High and Rising – De La Soul". AllMusic. Retrieved November 9, 2015.
  21. Browne, David (February 5, 1989). "Rap Goes Psychedelic". Daily News.
  22. O'Hagan, Sean (March 18, 1989). "Rap Goes Green". NME. p. 35.
  23. Chang, Jeff (September 23, 2018). "De La Soul: 3 Feet High and Rising". Pitchfork. Retrieved September 23, 2018.
  24. Halasa, Malu (March 18, 1989). "De La Soul: 3 Feet High and Rising". Record Mirror. p. 39.
  25. Caramanica, Jon (2004). "De La Soul". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 224–225. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  26. Weisbard, Eric (1995). "De La Soul". In Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (eds.). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. pp. 104–105. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
  27. Hasted, Nick (July 2003). "Bohemian rap-sody". Uncut. No. 74. p. 132.
  28. Christgau, Robert (March 28, 1989). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. Retrieved November 9, 2015.
  29. "The 1989 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". The Village Voice. February 27, 1990. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
  30. Robertson, Glen A.; et al. (2005) [2003]. "342". In Levey, Joe; Telling, Gillian; Rockland, Kate (eds.). Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Vol. 1 (1 ed.). New York, NY: Wenner Books. p. 191. ISBN 1-932958-01-0. OCLC 70672814.
  31. Rabin, Nathan (March 29, 2002). "Prince Paul: Prince Among Thieves". The A.V. Club. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  32. Riordan, John (2020). "De La Soul". Music's Cult Artists. Ryland Peters & Small. ISBN 9781912983391.
  33. Witmer, Phil (18 August 2017). "Frank Ocean's "Seigfried" Builds on the Beatles' Production Legacy". Noisey.
  34. Rytlewski, Evan (February 17, 2012). "Phasing out the skit: How hip-hop outgrew one of its most frustrating traditions". The A.V. Club. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
  35. "100 Best Albums". The Source. No. 100. January 1998.
  36. "500 Greatest Albums of All Time: 3 Feet High and Rising – De La Soul". Rolling Stone. December 11, 2003. Archived from the original on December 20, 2010. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
  37. "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. May 31, 2012. Retrieved September 9, 2019.
  38. "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. September 22, 2020. Retrieved August 4, 2021.
  39. Larkin, Colin (2000). All Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd ed.). Virgin Books. p. 85. ISBN 0-7535-0493-6.
  40. "100 Greatest Albums". 100 Greatest. April 17, 2005. Channel 4.
  41. Robert Dimery; Michael Lydon (7 February 2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe. ISBN 0-7893-1371-5.
  42. Q August 2006, Issue 241
  43. "The 100 Best Albums of the 1980s". Slant Magazine. 5 March 2012.
  44. "Features | Baker's Dozen | Baker's Dozen: UNKLE'S James Lavelle On His 13 Favourite Records". The Quietus. 2011-04-20. Retrieved 2011-08-16.
  45. Q, October 2001
  46. "The National Recording Registry 2010." Retrieved from the Library of Congress Web Site on April 8, 2011.
  47. Turner-Williams, Jaelani (2021-12-28). "Gen-Z is Learning About De La Soul Due to 'Spider-Man: No Way Home'". Okayplayer. Retrieved 2022-01-05.
  48. Setaro, Shawn (2023-02-09). "Here's How De La Soul Cleared The Samples For Their Classic Catalog's Streaming Debut". OkayPlayer. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
  49. 3 Feet High and Rising Internet Archive
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  69. "American album certifications – De La Soul – 3 Feet High and Rising". Recording Industry Association of America.
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