In this day and age, when bands and rights holders slap down YouTube videos just for the mere MENTION of their songs (just ask Rick Beato, if you don\’t believe me), De La Soul\’s \”Three Feet High and Rising\” would never have been made.
This is a music nerd\’s album, made during the heyday of sampling in 1989. The sheer breadth and diversity of its samples are staggering, and to this day you can find the proprietors of nooks and crannies of the Internet who have painstakingly identified just about each one.
As far as I\’m concerned, however, it\’s unnecessary. I\’m sure the samples, pulled from every stripe of jazz, funk, rock, and the occasional cartoon, were fine on their own, but in the hands of these hip-hop weirdos, they became something completely different. And the first time these shaggy rhythms hit the ears of this beat junkie, he couldn\’t stop listening.
If I\’m being honest, the music of \”Three Feet High and Rising\” is messy. It feels slapped together in unrefined pieces, and has a \”sop sound\” so distinctive its lead MC essentially backmasked the words and made it his name. However, don\’t let me give you the impression that its messiness diminishes its greatness — oh, no.
\”Change in Speak\” sounds like it was recorded on a crappy tape player from a scratched up record with a cheap stylus, and is punctuated throughout with James Brown\’s soulful \”unh\” as if to emphasize its nastiness. \”Me Myself and I\” sounds like someone is unsuccessfully beatboxing underneath the bass and snare, flinging spit everywhere. Here, the drums are way back in the mix. There, they\’re featured out front. But the mess is funky, lived in and organic — as close to feeling \”live\” and \”spontaneous\” as a hip-hop group can be, I guess.
But these sloppy head snappers get down into your spine, and you can\’t help but move. Whether they\’re scratching their through the whiplash-inducing beat of \”Jenifah Taught Me (Derwin\’s Revenge)\” or moseying through the slouchy \”Potholes in My Lawn,\” these beats take a powerful hold. While they do, Pos Dnous, Trugoy and Maseo lead you into a world of daisies and higher consciousness, where being an outcast is just dandy.
More than all of this, however, is the fact that the album is just hilarious, constructed around a \”game show\” with ridiculous contestants who are serious yet clueless. Jokes are inserted and revisited, innuendo abounds, and if at first you don\’t understand their euphemisms and inside gags, don\’t worry. After a few more listens you\’ll get it and share it with your friends.
This was a rap album for the weird kids, where everybody was welcome. \”Three Feet High and Rising\” was the soundtrack for rap\’s rejects, inviting you into their inner circle where it was pure, unadulterated fun.