3 Feet High and Rising is released

Why it matters

3 Feet High and Rising came out on Tommy Boy on March 14, 1989. De La Soul was three teenagers from Amityville, Long Island: Posdnuos, Trugoy the Dove, and Maseo. The producer was Prince Paul, formerly of Stetsasonic. The album is one of the most distinctive debut LPs in the history of rap because it does not sound like any rap album that had come before it. Most 1989 rap was hard. James Brown loops. Aggressive vocals. Streetwise content. 3 Feet High and Rising was Steely Dan samples, French lessons, daisies on the cover, jokes about hair, a Hall & Oates sample, and three suburban kids talking about the things suburban kids talk about. The album sold a million copies and got categorized, partly by other people and partly by the group itself, as "D.A.I.S.Y. Age" rap, which the group came to hate as a label. What 3 Feet High and Rising actually is, is the album that proved rap could be funny, weird, pastoral, and stylistically promiscuous without giving up the form. The whole Native Tongues movement (De La, Tribe, the Jungle Brothers, Black Sheep, Queen Latifah, Monie Love) starts here. You should put it on. You will smile.