DA INNER SOUL YALL

KEEP IT OLDSKOOL PRESENTS 
"25 YEARS AGO TODAY"


 On March 3 1989 one of the most groundbreaking albums in the history of Music (not just HIP HOP) was released. "3 Feet High And Rising" by Native Tongue Collective charter members De La Soul. (Posdnuos aka Plug One aka Kelvin Mercer, Trugoy the Dove aka Plug Two aka  David Jude Jolicoeur and Mase aka, Maseo aka Vincent Mason)  who were 3 young men from Long Island, NY. The album "3 Feet High and Rising" took Hip Hop and expanded the horizons a bit. With the help of legendary producer Prince Paul the album was an eclectic mix of beats and grooves.

*The Village Voice has called  the album  the "Sgt Pepper of Hip Hop" (a reference to the Beatles album like "3 Feet High and Rising" was  ahead of its time)

*Rolling Stone magazine has ranked the album #346 in the #500 greatest albums of all time

 

 That the album had samples was not new, What was innovative was from where the samples came from. With tracks like "Potholes in my Lawn", "Buddy" ,"Say No Go" and "My Myself and I" the group positioned itself as being cut from a different cloth. gone were the hard gangsta "im coming for your fresh homie" lines and what replaced them was not soft by any means but was just different. The debut single "Potholes in my lawn" dealt with the rampant biting that went on in Hip Hop, "Say No Go" was a song about the dangers of drugs and "Buddy" was a song about men after the perfect partner.

  Rightly or wrongly after "3 Feet High and Rising" De La Soul were classified as “hippies" a moniker that they did not care for.  For that reason for the second De La Soul album  the group decided that they needed to move away from the "Daisy Age" Although they never get the props they should have and that De La Soul still releases new music is something that is a shame and a sense of pride at the same time. Keep it Oldskool remembers 25 years ago today a debut classic was released