The Rise of Rap
In the latter half of the ‘80s, the music industry took notice of rap as having viable commercial potential, thanks to the success of Run-D.M.C.’s Raising Hell and the Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill. MTV was more willing to show videos by black artists in general and white, suburban audiences were suddenly buying a genre that had previously been assumed to have appeal that was limited to the urban core.
Because “hip-hop was essentially music that interpreted the street, rap acts reflected their environment.” CS It led to the rise of gangsta rap through “hardcore rappers such as Schoolly D (from West Philadelphia), Ice-T (from the Crenshaw area of Los Angeles), and N.W.A. (from L.A.’s infamous Compton district).” CS However, the genre was also read for some innovation.
A Landmark in Rap Music
De La Soul arrived and “signaled a new era for hip-hop.” CS “Who knew that what hip-hop really needed during the ascendance of gangsta rap was an album that sampled Hall & Oates and the Commodores and riffed on game shows and dandruff? These Native Tongues champs did.” EW’12
They “were the first of a small cadre of rap outfits that found success with a playful, trippy style whose sense of humor stood in stark contrast to the violent and misogynistic egotism of gangsta rap.” CS 3 Feet High and Rising “is surreal and weird and gorgeous and primitive.” PM It “punctuated a decade that saw rap music obliterate the mainstream – and you can point to the workings of De La Soul as a big, enduring piece of that.” PM
“De La Soul threw this masterpiece of art and jazz rap into the belly of a cultural beast swallowed by the budding excitement around gangsta rap.” PM This is “the most inventive, assured, and playful debut in hip-hop history;” AM “an inspired pinnacle that other rappers can only hope to top.” JD “3 Feet High and Rising…single-handedly transformed a fetal genre of music into a mainstream multicultural phenomenon.” JD
A New Sound: “Hippie” Hip-Hop
“At the close of the ‘80s, De La Soul popped up with boldly goofy alternative hip-hop spilling satirical whimsy over Prince Paul’s sample-crazed production.” BL Their debut “appeared at a time when the gangsta rap of N.W.A. began to dominate hip-hop. De La was a completely different group.” RV
Critic Robert Christgau “pegged De La Soul as ‘new wave’ to Public Enemy’s ‘punk rock.’” JD While Public Enemy “urged its listeners to fight the power,” JD De La Soul offered “a new era of positivity in hip-hop.” AM They were “less about aggression, brutal realism and political outrage than…cheery melodies, genial grooves and a Utopian vision of the way things should be in the black community (as opposed to the way that they often are in the ghetto).” JD
It “stands as one of the most optimistic, life-affirming and wildly creative albums that hip-hop has ever produced.” JD Trugoy, one of the group’s three rappers, said, “If our music reminds you of a hippie, Bohemian vibe, that's OK. We want the music to speak for itself.” JD However, Psdnuous took exception, saying, “The hippy-hop thing was always something that the critics invented.” CS
In truth, the music was “a blend of Afroentrism and the nascent buds of what would become ‘conscious rap.’” RD They were “part of the so-called ‘Native Tongues’ posse, which included fellow travelers A Tribe Called Quest, Queen Latifah, and Monie Love – all artists who avoided sexist boasting and cliched tales of gangsta violence in favor of timeless celebrations of individuality. By all accounts, De La Soul's distinctive vision was already in place when it first entered the studio.” JD
“Aside from a few scattered marijuana references, De La Soul isn’t vocal about its drug habits on the disc. The album’s reputation as a psychedelic masterpiece comes more from the invigorating swirl of sound, the deft and nimble flow of rhymes, and the group’s own invented slang than from any obvious pharmacological influences.” JD
The Players
The sound comes “thanks to the soul (‘de la’ or otherwise) of its three architects.” JD They "developed a style so unique and creative that it was apparent that this record was going to change the face of hip-hop.” JD “Like Chuck D., the three rappers were smart, well-read, middle-class African Americans from suburban Long Island (Amityville, to be exact).” JD
Kevin Mercer (Posdnuos) and David Jolicouer (Trugoy the Dove) were in “a more conventional rap group called Easy Street.” JD They met Vincent Mason (Pasemaster Mase) and recorded a demo of Plug Tunin’ which they submitted to Prince Paul, a local producer “working with an upbeat Brooklyn outfit called Stetsasonic.” CS Mercer and Jolcouer’s stage names showed “their playful, childlike sense of humor: ‘Trugoy’ was Jolicouer's favorite food, ‘yogurt,’ spelled backward, while ‘Posdnous’ reversed the letters from Mercer’s DJ handle, ‘Sound-Sop.’” JD
Prince Paul shopped their demo around and landed De La Soul a contract with Tommy Boy, the same label who’d released the “seminal hip-hop single ‘Planet Rock’” CS by Afrika Bombaatta.
The Producers and Sampling
The resulting album, 3 Feet High and Rising, “not only proved that rappers didn’t have to talk about the streets to succeed, but also expanded the palette of sampling material with a kaleidoscope of sounds and references culled from pop, soul, disco, and even country music.” AM “Musically, the crew strayed far and wide from the James Brown beats and old soul samples that dominated much of old-school hip-hop, creating a fresh, new sound every bit as inventive (but a heck of a lot sunnier and catchier) than Public Enemy’s white-noise collages.” JD
Prince Paul and DJ Pasemaster Mase bring in “dozens of samples from all sorts of left-field artists – including Johnny Cash, the Mad Lads, Steely Dan, Public Enemy, Hall & Oates, and the Turtles. The pair didn’t just use those samples as hooks or drumbreaks – like most hip-hop producers had in the past.” AM “Where most DJs capture a distinct slice of an old record and repurpose it for use as a backdrop” TM Mase was a “deep thinker” TM who “gives the samples a starring role. He uses them as brief punch lines, wry counterpoints to the narratives, or as split-second ‘drop-ins’ designed to change the mood.” TM
Sampling Trouble
In the late ‘80s, rap acts liberally sampled songs without permission but several legal cases brought an end to the practice. De La Soul was one of the acts embroiled in a lawsuit when the Turtles sued them for using their song “You Showed Me” in Transmitting Live from Mars without permission. TM The Turtles won, establishing a precedent that samples had to be cleared with the owners of recordings in the future. It meant that from the early 1990s moving forward, hip-hop acts couldn’t use recordings without acquiring clearance, leading to more live instrumentation. TB
Skits
“De La Soul broke down boundaries” AM while “weaving clever wordplay and deft rhymes across two dozen tracks loosely organized around a game-show theme.” AM “For better or worse, 3 Feet High and Rising made the between-songs ‘skit’ a hip-hop staple.” BL
The Lyrics/The Songs
“The innovations didn’t end with the music.” JD De La Soul wrote “the most imaginative lyrics ever to grace hip-hop.” RV They could be clever, silly, and weird. Potholes on My Lawn “samples a mouth harp and yodeling (for the chorus, no less).” AM They rapped about body odor, AM “dandruff, gardening, and talking animals.” PM
“Thinly disguised under a layer of humor, their lyrical themes ranged from true love” AM via “the impenetrable brilliance” PM “the warm and summer Eye Know” RD “to the destructive power of drugs (Say No Go) to Daisy Age philosophy (Tread Water).” AM
De La Soul also created “be-yourself anthems” TM such as with their “embrace of nonconformity on Me, Myself and I,” TM an R&B chart-topper and top-40 pop hit. That song as well as “the Johnny Cash-inspired The Magic Number,” PM the slyly sexy Buddy, and Plug Tunin’ (Last Chance to Comprehend) are full of good-natured in-jokes and the sort of playful between-friends ribbing inspired by lazy afternoons spent smoking pot and goofing on bad TV.” JD
“De La could also be as socially aware as Public Enemy could.” RV They deliver “an intelligent, caring inner-city vignette named Ghetto Thang” AM which “addresses the problems of disenfranchised black youth.” RV “The eerie pulse of Hall and Oates’ drum machine sets the tension for Say No Go, a sober anti-drug anthem.” RD The “seemingly-funny” RV and “freewheeling end-of-innocence tale Jenifa Taught Me (Derwin’s Revenge)” AM “teaches the pitfalls of relationships based solely on sex.” RV
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