Lately, I've found myself listening to hip-hop and its subgenres an awful lot more than the alternative/indie stylings I'm used to. It's been a pretty fresh few months; I've heard a lot of classic albums and some newer stuff too. But one of the first rap albums I've heard still ranks among my favorites: De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising.3 Feet High and Rising practically reinvents fresh. Released at a time when the hard-hitting sounds of N.W.A. and Public Enemy infiltrated the airwaves, the positive, jazzy rhythms and rhymes of Trugoy, Posdnous, and Mase shook up the hip-hop scene with songs about awkward sexual experiences, numbers, and talking animals.
One thing they certainly had a talent for was creative robbery, evident in the many samples this album contains. And there's a lot of them. Seriously, look at this. For the love of god, "The Magic Number" samples a Schoolhouse Rock song. Now that's talent.
It's a little heavy on interludes sometimes, but 3 Feet High is an absolute hip-hop classic that can't be ignored. No other album can make 65 minutes feel so short. Long live De La Soul.
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