3 Feet High and Rising (1989)

3 Feet High and Rising is the debut studio album by the American hip hop group De La Soul, released on February 6, 1989, by Tommy Boy Records. It is the first of three collaborations with the producer Prince Paul, and was the critical and commercial peak of both parties. The album title comes from the Johnny Cash song "Five Feet High and Rising". The album contains the singles "Me Myself and I", "The Magic Number", "Buddy", and "Eye Know".

The album was a critical and commercial success. It is consistently placed on lists of the greatest albums of all time by noted critics and publications, with Robert Christgau calling it "unlike any rap album you or anybody else has ever heard". In 1998, it was selected as one of The Source's "100 Best Rap Albums" and in 2020 was ranked 103 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. It was selected by the Library of Congress as a 2010 addition to the National Recording Registry, which selects recordings annually that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". As of 2025, it is the only De La Soul album to be certified platinum by the RIAA.

Along with the rest of De La Soul's back catalog, 3 Feet High and Rising was not made available for digital purchase or streaming until 2023, due to concerns about the legality of the samples for digital releases.

Musical style

Released amid the late-1980s boom in gangsta rap, which gravitated towards hardcore, confrontational, violent lyrics, 3 Feet High and Rising stood out from this trend by showcasing De La Soul's more positive style. The mirth and intelligence of De La Soul's self-presentation led many observers to label them a "hippie" group, a characterization that De La Soul's members have consistently disputed. On the album, De La Soul sought to explicitly distance themselves from gangsta rap by "lampoon[ing] emerging tropes" such as the growing materialism within the genre. Their lyrics are instead characterized by a variety of "bizarre and surreal" choices of subject matter, such as dandruff, gardening metaphors, and "Dr. Dolittle-esque interactions with animals".

The album features a recurring lyrical motif of the "D.A.I.S.Y. Age", an acronym that stands for "Da Inner Sound, Y'all". Group member Posdnuos has described the daisy motif as intended to indicate the group's "sunnier", more playful ethos.

3 Feet High and Rising uses a sample-heavy production style; in addition to sampling from funk and soul tracks, as was popular in the hip-hop of the era, the album also draws from sources such as doo-wop, psychedelic rock, and children's music. It has been described as "the first psychedelic hip-hop record". The album has also been noted for its use of unconventional song structures. Posdnuos recounts that the group used Casio's RZ-1 drum machine and an Eventide Harmonizer to record, manipulate, and combine their samples on the album.

The album is also known for its quiz show-themed series of skits, leading it to be frequently credited with inventing or popularizing the hip-hop skit.

Artwork

The album's artwork was designed by Toby Mott of the British art collective the Grey Organisation (GO), who had relocated to New York City after their attack on Cork Street's art galleries and subsequent prosecution.

De La Soul's "D.A.I.S.Y. Age" concept inspired the design of the album cover, as Mott describes in his essay "Hip Hop in The Daisy Age":

We have come up with the 'Daisy Age' visual concept. De La Soul visit our loft where we lay them down on the floor facing up, their heads making a triangle. We photograph them whilst hanging precariously off a step ladder, one idea being that the cover would not have a right way up. CD's [sic] have yet to be the dominant musical format so the vinyl album sleeve is our most effective way of making a statement. We layer the brightly-coloured hand drawn flower designs made with Posca paint pens on acetate over the black and white photographic portrait print, which is rostrum camera copied. This is well before the time of Apple Macs and scanning etc. [...] The intent of the design of De La Soul's, 3 Feet High and Rising LP cover is to be new and bright, with the overlaying of the fluorescent flowers and text reflecting a synthetic pop cartoon look [...] This is a move away from the prevailing macho hip hop visual codes which dominate to this day.

Group member Trugoy has stated that De La Soul was not originally interested in the flower-adorned cover that the album ultimately featured; instead, he said the group had wanted an album cover that featured "an elevator halfway up with just our faces".