Album dossier / 1989

3 Feet High and Rising

De La Soul · Hip-Hop/Alternative Rap

De La Soul recorded their debut at Calliope Studios in Manhattan with producer Prince Paul (of Stetsasonic), traveling in from Long Island by train each day with crates of records — their own and their parents' — to build a sample collage of over 200 sources, from Steely Dan's 'Peg' (sampled on 'Eye Know') to Johnny Cash, Hall & Oates and an Eddie Murphy sketch. Made on a shoestring budget of roughly $25,000 over about two months, the album's loose, mixed-by-hand production left in stray studio chatter and a famous unplanned dropout on 'Me Myself and I' that the group simply kept rather than re-cut. Prince Paul described mentoring the trio hands-on in the studio, intending 3 Feet High and Rising as a one-off before De La took over their own production — though he ultimately stayed on for the group's next two albums as well. The record helped launch the Native Tongues collective and alternative hip-hop as a distinct lane from gangsta rap.