3 Feet High and Rising

De La Soul

1989

Released the same year as Paul’s Boutique, 3 Feet High and Rising De La Soul represents themselves as rejecting the traditional definition of what it means to be a rapper. From the production to the lyrics themselves, they subverted expectations and eschewed the norm.

Sampled from a plethora of different sources, the very presence of the album itself is alien, as well as its emcees, as nothing like it was seen in rap before this, almost as if they literally WERE transmitting their music live from Mars through a microphone, expressing the importance of substance above traditional style, and how if the music dope, nothing else really matters.