3 Feet High and Rising

Great Album. Put De La Soul on the map. Big Fan. Good Time

This album is a riot. Just a group of friends having a blast making music together.

Bit of a comfort album. Feels like a warm blanket every time

One of the most important and influential Hip Hop albums of all time. The sampling alone is worth four of the five stars I gave it.

This album just feels like summer. I really enjoy the variety of styles approached ranging from traditional rap to more funkier melodies, as well as the more humorous songs. It comes together to create a very light-hearted album. I can definitely see where the "hippie" and psychedelic comparisons come from, I guess pertaining to the positive-leaning subject matter and the bright-colored flower visuals on the cover, but the songs sound way more influenced by funk and soul to me. The sampling of such material is fantastic as well. It really is a shame how much albums like this which utilize heavy sampling get completely thrown under the bus in the current music landscape. It is a more complicated issue than I can get into here, and I want to keep this review pertaining to the album exclusively, but sampling is such a creative form of collage expression which way too often gets painted within a lens of "laziness" or lack of creative skill when that is the opposite of a majority of sample-focused genres I've seen. It takes a lot of skill to take a track or sound and turn it into something new. Often in ways that make it completely unrecognizable. Fav Tracks: "Eye Know", "Tread Water" and "Me Myself and I".

Great beats, great flows, and fun lyrics. The skits didn't age well; I don't relate to them at all. De la orgee was unnecessary and pointless. Me Myself and I was great. These guys are talented, and just needed to lay off the nonsense just a bit.

Kinda fun but never got into it. "Eye Know" was an interesting sample of the Steely Dan song "Peg".

Man this brings me back…. Some of this is so, so silly. It was refreshing at the time it came out. It’s uneven, but still very enjoyable. 4 Boolean: True

This album changed Hip Hop to another direction. Should be in every collection. (Listened to it on vinyl)

I’m not sure how to review this album, i can see how this band has influenced rap and hip hop artists of today, and I actually really enjoyed a lot off it… it’s clear that everyone is having fun making music together, and I think had I heard this at the time (and was a little younger) I’d absolutely love this album… unfortunately I’m too far removed from the time to properly appreciate this and did find it to be a bit of a drag towards the end… a solid 3, that could’ve been a 4 if it was just a little shorter

An instant classic!

Delightful. A long time fave. I wish I had the capacity to ruminate on it a bit more in this space.

Yeah this is just so much fun

Fuck yes I love this album! So much fun, so much energy and every song hits hard! A wicked album made even better by the context it was released, just total magic

meh, pedorrín

Its alright, flows well and is pretty fun but i didnt feel a heck of a lot for it, the standouts are whats keeping it from a 2. Standouts are The Magic Number, Ghetto Thang and Eye Know.

Meh!

Very fun album but not actually that fun for me to listen to. I didn't like the amateurishness of it

--re-listen-- original score: 4 stars new score: 4 stars (unchanged) very cool sampling and just a fun vibe throughout the whole album! lots of silliness too :) upon relisten i forgot how dancey the song "Me Myself and I" was. and the sampling on "Eye Know" was one of the chillest things ever

Favorite Track: Me Myself and I

Fun lighthearted album

This was fine, kind of a goofy take on late 80s/early 90s rap. Enjoyed it for what it was.

My favorite De La Soul record. Even though other golden era artists used the same samples, Prince Paul flipped them in a way that made it sound unlike anything you heard before in hip hop: quirky and funny, with songs taking surprising left turns all the time. Combined with the great raps (the same applies: heartfelt, honest, "emo" unlike anything heard before), the result is a true masterpiece and one of the best hip hop albums of all time.

It was fun.

2e keer luisteren, wel een paar leuke bangers maar ook een aantal stinkers overall medium. productie van prince paul is wel banging tho

They had me at I like twizzlers. This feels very unique for its time. It's a very cohesive, feel-good hip hop album, You can hear how much fun they had making it. Sometimes they maybe had a little too much fun, and I think the album could've been trimmed down a bit. The Magic Number was definitely a standout.

fun and snappy beats. adore the sampling. the quirk can get a little bit much sometimes but it's mostly endearing. favorite song is Me Myself and I. very strong 3

There is a real sense of camaraderie that shines through. You can tell the group had a blast hanging out and making this and it creates an excellent vibe that makes everything so listenable. The game show skits that bookend and pop up throughout the record are endearingly goofy. The samples featured on here stopped this record from being on streaming sites for the longest time, but they all work very well with the beats. I'm glad I have listened to it although I am somewhat underwhelmed given the reputation this record has. Outside of gems like the infectious funk of "Me Myself and I", there wasn't many songs here that escaped from being pleasant backing listening. Everything here is decent, but there isn't enough great moments to fully get behind this record.

a pretty fun album not my cup of tea tho liked the sounds in the background and the flows good too but it's a bit messy for my liking album stretches longer than I would prefer overall a mid album and not my style

It's a little weird, it's plenty fun, it retains some of the hest elements of hip-hop whilst ditching some of it's worst elements, and clesrly influenced a few things... plenty to love.

Heard the single? Then you’ve heard the album. Bonus star for sampling steely Dan.

Just a great hip-hop classic. Just over the four line for me.

- I liked the fun and funky beats and sampling, throughout. - Their voices and flow were smooth, too. - Enjoyable enough, a 3.5, but I'll round down because it can be too jokey and the album goes on longer than I'd like - would be better without the interludes, imo.

I mean this one is just fantastic start to finish. Clever, influential, controversial, so many things to say about this album really. Its a 5 star no contest

soooo good

Is it hip-hop? Is it a game show? Who knows!? I've had a good run with the genre this year (Illmatic and Wu-Tang both got a 4), so I came in hopeful, and it delivered. 'Me Myself and I' is a properly bouncy, funky singalong and 'The Magic Number' is dangerously catchy, with grooves built out of some cleverly chopped-up samples. It's silly, warm and clever all at once, and for 1989 it sounds like nothing else. What keeps it from a 5 is the skits. They're daft fun the first time, but they break the momentum, and I'd have happily swapped a couple for more of the grooves. Still, it's a joy of an album, and I'll be putting a few of these on again. 4 stars.

Really fun energy album for a Friday.

A true Hip Hop album. Very Good!

This album is contagiously happy. I found myself smiling the whole way through. The samples alone are worth 4 stars. The Orgee song was maybe a pass for me though…

it was alright but not my cup of tea

Another 'not bad hip hop entry. Don't know if I'd go out of my way to actively listen, but some fun moments for sure.

Para un oyente del hip hop de todos los tiempos, este disco es una de las escuchas obligadas para entender aún mejor mucha de la música que vino después. De la Soul debuta con una obra comparable a una opera rock de los 70 (el título es un guiño a Johnny Cash), un statement digno del movimiento Native Tongues Posse que luego integrarían junto a los miembros de A Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers y Queen Latifah, entre otros. "This is a recording!" - 1989 dejó en las bateas de las disquerías de Long Island a Baja California discos como Paul's Boutique, All Hail the Queen y No One Can Do It Better. En ése contexto impactó con el crossover cultural de la convivencia de los singles con un concepto dentro del álbum donde las canciones son en realidad separadores en un programa de televisión. Mente positiva y mensaje de paz, rap conciencia le dirán en Hispanoamérica años después. Hippies para los gangstas y thugs, hip hop para pibitos dirán los atrevidos años después. Hágase el favor de escuchar una buena síntesis de todo el buen rap puesto junto: Ghetto Thang, The Magic Number y Me Myself and I, por nombrar tres bombas. "Glory, glory, alleluh" a Maseo, Posdnous y el finado Trugoy the Dove; a Tommyboy Records que editó su primer álbum y a Prince Paul que lo produjo.

este es el primer album que me apareció, la verdad mi experiencia echandolo fue curiosa. comencé sin nachosan rapeando sobre el beat, y terminé con nachosan rapeando sobre el beat de estos iconos. nos invitó, como grupo, a tener un momento de freestyle personalizado que nos hizo felices. me quedo con eso. único con: exceso de scratch MAL. 7/10, veremos que pasa mañana

Discazo de los principios de los 90s. Samples de funk, jazz y disco. Y 3 raperos virtuosismos. Súper groovero y con una gran energía. "Me, myself and I" me parece uno de los puntos más altos del disco

La que los hiphoperos dicen que le gusta pero a nadie le gusta

Me dieron ganas de ser el proximo principe de bell air. No llegue a escucharlo completo. Podria haber murto sin escucharlo y estaba bien.

De los discos de Hip Hop de los ochenta diria que es de mis favoritos; el flow, las letras, los samples. Muy superior a los discos de esa época (Run DMC, NWA, etc.)

Painful to get through this. Not for me.

This album deserves to be on this list for its influence on hip hop culture, but it’s a tough listen in 2026. It’s the closest we’ve had to Donald Glover’s “So I went to the hat store and I bought myself a hat” joke. Their sound is somewhere between A Tribe Called Quest and the Beastie Boys. Not a bad time, just a lot of a very specific sound.

Very enjoyable and creative. Maybe the skits will reduce replayability.

ugh not my thing at all, first anything with Skits is not a pleasurable experience for. I didnt hate it, it was hard to listen to I will just never willing listen to it again.

Solid, very fun hip-hop album

I always wish I like this album more than I do

Unique and game changing, I wish we had more like de la these days. I'd like it more if it was distilled down the the tracks only.

I could image enjoying this when I’m just chilling in some cool coffee bar or smth I’d probably never play it again, hiphop is just not my thing.

This is fine as far as hip-hop goes I guess, but it’s not going to ever be my thing, and the skit in this is even more pointless and daft than usual. Oh, plus it is of course over-long.

A Tribe Called Quest this isn't. Despite "3 Feet High and Rising" being frequently breathed in the same breaths as "The Low End Theory," it just can't come close to stacking up. It lacks the same visceral groove and political punch of the former, and my word is there ever a lot of horribly unfunny stoner/nerd humour on this thing. Just wall-to-wall "you had to be there and also inebriated" type jokes that wore out their welcome with me immediately. Probably because I wasn't there or high. Before somebody says that these guys are straight edge or whatever, I don't care. Despite each interlude sucking horribly, it sounds like they're having fun here which is half the criteria for making music anyway, so good on them. Overall the joy is mostly infectious, and I enjoyed the hell out of some of this but to much cringeworthy dorkiness left me wanting more out of this record. Oh and again, whoever invented the concept of pretending to have sex on rap records is a loser, as it's the musical equivalent of "uh-hu I've kissed a girl! Uhhh she goes to another school, you don't know her." Maybe its just my de la clothes, or perhaps, perchance, my de la ears. 2.5-3 HIGHLIGHTS: I knew a guy who had 3 feet once. Ole 3 foot they'd call him.

Classic

Love this era of hip-hop

A pillarstone in hip hop history. Incredible sampling and a very fun listen

Yep, easy 5. Game changing in every way.

I almost bumped it up to a 4 solely because of Me Myself and I. The other tracks were just average at best though.

What a bunch of goof balls.

Really interesting and unique, especially in the context of other rap music at the time. However, none of it really grabbed me and made me think this album is great or I would want to put it in my rotation. Supposedly, this is the first psychedelic rap album, and maybe that's what keeps it from being super enjoyable to me? I don't like psychedelic rock very much. I don't know, there's definitely something here.

This is my type of old school hip hop with Tribe being my favorite from this era and sub-genre (whether it’s alt-rap, jazz rap or whatever). What I love about this album is that it swings for the fences. It has some great samples. It’s not as consistent as I’d hoped and seemed bloated.

7 - buncha crap but two bangers in eye know and me, myself and I. Buddy also solid.

Entiendo la importancia y lo innovador para la epoca, me parece interesante, no volvere a escucharlo probablemente jamas.

Sonically enjoyable and fun. Didn't do much for me, but the ride was fun! Rating: 3

Not my fave

Review - Great alt hip hop album. The bangers (Me Myself and I, The Magic Number, Eye Know etc) are great and still sound fresh. The production is great, perfect balance between turntablism, sampling and original touches. I will say, I have to dock a point or so for having unleashed the torrent of album skits on the world. The skits here aren't terrible but they set off some absolute shit. Score - 8/10 Need to listen? YES

3.5★/5 10.13.2026

Fun, positive, and playful hip hop.

A truly unique hip hop album, chaotic, and filled with some of the most creative sampling ever. It’s brilliant. Some of it is a bit messy and hard to listen to, but it’s a lot of fun and I love this album I also love the cover design

A fun album, only a few really great songs though.

Really dug this. Great sampling, solid rapping, fun album. Dragged a bit towards the end which kept it from being better.

Classic album. I never got as into these guys as I did the rest of Native Tongues, but "Me, Myself, and I" was everywhere for a while. This is VERY close to 4 stars for me but not quite.

Funky, energetic and nerdy. Honestly, a little sad that they've been largely forgotten outside of their Gorillaz feature, but hey, whatever gets them attention I guess.

This debut album from De La Soul was instrumental to the change in hip hop. Coming out in 1989, this was a revolutionary album based on all the sampling they used. It was so much it took decades to be able to stream the De La Soul albums because they could not get the copyright for everything. But this was different than the other rap at the time. This was funky and upbeat, little cursing, the opposite of gangsta rap. Listen to Me, Myself, and I. 3 is the magic number. If they don't get you moving, you might be dead.

I knew someone who was obsessed with this album. It has good flow but I never quite understood the hype.

#472 Funky and soulful hip hop is definitely up my street and I have always liked their well known tracks. At time of listening, I’m not feeling well so I was worried it might impair my enjoyment here but the quality shone through. I could do without the skits and the album goes on a little too long but these are minor quibbles. Heard before? ❌ Would I revisit? ✅ Listen before you die? ✅ Fave track(s): The Magic Number; Eye Know; Me, Myself & I Rating: 7/10 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Even tho De La is a definitive 5-star group, I have to grade this one on the curve that was later set by Stakes & Buhloon, plus there's too much corny shit on here.

3 is the magic number has been played so much, didn't know where it's from. So this is radio-friendly late 80s hip-hop. Bit more edge on Ghetto Thang. It's all erm, fine? Just one step removed from Fresh Prince. Eye Know has a light style, quite nice. Ooh there's actually swearing at some point! Ooh, Buddy has Q-Tip from a Tribe Called Quest. I had thought in places here there was that vibe, kinda laid back, almost jazzy. Me Myself and I has a princey funky vibe on the instrumentals Best track - Ghetto Thang, Eye Know, Buddy 3 stars

90s boom bap rap and maybe it was me, but the band track overpowered the vocals making it drowned out. 3 songs on this 23 song album were good, "(3 Is) The Magic Number", "Eye Know", and "Me Myself and I". I would give this a higher rating but there were some songs that carried the album and the rest were bad. I'm looking at you "De La Orgee"

An absolutely essential album in the evolution of hip-hop, and it definitely lives up to the hype. Solid 5 Stars.

I’m at a 5. I was pretty sure this would be good going into it, based on what little I knew of De La Soul & their reputation, and let’s just say that I’m De La Sold on these guys. Great flow from Plug One, Two & Three, great lyricism across the board for a number of these tracks, and some super unique production for 1989 that you quite literally could not get away with nowadays. I do think it’s a little heavy on the skits in a way that makes the overall flow of the full 63 minutes a little muddy, but the skits are all pretty entertaining, so it balances out. I think the only “main” track that didn’t really work for me was “Potholes In My Lawn”, but even still, I think it’s not bad at all. My favorite one here is probably “Ghetto Thang” – it feels like a Tribe Called Quest cut in the best way, & I do wish a few more tracks focused on the serious side instead of the loose ‘hip-hop hippies’ energy they so desperately try to avoid for most of this album. That said, I really like that energy; it’s just an infectiously fun album, even when they decide to pull a De La Orgee out of left field. You can tell they had fun making it, and the D.A.I.S.Y. ethos that permeates the whole thing puts the “soul” in De La Soul. It’s one of those albums where having the lyrics in front of you & following along will help immensely, and they really are saying a lot here. Granted, they’re also saying you smell a lot too, so be sure to use your soap. If you let it all wash over you & cleanse your ears, you’ll get what feels like a hip-hop classic, and certainly one of the best rap albums of the 1980s. For my tastes, I do think “Done By The Forces Of Nature” & “It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back” are ahead of it, but this is a close third; that’s fine by me, since 3 is the magic number after all. I could easily understand it being someone’s favorite 80s rap album though. For me, it’s an easy 5, and I’m glad I finally got around to it. Thank goodness this is on the list.

Supongo que fue entretenido, pero la veritá no idea breo. Oki doki

Listened on 24th February 2026. Favourite song is Me, Myself and I.

I want to start out by affirming that this album definitely belongs to the cohort of albums you must hear before you die. You can trace the historical continuity from here to the present. You hear this heritage unmistakably in all of the hip-hop that came out of the East Coast. De La Soul is one of the foundational bricks in that musical tradition, end of story. It is also easy to appreciate the lyricism, even though most of us have gotten used to more sophisticated rhymes of our post-2010 era. Let's not forget the presence of "Me Myself and I," which has ascended to the pantheon of the greatest tracks in hip-hop music. They even got Q-Tip to produce a track, a sensational one even. With that said, how much of the runtime of 3 Feet High is devoted to skits? They feel inescapable. I think we have been a bit to harsh on the skit as a form in the intervening decades; there are many cases where a skit elevates the music around it. There are great examples such as the eerie Midnight Marauder guide from the now-classic album of the same name that gave the project its backbone, or the pinnacle of the form in the chaotic acts on the margins in the 36 Chambers. Here the skits, with the exception of Take It Off (which is somewhere between track and skit) are like tying a leaden brick to the rest of the album. They are suffocating. The sex skit in particular is enough to blunt even the sharpest offering (though nowhere near as grating as the blowjob skit in Ready to Die).

A beacon of light in an era where hip hop was all negativity. I am subtracting one star for introducing the trope of the annoying skit in rap albums. 4 stars

Qsy, normal. No es mi tipo de música favorito y fue un poco largo el disco. Sólidas 2 estrellas.

Enjoyed! Sparked a day listening to hip hop and rap.

3.5

I was so happy when this popped up yesterday! An easy five stars for one of the most interesting groups in hip hop. Some of the best beats from the wild west sampling days, unique flow, and they manage to pull off humor without making themselves the punchline. I love me some DE LA SOU!

Some silly hop right there.

Playful and funky, albeit a bit too long.

curioso disco

It's funky but grating

There were definitely songs that I enjoyed here, but there was so much fluff on the album that brought down the overall experience for me.

4.5

Can I say soulful rap? 3 Feet High and Rising is classic from the 90s. Understated, soft spoken and whimsical hip hop. The album goes on for a bit too long, but it's always great to revisit it.