Feel Good, Inc (3 Feet High And Rising: Expanded Edition - De La Soul)

Member Name: Seres

Product:	3 Feet High And Rising: Expanded Edition - De La Soul
Date:	25/04/08 (173 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Trippy Hippy hip - hop nonsense, upbeat and entertaining

Disadvantages: An overabundance of skits

De La Soul don't swear very much, don't get angry in their music, and in most ways disagree with the gangster lifestyle. They sing about money, drugs, and women, same as all the other rappers at the time did... but they're far more personal. De La Soul don't really care if they're rich or not, are anti-drug, and the songs they have about women are all about male inadequacies and frustrations. In short, they're an anti-gangster trio.

While their music has an upbeat tempo and generally sunny disposition, the two rappers (Posdnuos and Trugoy) take shots at several of the more subversive gangster stereotypes on this, their first album, Three Feet and Rising (yes, it's named after a Johnny Cash song - proof of the eclectic nature of the trio's musical influences). On songs such as "Ghetto Thang" and "Say No Go" - which is, incidentally, one of the catchiest songs about drugs ever written - the group tackle subjects that other rap artists of the time used to revel in, and show the gritty underside of the rap dream. Say No Go in particular is a joy, announcing itself with a burst of trumpets before the low, rolling bassline comes in and the lyrics start. The song is very much critical of drug-use, specifically attacking the 'joke' that are people addicted to crack cocaine. Yet despite being utterly scathing, the song but delivers this message in a bouncy, positive way, and the track is infectious, to say the least. Ghetto Thang is less upbeat but equally infectious, beginning with the lines "Mary had a little lamb/That's a fib - she had two twins though/and one crib". It denounces the rap dream, showing the pitfalls that await anyone who tries to emulate Eazy-E or other, similar, rappers, who preached about guns, sex, and drugs.

The subversive elements are rarely given a chance to show up, however - Three Feet High and Rising is more about style than anything else. This is the album, after all, which pretty much invented the art of "skits". For this, it is to be both commended and hated. While they're funny the first time you hear them, no rap album since seems to be able to go without them. Outkast do it, Kanye West does it, even 50 Cent has a go (albeit his jokes tend to end with him shooting someone. Guy has a temper issue). On this album the skits take up about as much space as the real songs do, with short skits where the band do various things. There are several different ideas which revolve round themes, such as the band telling the listener to do certain things or say certain things. They describe themselves and reveal secrets about each other, and many other things too. The skits vary in quality and listenability, but overall add to, rather than detract from, the experience.

Aside from these skits, or perhaps in spite of them, there are still a series of excellent songs here, even if you aren't a fan of rap. De La Soul are one of the few bands who have broken into mainstream consciousness, which I can prove by telling you about "The Magic Number". Yes, De La Soul were the first to announce that three was a magic number, with this fun song that starts the album proper. As far as fun poppy moments go, this album has them to spare, with the seriously good natured "Tread Water" a certain highlight, featuring the band ask different animals for advice about life in general, and making some terrifically awful rhymes in the process. One of the better things about the album is the generous nature it has towards the songs. The good songs are placed throughout the tracklisting, so that you are never more than a few minutes away from something good. The end of the album sees a slight departure from the trippy hippy vibe than emanates from the early idealism of tracks like "Eye Know", which is a surprisingly heartfelt ballad track. Instead of talking about women as objects, the bandmembers take a more realistic approach, talking about ideals like love and romance, instead of just plain ol' sex. With a gentle whistling hook and a laid-back tone, it's a swell tune to listen to on a sunny day.

There's a strong summer vibe floating across the entire record. "Me Myself And I", possibly their most famous song, is a testament to this. A big bouncy number with eminently quotable lyrics "Write is wrong when hype is written/on the Soul, De La that is/Style is surely our own thing/Not the false disguise of show-biz" - and this was before Heat magazine ever existed. Visionary stuff, really. The song is all about being happy with who you are - and that's a nice thing. It's very obviously the song that inspired the majority of Will Smith's early career with Jazzy Jeff, having a very similar style and tone to most of those hip-hop songs. The band don't always come up on top - "Buddy", sung with Q-Tip, comes across as an under inflated piece of boring music, coupled with uninspiring lyrics. Similarly most of the songs which have a reference to the two rappers as 'plug one' and 'plug two' (it's a concept thing, don't ask) tend to be the worst here. The two versions of "Plug Tunin" are both overlong and entirely dull, characterised by slow, pondering backing tracks and ultimately don't hold the attention. The amount of skits gets more annoying with each listen of the album, as skits really can't hold up to being heard more than two or three times. Short pieces like "Transmitting Live From Mars" and "Cool Breeze On The Rocks" are more distracting than anything else, and when the band try to go for a Public Enemy inspired rap track like "This Is A Recording 4 Living In A Fulltime Era", they suffer in the comparison.

But the album, overall, tends to skip these faults. There's a reason this is regarded as one of the best hip-hop albums of all time - it's damn entertaining. Whether sampling James Brown on "Change In Speak" or dropping everything to listen to their nephew play chopsticks on the piano ("Jenifa Taught Me", which never stops being amusing), De La Soul have creativity and passion in spades, and this comes across on the album. It's a sweeping ideal, but one that is impossible not to get caught up in.

Summary: The best side of hip-hop