3 Feet High and Rising - it's been 25 years? (!!)

March 3, 1989:
Along comes De La Soul with their positive style making them an oddity beginning with the first single, "Me, Myself and I".

Their positivity meant many observers labeled them a "hippie" group, based on their declaration of the "D.A.I.S.Y. Age" (da inner sound, y'all). Sampling artists as diverse as Johnny Cash, Hall & Oates, Steely Dan and The Turtles, 3 Feet High and Rising is often viewed as the stylistic beginning of 1990s alternative hip hop and especially jazz rap.

"An inevitable development in the class history of rap, De La Soul is new wave to Public Enemy's punk," wrote critic Robert Christgau in his Consumer Guide column's review of 3 Feet High and Rising.

And for what it’s worth, that worthless rag, Rolling Stone magazine gave the album three stars (what? just 3?) and concluded that it was "one of the most original rap records ever to come down the pike, the inventive, playful 3 Feet High and Rising stands staid rap conventions on their def ear."

Looking back, when Three Feet High and Rising was released 25 years ago today, the hip hop world was changed instantly and permanently, says the surfer.