On Friday, August 26, starting at 6 a.m. PDT, Seattle radio station KEXP dedicates twelve hours to De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising, the groundbreaking hip-hop classic. KEXP DJs will play the entire album, plus related B-sides and rarities, and all the original recording. They will also sample sources, including songs by Johnny Cash, the Turtles, Hall & Oates, Funkadelic, and James Brown. New interviews with members of De La Soul and producer Prince Paul, conducted by Street Sounds host Larry Mizell, Jr., are also included.
According to poducer Prince Paul, he and De La Soul weren’t intentionally seeking out strange samples for the album. “It wasn’t looking for things that were, ‘man this is just bizarre!’ it just comes from whatever we listened to at the time – what we grew up on and what we collected. We were digging before digging was digging!”
Consistently ranked among the greatest albums of all time, 3 Feet High and Rising welcomed a new era of positivity and creativity in the emerging hip-hop explosion and is considered the forerunner for alternative hip-hop of the ‘90s.
KEXP’s exploration of De La Soul’s debut coincides with the August 26 release of the trio’s ninth studio album, And The Anonymous Nobody, which was funded via Kickstarter. New music from the upcoming album Throwback to the Future by Prince Paul's new project BROOKZILL! also features in KEXP’s De La Soul day.
Last year, KEXP went Inside Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique, breaking out every sample used on the album. 3 Feet High and Rising is clearly the perfect follow-up to explore and celebrate.
“Immediately after we broke down Paul’s Boutique we started discussing the next important record to break down and pay tribute to – it didn’t take long for us to decide,” said John Richards, KEXP Morning Show host and associate program director. “3 Feet High and Rising is one of the most important and seminal records not only in hip hop but in the history of recorded music. KEXP has been playing De La Soul since 1989 when this debut came out and it’s an honor to really dig in and breakdown such a crucial record and on their release day no less.”
By Kyle Eustice for RAPstation.com
