Aug 9, 2018
The Album: De La Soul: Three
Feet High and Rising (Tommy Boy, 1989)
I (OW) mention this on the episode but this album changed my life.
It wasn't my introduction to hip-hop but it was the album through
which I fell in love with hip-hop and that set me down a path that
shaped the rest of my professional (and even personal!) life: as a
writer, scholar, DJ and of course, humble podcast host.
It clearly had an impact on Thomas Golubic too. Our guest for this
episode is one of the top music supervisors in the game (as Morgan
jokes, he's not just a member, he's the president, literally).
He worked on Six Feet Under Breaking
Bad, The Walking Dead, and right
now, Better Call Saul; those in L.A. may also
remember him from his KCRW
days.
Thomas and us dug deep into everything that makes this album so
special, not the least of which is how it shifted the perception of
what hip-hop could sound and look like. It's may be hard to
remember now, nearly 30 years later, but in 1989, hip-hop was
dominated by larger-than-life, superhero MCs such as KRS-One, Chuck
D, Rakim, etc. But here were these four guys from Long Island, with
a wholly creative irreverence, embracing their inner nerdiness (and
soul ya'll) and mining a treasure trove of samples beyond the James
Brown catalog (the latter would get them in trouble, which we talk
about as well). The album, and group, changed the proverbial game.
No more no less.
More on Thomas Golubic
More on Three Feet High and Rising
Show Tracklisting (all songs fromThree Feet High and Rising unless indicated otherwise):
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