De La Soul: High & Rising Hardcover Book
 
Features:
By Marcus J Moore
Hardcover
November 19, 2024
240 Pages
Age 12 and up
 
A stunning cultural biography of De La Soul, the era-defining hip-hop trio that touched millions of lives and changed rap forever.
 
De La Soul burst onto the scene with the release of their groundbreaking 1989 album 3 Feet High & Rising, an “anything goes” hip-hop masterpiece hailed as a new masterwork from a bygone era of Black experimentation.
 
Formed in Long Island in 1988 by Kelvin “Posdnuos” Mercer, Dave “Trugoy the Dove” Jolicoeur, and Vincent “Maseo” Mason, De La Soul rebuked classification and appealed to the Black alternative. Their music was positive and psychedelic, their imagery full of flowers and peace signs. It was rap with a broad sonic palette which set the blueprint for an entire generation of artists who followed. But as quickly as De La ascended, they were faced with the pressures of a changing industry and bitter legal battles.
 
"High And Rising is, among other things, a love letter, but not one grounded solely in the romantics of the past. Nostalgia enriches the storytelling, the touchability of this historic group, but it is also an ode to how they touched the present, and how they will endlessly touch the future." — Hanif Abdurraqib, New York Times bestselling author of There’s Always This Year
 
“High and Rising reads like a movie. Comprehensive, true to life, and as irreverent as De La Soul themselves. Brother Marcus sets the record(s) straight. History and memoir from the soul.” — Leslie Odom Jr., Tony and Grammy award-winning artist of Hamilton