Songoftheday 9/22/16 - Mirror mirror on the wall tell me mirror what is wrong? Can it be my De La clothes or is it just my De La song?

"Me Myself And I" - De La Soul
from the album 3 Feet High and Rising (1989)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #34 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 3

Today's song of the day comes from the rap trio De La Soul, who came together in Long Island, New York in the mid-80s, with the distance from the city center may have affected their alternative style of hip-hop. Rappers Posdnous and Trugoy along with DJ Maseo were helped along by DJ/producer Prince Paul of the seminal rap group Stetsasonic, and recorded their debut album 3 Foot High and Rising in 1989. With a patchwork of esoteric samples and trippy lyrics about peace and observing the minutae of the world around them, they set themselves apart from the dancefloor-heavy direction the genre had headed. The first single though, "Me, Myself And I", didn't shy away from the club, but promoted themselves without having to seem "hard" (and a bit of chunkiness without being comic was a welcome change). And with the music video, which had the guys heading to "remedial rap" class led by a LL Cool J clone, it set them as outsiders in their own world, but a party I'd rather be at...

"Me Myself and I" became De La Soul's first top-40 pop hit in July of 1989. The track went all the way to #1 on Billboard's R&B chart for a week, while the 12" extended version also spent seven days atop their Dance Club Play list. Internationally, the song went to #1 in the Netherlands, and made the top-10 in Belgium, and the top-40 in the UK (#22), Germany (#16), Switzerland (#22), and Austria (#21).

They would follow this hit up with "Say No Go", which generously samples the Hall & Oates #1 hit "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)". But despite the novel use of this type of sample, which Puff Daddy would base a career on, the single missed the pop chart altogether, while making it to #32 on the R&B list (it did reach #3 on the dance chart). But overseas, it was a different story, as each successive single would climb higher on the British chart, with "Say No Go" going to #18, non-American single "Eye Know" peaking at #14, and "the Magic Number" breaking the UK top ten at #7 (the flip-side, "Buddy", went to #18 on the American R&B chart).

In 1991, the trio put out their sophomore effort, De La Soul Is Dead, and trying to break free of the "hippie-dude" image thrust upon them, and while the American pop radio scene took a pass, England fell in love, sending the album into the top ten, and single "Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)" landing at #10 as well on the singles chart. Two years later, on their Buhloone Mindstate release, the Soul went to #76 on the pop list and #30 on the R&B chart in America with "Breakadawn", while landing at #39 in the UK. They followed this jazz-tinged release with Stakes Is High, with the title track climbing to #53 on the R&B chart, and "The Bizness" (with a young up and coming rapper named Common) just missing the Hot 100 by a notch.

De La Soul started the new millennium with the first of what was supposed to be a trilogy under the title Art Official Intelligence. The first disc, Mosaic Thump, scored the trio their first top ten album in America (#9) and sent two songs into the British top-40, with "Ooooh" (#29) and "All Good" with Chaka Khan (#33). But while they never made it to disc three (label issues), they ended up returning to pop radio in 2005 as a featured artist on Gorillaz "Feel Good Inc.", which made it to #14 in the US, #2 in the UK, and #1 on the American Dance chart. Most recently they released the excellent crowd-funded And the Anonymous Nobody, which became their second-highest ranking album at #12 earlier this year.

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Here's the guys performing on the Arsenio Hall show in 1989...

...and the "Richie Rich" mix that helped the song top the dance chart...

Lastly, here's the trio live in 2014...

Up tomorrow: Boston boys are sticking firm.