10. De La SoulThree Feet High And Rising

I have chosen both this and De La Soul Is Dead because I love them both so much. But Three Feet High And Rising has to get a mention because it was my first experience of what a skit was. I realised that skits are cool and they’re an insight into these people’s lives. So I just love that album for its flow. It was one of my first introductions to sampling, to covering tracks. Now I love to play the original track, ‘Three Is A Magic Number’ by Bob Dorough. It is so beautiful, I mean the lyrics and the delivery together are just stunning. When he sings in that soothing voice, “A man and a woman had a little baby, oh yes they did. And they had threeeee in the family; that’s the magic number.” I get chills up my spine from that kind of stuff. I simply wouldn’t have known that track if De La Soul hadn’t sampled it, so that album just had to get a mention.