High and Rising

A Book About De La Soul

De: Marcus J. Moore

Narrado por: JD Jackson

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.

Completed in the wake of Dave’s passing and the group’s arrival on streaming platforms after years in digital purgatory, High and Rising tells the story of one of the most influential rap groups of all time. In the process, acclaimed music journalist Marcus J. Moore braids in a deeply personal coming-of-age story about his journey through life with De La as a backdrop.

The first book about De La Soul, High and Rising shows that De La Soul is Black history, American history, world history, our history. This is a tale about staying the course, and how holding true to your virtue can lead to dynamic results.

©2024 Marcus J. Moore (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers

Beautiful combination of biography and memoir

De La Soul has always been deserving of their flowers musically and culturally, and Marcus J. Moore truly does the group justice with this book. Marcus did a wonderful job of telling the group's story and measuring their cultural impact, but it's the book's powerful integration of his own personal story that brings the book to life. He speaks about the way that De La's music helped him love himself, and how it basically accompanied him through every step of his life. As journalists and writers, we sometimes detach ourselves from the work in order to cover it correctly. But Marcus recognized that personal connection is exactly what made a group like De La so wonderful in the first place. He wrote about the group with love and veracity, and about his own life with stunning vulnerability. Highly recommend.

waste of time

i feel like i got scammed. has nothing to do with de la . weird. i learned nothing about them