#RunTheCulture

This week in #CultureClassics we have the classic song “Me, Myself, and I” by De La Soul.

The song dropped in 1989 and was the lead single from their debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising (a hip-hop classic in it’s own right). The song and video helped to establish the group’s trademark style of combining hip hop, social commentary, and (dry) humor. The record is about the group’s frustration of being ostracized in the mainstream hip-hop community, aka being labeled as hippies.

Me, Myself, and I was the group’s only number one song on the Billboard U.S. R&B chart. Thanks in no small part to its music video. The setting is a high school where the members of the group (Trugoy, Posdnuos and Maseo) are being taught “how to hip-hop”. Of course it’s the mainstream form and De La Soul is mocked for not fitting in. They persist and eventually get out of the class and are free to be themselves. It was a staple in the early days of Yo! MTV Raps.

With a classic Parliament Funkadelic sample and it’s a celebration of individuality in The Culture, “Me Myself, and I” by De La Soul is hip hop’s embodiment of the classic Shakespear quote; “This above all; to thine own self be true.”

#RunTheCulture

If you enjoyed that check out some of our other throwback Hip-Hop#CultureClassics:

• “Electric Relaxation” by A Tribe Called Quest
• “I Used to Love H.E.R.” by Common
• “Hey Ya” by Outkast

Written by @TalentedMrFord

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