De La Soul is a perfect example for people who think all rap is gangsta crap. “3 Feet High and Rising” is witty, soulful, full of clever wordplay, and has very little to do with growing up on the street. (Not that rapping about the street is a bad thing, it’s just that it need not define rap.) It’s simply a phenomenal album, one that transcends genre boundries and should appeal to music lovers everywhere.
“Buddy” was also a pretty big single off that album. I also thought “The Magic Number” was well known, but Billboard makes no mention of it. I was also a bit surprised to find that every single one of their seven albums made the Billboard 200. (Five placing in the Top 40.)
Those guys played at my college freshman year (1991). They were huge for like a year (around when Pocket Full of Kryptonite came out I imagine) and then you never heard from them again. Same thing happened to a similar band called Rusted Root around 1995ish. That Greatful Dead/Phish/Dave Mathews jam-band style was very popular on my campus. At least until gangsta rap came around.