page_title: 3 Feet High and Rising
section_title: Artwork
hierarchical_section_title: 3 Feet High and Rising / Artwork
caption_attribution_description: English: Giclée print of original album art work of De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising, designed by Toby Mott.
context_page_description: 3 Feet High and Rising is the debut studio album by American hip hop group De La Soul, released on March 3, 1989 by Tommy Boy Records. It is the first of three collaborations with producer Prince Paul, which would become the critical and commercial peak of both parties. The album title comes from the Johnny Cash song "Five Feet High and Rising". The album contains the singles "Me Myself and I", "The Magic Number", "Buddy", and "Eye Know".
  Critically, as well as commercially, the album was a success. It is consistently placed on lists of the greatest albums of all time by noted critics and publications, with Robert Christgau calling it "unlike any rap album you or anybody else has ever heard". In 1998, it was selected as one of The Source Magazine's "100 Best Rap Albums". It was selected by the Library of Congress as a 2010 addition to the National Recording Registry, which selects recordings annually that are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.
context_section_description: The album's artwork was designed by Toby Mott's and Paul Spencer's radical British art collective the Grey Organisation (GO). In 1986 Mott and Spencer had moved from London to New York after GO's infamous paint attacks on Cork Street art galleries, where they began working as bicycle messengers. By 1989, GO were exhibiting their paintings around the East Village and working as art directors for Tommy Boy Records and MTV (among others) making music videos for various groups, such as Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest, and The Rolling Stones. GO also began designing album covers for groups such as Information Society and De La Soul, most notably 3 Feet High and Rising.
  Mott describes the process of designing the album cover in his essay 'Hip Hop in The Daisy Age': "We have come up with the 'Daisy Age' visual concept. De La Soul visit our loft where we lay them down on the floor facing up, their heads making a triangle. We photograph them whilst hanging precariously off a step ladder, one idea being that the cover would not have a right way up. CD's [sic] have yet to be the dominant musical format so the vinyl album sleeve is our most effective way of making a statement. We layer the brightly-coloured hand drawn flower designs made with Posca paint pens on acetate over the black and white photographic portrait print, which is rostrum camera copied. This is well before the time of Apple Macs and scanning etc. [...] The intent of the design of De La Soul's, 3 Feet High and Rising LP cover is to be new and bright, with the overlaying of the fluorescent flowers and text reflecting a synthetic pop cartoon look [...] This is a move away from the prevailing macho hip hop visual codes which dominate to this day".
caption: De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising album artwork, Giclée print
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