Don’t let the flowers and peace symbols fool you, De La Soul are not hippies.
 
It has been 27 years since hip-hop pioneers De La Soul released their groundbreaking album, 3 Feet High and Rising on Tommy Boy Records. I recently pulled my copy of the record out for a spin at the request of my twelve-year-old son, no less, who had just heard “Me Myself and I” on the radio in the car and wanted to know who was responsible for the infectious track. I don’t often brag about my parenting skills, but when I do, musicology is involved.
 

De La Soul on Dutch TV show, Fa. Onrust, 1989.
 
So let’s go back to the magical number year of 1989 and De La Soul’s trip to the Netherlands. The trio appeared on Dutch television show Fa. Onrust and performed three songs from 3 Feet High and Rising, “The Magic Number,” “Plug Tunin’” and “Me, Myself, And I.” To say that De La’s performance is anything less than completely stellar, would be a vast understatement as it could easily be considered a historic piece of hip-hop flavored performance art that beautifully expressed the band’s culturally rich message. A message that still strongly resonates today.

The performance is followed by a somewhat awkward interview segment that gets especially squirmy when the Dutch interviewer presses Maseo (Vincent Lamont Mason Jr.) of De La about where he and the rest of the group “found” the many music samples that were used on 3 Feet High and Rising. The show then wraps up with a strange “game show” segment that pits De La Soul against smug London post-punk duo Mute Drivers who immediately confess—rather proudly it appears—that they were not fans of rap music. I’m not going to spoil your viewing pleasure of this awesome time capsule by giving any more about it away, so just hit the play button below and watch the masters of hip-hop at work (and play!).
 

 
H/T: Egotripland

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Louder than a bomb: Public Enemy’s intense extended live set on Dutch TV from 1988