Me Myself and I (De La Soul song)

"Me Myself and I" is a song by American hip hop trio De La Soul, released in March 1989 as a single from their debut studio album, 3 Feet High and Rising. It was the group's only number one on the US Billboard R&B chart. The song also topped the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart.^[2]

The song's number one position in The Netherlands was spurred by the VPRO television station, who made a documentary about De La Soul after meeting them when they were still unknown.^[3]

De La Soul member Posdnuos stated: "The words were written pretty quick. [...] The press was referring to us as the hippies of hip-hop. This song became a way to express that this wasn't a gimmick, and that we were being ourselves. This is why in my first verse I say, 'You say Plug 1 & 2 are hippies, no we're not, that's pure plug bull.'"^[4]

Prince Paul and Maseo sat down and came up with the idea of sampling Funkadelic's song "(Not Just) Knee Deep" for the beat of "Me Myself and I". When they played the beat to Posdnuos and Trugoy the Dove, they did not like it because the group was anti-radio and anti-establishment, but went ahead and reluctantly recorded their vocals over the beat.^[5]

Critics have situated the track within 3 Feet High and Rising’s broader collage-sample aesthetic and playful, left-of-center stance that helped define alternative rap at the turn of the 1990s.^[6]

Jerry Smith from Music Week wrote, "Hot dance band of the moment, De La Soul issue this engagingly loping track from their much acclaimed album, 3 Feet High and Rising. And its strong beat and rhythmic rap is sure to take it high chartwards."^[7]

The video, directed by Charles Stone III, stages the group in a satirical classroom where a disciplinarian teacher pushes rap clichés that De La Soul rejects, underscoring the song’s theme of individuality. It includes cameos by A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad.^[8]

Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest appear in the video. Ali is the one who writes "De La Sucks" on the boys' bathroom wall and Q-Tip appears when Pos says Black is Black.^[9]

"Me Myself and I"

• "(Not Just) Knee Deep" by Funkadelic (1979)
• "Rapper Dapper Snapper" by Edwin Birdsong (1980)
• "Funky Worm" by the Ohio Players (1973)
• "The Original Human Beatbox" by Doug E. Fresh (1985)
• "Gonna Make You Mine" by Loose Ends (1986)

"Ain't Hip to Be Labeled a Hippie"

• "Hard Times" by Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band (1976)

"What's More"

• "You Baby" by The Turtles (1966)

"Brain-Washed Follower"

• "Funky President" by James Brown (1974)
• "You Made A Believer (Out of Me)" by Ruby Andrews (1971)
• "Booty Butt" by Ray Charles (1971)
• "So This Is Our Goodbye" by The Moments (1972)

• All That "Hip Hop" (2005)