Me Myself And I

"Me Myself and I" is one of De La Soul's most popular songs, but the group hates it. They made this very clear during performances when they would introduce it by saying, "Let's get this over with," then chant, "We hate this song!" in the chorus. In interviews, they explained that it was foisted on them by their record label, Tommy Boy, which insisted they come up with a familiar, poppy song that could be released as a single and get them a hit. The song was both a blessing and a curse: it got them on the radio and earned them a bigger fanbase, but it sucked the oxygen out of other songs from their catalog they liked a lot better.

This was the big hit from De La Soul's debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising. One of the most innovative albums of the late 1980s, it merged traditional hip-hop with humorous lyrics, abundant samples and jazz elements. It was helmed by hip-hop producer and DJ Prince Paul, who at the time was the keyboard player with Stetsasonic. Pasemaster Mase of De La Soul recalled to Rolling Stone: "When I met Paul, he was trying to express a lot of different ideas with Stetsasonic and it wasn't working out too well. We were looking to be professionals at making records and he was a professional. It just really sparked."

Typical of De La Soul, there are a soup of samples on this track, but the main groove comes from Funkadelic's "(Not Just) Knee Deep." That song's writers, George Clinton and Philippe Wynne, are credited on "Me Myself and I" along with De La Soul.