Waaaay before De La Soul, there was Bob Dorough, and Multiplication Rock (later lumped into Schoolhouse Rock). De La Soul simply took a snippet from Dorough's classic song about the number 3. So the original inspiration was Dorough, not De La Soul.
Waaaay before De La Soul, there was Bob Dorough, and Multiplication Rock (later lumped into Schoolhouse Rock). De La Soul simply took a snippet from Dorough's classic song about the number 3. So the original inspiration was Dorough, not De La Soul.