"Buddy" is the third single released by

De La Soul De La Soul () is an American hip hop trio formed in 1988 in the Amityville area of Long Island, New York. They are best known for their eclectic sampling, quirky lyrics, and their contributions to the evolution of the jazz rap and alternative ...

from their album ''

3 Feet High and Rising ''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 ...

''. The song is often cited as an example of an effective

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

; one that includes a change of song lyrics or beat. In this case, both the original song's lyrics and the musical bed received a makeover. With its

sample Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of s ...

of the bassline from

Taana Gardner Taana Gardner (born September 3, 1960) is an American disco and post-disco singer who found her success through West End Records since 1979. She is also a former member of the Aural Exciters. Early life Born in Newark, New Jersey (where sh ...

's 1981 song "Heartbeat", the 7 minute 12" version was clearly tailor-made for dancefloor and provided a striking contrast to the laid back album version. The song was also famous for featuring the major members of the

Native Tongues The Native Tongues were a collective of late 1980s and early 1990s hip-hop artists known for their positive-minded, good-natured Afrocentric lyrics, and for pioneering the use of eclectic sampling and jazz-influenced beats. Its principal me ...

posse, including Q-Tip of

A Tribe Called Quest A Tribe Called Quest was an American hip hop group formed in Queens, New York City, in 1985,Q-Tip

Jungle Brothers Jungle Brothers are an American hip hop trio composed of Michael Small (Mike Gee), Nathaniel Hall (Afrika Baby Bam), and Sammy Burwell (DJ Sammy B). Known as the pioneers of the fusion of jazz, hip-hop, and house music, they were the first hip ...

Queen Latifah Dana Elaine Owens (born March 18, 1970), known professionally as Queen Latifah, is an American rapper, actress, and singer. Born in Newark, New Jersey, she signed with Tommy Boy Records in 1989 and released her debut album ''All Hail the Que ...

and

Monie Love Simone Johnson or Simone Gooden (born 2 July 1970), better known by her stage name Monie Love, is a British rapper, actress and radio personality from London. Best known for her singles during the late–1980s through the 1990s, Monie Love curre ...

. While

Phife Dawg Malik Izaak Taylor (November 20, 1970March 22, 2016), known professionally as Phife Dawg (or simply Phife), was an American rapper and a member of the group A Tribe Called Quest with Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad (and for a short time Jarobi W ...

appears in the video itself and is heard in the extended mix, the mix in the video eliminates his entire verse.

Music video

The music video for "Buddy" is introduced by Prince Paul who explains, "'Buddy' doesn't mean 'girl' or 'sex' for that matter, 'buddy' simply means 'body', bodies of all kind." While the majority of the video consists of the members of the Native Tongues posse performing straight to camera, this is interspersed with brief segments of black-and-white footage, one of which featuring a

speech balloon Speech balloons (also speech bubbles, dialogue balloons, or word balloons) are a graphic convention used most commonly in comic books, comics, and cartoons to allow words (and much less often, pictures) to be understood as representing a char ...

that remarks "this video makes no sense!" Along with those who appeared in the song, the video also featured a cameo from rapper

Chi-Ali Chi-Ali Griffith (born May 27, 1976), better known by his stage name Chi-Ali, is an American rapper from The Bronx, New York City, best known for his debut album, '' The Fabulous Chi-Ali'', released in 1992, and as a member of hip-hop collectiv ...

Track listing

# "Buddy (Native Tongue Decision)" - 7:17 #*Guest Appearances: Q-Tip,

# "Buddy (Native Tongue Decision Instrumental)" - 5:50 # "Ghetto Thang (Vocal)" - 3:45 # "Ghetto Thang (Ghetto Ximer)" - 3:55 # "Buddy (Vocal)" - 4:58 #*Guest Appearances: Q-Tip, Jungle Brothers # "Ghetto Thang (Ghetto Ximer Instrumental)" - 3:47

Charts

{{authority control 1989 singles De La Soul songs Songs written by Vincent Mason Songs written by Kelvin Mercer Songs written by David Jude Jolicoeur Songs written by Prince Paul (producer) Song recordings produced by Prince Paul (producer) Tommy Boy Records singles 1988 songs Posse cuts