“Buddy” is the fourth single off of De La Soul’s debut album 3 Feet High and Rising, reaching #2 on the US Rap Chart in early 1990. The song features the Jungle Brothers and Q-Tip, both fellow members of the Native Tongues collective.

According to Pitchfork, “Buddy” wasn’t a ‘pal’ or ‘friend’:

Their album would be full of inside jokes [and] invented slang (“A phrase called talk” was their rhyme style, “Public Speaker” was a dope emcee, “Buddy” was a hot body, and “Strictly Dan Stuckie” meant “awesome”).