De La Soul

David Jude Jolicoeur, known widely as Trugoy the Dove and one of the founding members of the Long Island hip hop trio De La Soul, has died. He was 54.

Fight it out, get it all out, and come back knowing that you're fighting for the team," he said. "I'm not trying to crack that formula, and I don't think anyone else is, either." ... I think the innocence that we had back then was brave, but we were in a time where innocence was so cool. You need allies, you need companies to work with, you need people to hire, and we learned a big lesson from that. "You do need collaborators, you do need help, you do need to rework back into the system and not necessarily be the lone commissioner of this project. "I think the element of that time of what was taking place in music, hip-hop, and our culture, I think it welcomed that and opened up minds and spirits to see and try new different things. De La Soul released eight albums and in March were going to make their streaming service debut, on Spotify, Apple Music and others after a long battle with Tommy Boy Records about legal and publishing matters. In Rolling Stone, critic Michael Azerrad called it the first "psychedelic hip-hop record." Jolicoeur was born in Brooklyn but raised in the Amityville area of Long Island, where he met Vincent Mason (Pasemaster Mase) and Kelvin Mercer (Posdnuos) and the three decided to form a rap group, with each taking on distinctive names. Trugoy, Jolicoeur said, was backwards for "yogurt." Their existence said to me, a black geek from Connecticut that yes, hip-hop belongs to you too, and Trugoy was the balance, McCartney to Pos Lennon, Keith to his Mick. "Luke Cage" showrunner and hip-hop journalist Cheo Hodari Coker wrote on Twitter that, "You don't understand what De La Soul means to me.

The Brooklyn-born rapper helped pioneer the alternative hip hop genre.

“His music will allow him to live in our hearts and minds as he is gone. “I’ve always loved De La Soul and always will.” Referencing a De La Soul track, he added: “Oodles and Oodles and Oodles of O’s.” He wrote: “We lost another legend of hip hop music and culture in my brother Trugoy aka Dave of De La Soul. Music producer and chart-topping vocalist Williams led the tributes, writing on Twitter: “Trugoy Dave from De La Soul has gone up to be with the day of the stars with the Master. Stars of the hip hop world, including Pharrell Williams, Busta Rhymes and Cypress Hill, have paid tribute to Trugoy the Dove, founding member of influential trio De La Soul.

The death has been announced of the De La Soul rapper David Jolicoeur - aka Trugoy the Dove aka Dave - at the age of 54.

Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Their most recent live dates were last summer. They followed it up with another seminal album, De La Soul Is Dead, in 1991.

Sad news this morning, as it has been revealed that rapper Trugoy the Dove, a founding member of seminal hip-hop group De La Soul, has died.

The album is regularly referred to as a masterpiece of the genre, and was added to the US's National Recording Registry in 2010 for its significance. He has suffered from congestive heart failure in recent years, and was notably absent during De La Soul's appearance at the Grammys last week. The New Yorker, whose real name was David Jude Jolicoeur, founded De La Soul with childhood friends Vincent Mason aka Maseo and Kelvin Mercer aka Posdnuous in the late 1980s and the trio went on to huge success with their debut album '3 Feet High and Rising'.

Jolicoeur co-founded the Long Island trio alongside Posdnuos (Kelvin Mercer) and Maseo (Vincent Lamont Mason Jr), and went on to make their name in the late ...

[returning to streaming services](https://www.euronews.com/culture/2023/01/03/hip-hop-pioneers-de-la-soul-to-put-entire-back-catalog-online) on 3 March. [last week's Grammy Awards](https://www.euronews.com/culture/2023/02/06/beyonce-proves-why-she-is-queen-bey-by-becoming-grammy-awards-most-decorated-artist) in Los Angeles during a tribute to the hip-hop genre. It included hits like ‘The Magic Number’ and ‘Me, Myself and I’.

Trugoy brought skill and care-free charisma to De La Soul's innovative music, which helped to usher in a new age of hip-hop. After years of legal disputes, ...

On the other hand, it also means that the next couple of weeks can serve as a celebration of Trugoy's life and legacy, culminating on March 3 when so much of De La's best work will finally be available again. Over the course of their early albums, beginning with Three Feet High and Rising and continuing with De La Soul Is Dead in 1991, Buhloone Mindstate in 1993 and Stakes Is High in 1996, De La became avatars for future generations of hip-hop nerds and geeks inspired by the group's commitment to creativity and cleverness. [ sampling practices](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-07-23-ca-392-story.html), and mostly with Tommy Boy. They shifted to an independent model after that and their output slowed considerably, releasing just two albums after 2004, most recently the crowd-funded and the Anonymous Nobody... The group recorded steadily from 1989 through 2001, when they released AOI: Bionix, the last of their six albums for Tommy Boy. 5, when De La Soul was feted as part of [this year's Grammy Awards'](https://www.npr.org/2023/02/05/1152837932/2023-grammy-awards-winners-beyonce) celebration of hip-hop's 50th anniversary, Trugoy was conspicuously absent from the proceedings. For all their humor, the group spent decades waging serious battles with the music industry, partly around their Their middle-class, suburban roots were an important part of their difference from most of the hip-hop landscape of the mid- and late-1980s when rap music was still associated with gritty, urban 'hoods like Compton in Los Angeles or New York's South Bronx and Queensbridge Projects. The gold chains and the macho s*** just wasn't all that anymore." Trugoy, in particular, felt like the group's irrepressible id, the embodiment of De La's D.A.I.S.Y. Dante Ross, an A&R representative who worked with them after they signed to Tommy Boy Records in 1987, told [Check the Technique](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/29811/check-the-technique-by-brian-coleman-introduction-by-ahmir-uestlove-thompson/) author Brian Coleman in 2007, "when De La Soul came in the game, there was just a changing of the guard. The most formative musical memory of my youth occurred 30,000 feet over central California in the summer of 1989.

As one-third of De La Soul alongside Kelvin “Posdnous” Mercer and DJ Vincent “Maseo” Mason, the Haitian American musician and producer who adopted names like “ ...

But when Posdnous appeared alone to rap “Buddy” during [the “Hip-Hop 50” tribute on the 2023 Grammy Awards](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/grammy-awards-hip-hop-anniversary-tribute-rappers-list-1234674419/), something seemed amiss. [he discusses suffering from congestive heart failure](https://www.okayplayer.com/music/de-la-soul-royalty-capes-video.html), which limited his ability to tour and perform.) Occasionally he and De La reminded the world of their massive cultural influence, like starring on Gorillaz’ 2005 global hit “Feel Good Inc.,” which memorably centers on Dave’s cackling laughter; and that “Magic Number” drop on Into the Spider-Verse. During a 1989 appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show, they segued from their Top 40 hit “Me Myself and I” to the B-side cut “It Ain’t Hip to Be Labeled a Hippie.” Two years later, they released the sarcastic and cynical 1991 masterwork De La Soul Is Dead, effectively dismembering their image as friendly prophets of the D.A.I.S.Y. Yet to label the trio as “nerds,” whether pejoratively or as a badge of honor, is to limit the scope of their Black expression. “I got questions about your life if you’re so ready to die,” he rapped on 1996’s “Long Island Degrees.” They memorably complained about “rap and bullshit,” yet also collaborated with R&B singer Vinia Mojica on the delightful single “A Rollerskating Jam Named ‘Saturdays.’” On Buhloone Mindstate, they chanted, “It might blow up, but it won’t go pop,” struggling to define success on everchanging terms. 12](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/de-la-soul-trugoy-the-dove-dead-obit-1234678463/) at the age of 54, helped revolutionize [hip-hop](https://www.rollingstone.com/t/hip-hop/) and change the course of popular music. As one-third of [De La Soul](https://www.rollingstone.com/t/de-la-soul/), alongside Kelvin “Posdnous” Mercer and DJ Vincent “Maseo” Mason, the Haitian American musician and producer who adopted names like “Jude,” “ [Trugoy](https://www.rollingstone.com/t/trugoy/) the Dove,” “Plug 2,” and, finally, just “Dave” expanded the art form in ways not seen before or since. He delivered masterclasses of dense, metaphorically rich lyrics, whether it’s the meditative deep-cut classic “I Am I Be” on Buhloone Mindstate, or the punchy conscious chants of “Church” from 2004’s The Grind Date. The concept of “alternative hip-hop” remains a subject of heated debate. “The early bird gets the worm in this Rotten Apple/But explore deeper, you’ll find a seed/Plant more, even get your mind free,” he rapped on the latter. They didn’t sound as cool and stylized as Rakim and KRS-One or boom with authority like LL Cool J and Run-DMC (the latter a huge influence). Meanwhile, Dave maintained the same leisurely “Plug 2” gait, even as he refined his cadences and words.

The Brooklyn-born rapper helped pioneer the alternative hip hop genre.

“His music will allow him to live in our hearts and minds as he is gone. “I’ve always loved De La Soul and always will.” Referencing a De La Soul track, he added: “Oodles and Oodles and Oodles of O’s.” He wrote: “We lost another legend of hip hop music and culture in my brother Trugoy aka Dave of De La Soul. Music producer and chart-topping vocalist Williams led the tributes, writing on Twitter: “Trugoy Dave from De La Soul has gone up to be with the day of the stars with the Master. Stars of the hip hop world, including Pharrell Williams, Busta Rhymes and Cypress Hill, have paid tribute to Trugoy the Dove, founding member of influential trio De La Soul.

“We were all walking through Macy's to a local mall,” remembers MC and producer Dave Jolicoeur, “and I saw a Mickey-Mouse T-shirt with a big daisy on it. It ...

DAVE: We try to recapture that energy, and for a couple of old guys it’s funny, so we do it as best as we can, and it’s humorous and it’s silly. POS: As much as we appreciate and love “Me, Myself And I”, I think we’ve been very vocal about the fact we got tired of it, but “The Magic Number” really wasn’t a song like that. POS: That’s what was great about back then – we were just so open to anything because we were just so happy to be living our dream and doing what we wanted. DAVE: “The Magic Number” came out towards the end of our recording period of 3 Feet High And Rising, I don’t know if it was the very last song but I think it was towards the end of the recording process. Funnily enough, we just did a bunch of shows in the UK and Belgium and we do “The Magic Number” as one of the last songs, and the reaction to it was very fresh and genuine. So it was really simple to do with “The Magic Number”. And that’s what we did – there were probably a good 15 to 25 people in there at some points, and we’d be pulling people into the booth and saying, ‘Hey, go up and say that part.’ There was a big window by the mixing desk – the view was 36th and Broadway, and you could see the corner and everything going on. But the way we had things outlined, we always had room for more improvisational stuff, and being able to come up with some weird ideas on the spot. POS: When we came up with “The Magic Number”, we were working in Mase’s basement. There were different songs like “Three Is A Magic Number” or “The Letter A”. I actually talk about the Dugout on [1991’s] “Ring Ring Ring”: “party at the Dugout on Dixon Ave/Haven’t been to the jam in quite a while”. But for us it was a little different to how we planned on approaching it.