De La Soul Is Risen
M. Abduh

I was lying on my cousin’s couch when the “Me, Myself, I” video came on. After telling everyone in the room to be quiet, I watched Plug One & Plug Two drop over a Funkadelic sample. Cuz’s floor model TV was old, so the picture was a menagarie of green, orange, & blue figures. But even if it had been in black & white, it was easy to see that De La Soul were originals, different than anything in hip-hop. They wore Dayglo prints and African medallions, not shoe-laceless shell tops or dookie ropes. (In fact, the video parodied that “false disguise of showbiz.”) They rapped about daisies, not Mercedes. From watching that first video to later buying every vinyl record, cassette tape, & CD they dropped, I became De La to the death (or at least until they broke up).

Death came with digital streaming. For years, I would test the waters & search “De La Soul” in the iTunes search bar. Invariably, I got results for a thousand songs with “soul” in the title or karaoke covers. But no De La. The Long Island trio was absent from streaming services because of industry rule number 4080: record company people are shady. & with the shade of the Crooked Forest, Tom Silverman, founder of Tommy Boy Records, offered the group 10% of the streaming sales. 10% split three ways. The group righteously declined the “offer.” The label left the catalog “in limbo,” as DJ Maseo said in an interview, because they didn’t deem it worth clearing all the samples. & after years of battling Tommy Boy, De La Soul finally got their catalog back, including their debut album 3 Feet High and Rising (1989), De La Soul is Dead (1991), Stakes Is High (1996), etc. It was a revelation. Fans would at last be able to stream their albums. De La Soul had risen.

Then death came again. Plug Two, David Jolicoeur, also known as Trugoy (yogurt spelled backward) died on February 12, 2023, from congestive heart failure, almost two weeks before the streaming release date. A tragic twist of fate. 

Concerning his death, group member Posdnous posted:

Dear Dave, you were the heart of our group. You brought so much creativity, energy, and passion to our music, and your influence will be felt for years to come.

Your passing is a great loss not only to us, but also to the entire hip-hop community. You were a true artist who used music to inspire others, and you will be deeply missed by all who knew you.           

This made the catalog’s release bittersweet. Like every other fan, I was inconsolable at the news of Dave’s death. & like every other fan, on March 3rd at the midnight hour, I rejoiced. As I streamed single after single, album after album, I was reminded why De La Soul is the greatest hip-hop group ever. Name whomever you want: Public Enemy, Run DMC, Wu-Tang Clan, A Tribe Called Quest, NWA, Outkast, etc.

Whomever.

No one has made truer, more innovative, more soulful music. &, finally, thirty-four years after their debut album, a new generation will have their souls stirred & plug-tuned.