When we learned that Trugoy (David Jude Jolicoeur) of De La Soul passed away this past Saturday (February 12th) at the age of 54, we were saddened to learn as the highly influential rap group was in the process of making their early works finally available for streaming. Trogy wasn’t seen on recent Gorillaz outings and was battling congestive heart failure for years.
To honor the late great Trugoy lets revisit a Glide article from last month that shined a light on De La Soul’s earliest albums.
It was back in 2019 when De La Soul first hinted that their long sought-after Tommy Boy era albums were finally hitting streaming services. Unfortunately, the plan fell through when Tommy Boy regained control of the trio’s discography and negotiations over streaming revenue fell apart. Trouble with record labels is only half the battle for the “Me Myself and I” group as getting the samples used on those earlier albums cleared has held up the digital release of De La’s first six albums.
After years of contractual arguments and negotiations, it looks like we are just months away from having the classic Three Feet High and Rising at our fingertips. In a new development, Reservoir Media acquired Tommy Boy Records and with it, the back catalog of De La Soul. Earlier today, via Reservoir’s website and the group’s social media pages, it was announced that De La Soul’s first six albums will be hitting streaming services on March 3, 2023. The long-awaited arrival of these albums on streaming services will come on the 34th anniversary of the group’s aforementioned classic debut album. Along with 1989’s Three Feet High and Rising, the rest of their missing discography will be available as well; De La Soul Is Dead (1991), Buhloone Mindstate (1993), Stakes Is High (1996), Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump (2000), and AOI: Bionix (2001). The roll-out will kick off with the release of “The Magic Number”, a hit from the band’s 1989 debut will be available to stream on January 13th. Also, Three Feet High and Rising is currently available to order on vinyl, cassette, and CD on the band’s website.
Via a press release from De La Soul’s new home base, the trio was quoted saying: “We can’t believe this day is finally here, and we are excited to be able to share our music with fans, old and new. Golnar, Rell, Faith, and the Reservoir team have been great partners in this entire process. We’re grateful that our relationship with them all has enabled this to happen.”
While everyone from old hip-hop heads to curious new listeners are all ecstatic over this news, with little to no digital footprint (unless you count bootlegs and illegal downloads) the masterful sample chops and cartoonish flows that are at the heart of De La Soul’s discography could be a bit foggy. Glide put together a quick retrospective on De La’s long-lost back catalog for anyone needing a refresher on the six albums hitting streaming in early March.
Three Feet High and Rising
March 3, 1989
There isn’t much to say on De La Soul’s debut that the music doesn’t say for itself. The trio of Posdnuos, Trugoy, and Maseo teamed up with producer Prince Paul, a relationship that would spawn two more albums, to create what is now widely regarded as one of the best hip-hop albums of all time. The group’s debut launched the careers of everybody involved and provided us with classics such “Me Myself and I”, “The Magic Number”, and “Say No Go”. The group’s use of positivity and humor was a refreshing departure for the juxtaposing violence that was being portrayed on other hip-hop releases from that era. It ushered in a new kind of hip-hop, one that doesn’t take itself too seriously and approaches the genre with a wide grin and open mind.
De La Soul is Dead
May 14, 1991
Coming off the immense acclaim of their debut, De La Soul did anything but disappoint with its follow-up. De La Soul is Dead was one of the first albums to receive the coveted “5 Mic” rating from the popular hip-hop publication The Source and was received with similar high praise as its predecessor. The album follows the story of a teenage boy who gets his copy of the album stolen by bullies, only for those bullies to continually bash the album as heard on the skits of the album. The knocked-over flower pot on the cover was meant to represent De La Soul’s departure from any box they were put in from their debut, removing themselves from the idea of being poster children for a new generation and simply wanting to create the music they want to hear.
Buhloone Mindstate
September 21, 1993
For their third and final album with Prince Paul at the helm, De La Soul wanted to continue to grow. The album features more guests than on their first two albums and sees the band exploring a more jazz influenced sound than ever before. Some of those features include jazz greats like Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley, and Pee Wee Ellis, who helped give the album a more organic jazz sound that allowed the band to experiment with that sound even more. This album also sees the beginning of what was to become a long, heated relationship between De La Soul and the music industry. On the album, the three rappers begin to question their label and their approach to controlling their records to appeal to a larger audience. De La Soul combats this conflict with more experimentation than ever before and diving deeper into their jazzy roots.
Stakes Is High
July 2, 1996
On their first album without the ear of Prince Paul, De La Soul took matters into their own hands. Stakes Is High is the group’s first step into production with the group handling all of the production on their own with exception of “Dinninit” being produced by Spearhead X and other tracks getting a helping hand from the likes of J.Dilla and DJ Ogee. Stakes Is High was a statement piece for the band as they explored and ultimately criticized the current state of hip-hop and the “gangster rap” movement of the time. De La attacked the commercialization of their genre and took a strong stance against artists buying into the mainstream push of hip-hop. While the music was met with wide critical acclaim, fellow rappers like Naughty By Nature took direct offense to the lyrical content of the album, a feud sparked between the two groups that would last long after the album was released.
Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump
August 8, 2000
De La Soul’s fifth album also doubled as what was planned as a trilogy of albums. Art Official Intelligence was meant to be the overarching concept for two more albums but only one more of the series would be released, 2001’s AOI: Bionix. Upon release, the album received generally positive reviews with a lot of critics citing the large amount of features seen on the tracklist. Everyone from Xzibit to Chaka Khan provided vocals for the album whose production credits are primarily credited to De La themselves with the expectation of songs produced by J. Dilla, Supa Dave West, and a production credit to the man who started it all, Prince Paul. In terms of experimentation, the band’s fifth LP plays it a little safer taking a more straightforward approach to rapping, allowing the group to collaborate with the features more effectively to create a consistent tracklist.
AOI: Bionix
December 4, 2001
For the group’s final album on Tommy Boy, they continued their AOI series and dove deeper into this newfound love for collaboration De La seems to have come across on their last album. With more involvement from the late, great J.Dilla, who produced and provided vocals for the song “Peer Pressure”, and Supa Dave West producing 6 of the 18 songs on the album, De La was able to flush out the concept behind the album even further and toy with the concepts of these songs. Unfortunately, the release of AOI: Bionix lined up perfectly with the downfall of their label, Tommy Boy, so the lack of attention and promotion from the defunct label put a damper on its release, making this project De La Soul’s most overlooked.
