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Artist News
De La Soul’s Trugoy The Dove dies
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 13 February 2023
De La Soul’s David Jolicoeur – aka Trugoy The Dove – has died aged 54.
No cause of death has yet been disclosed, although the producer and rapper had previously spoken about his struggles with congestive heart failure, and how health problems had prevented him from performing and touring with his bandmates.
Born in Brooklyn in 1968, Jolicoeur met fellow De La Soul members Vincent Mason (aka Maseo) and Kelvin Mercer (aka Posdnuos) at high school, with the three friends forming the legendary hip hop group in 1988.
After being discovered by local producer Prince Paul, the group released their first seminal album ‘3 Feet High And Rising’ the following year. Their distinctive sound and eclectic jazz and funk samples made them immediately stand out within the hip hop genre, even if some of those samples subsequently led to legal problems.
The group went on to release nine studio albums, most recently 2016’s ‘And The Anonymous Nobody…’ However, as streaming became the default place where people accessed music, the group’s first six LPs were not available due to sample licensing issues and a dispute with the label Tommy Boy.
However, after Tommy Boy was acquired by music firm Reservoir, it was indicated that those issues were in the process of being addressed. And then – last month – it was announced that the six albums would become available to officially stream from next month.
The group said of that news: “We can’t believe this day is finally here. We are excited to be able to share our music with fans, old and new. 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”.
Reservoir also confirmed that Prince Paul and the original team who worked on the six albums had been involved in the process of “preparing the catalogue for streaming”.
The producer was among those paying tribute to Jolicoeur last night. He wrote on Twitter: “You have no idea how much pain in this last year. Dave, love you bro. A blessing we got a chance to unite again. Divine power. Literally no words anymore. De La Soul forever”.
