De La Soul’s David Jude Jolicoeur, known widely as Trugoy the Dove, has died, aged 54.
A rapper and producer, Jolicoeur was a founding member of the hugely popular and innovative Long Island hip hop trio, which formed in 1988.
De La Soul’s David Jude Jolicoeur, also known as Trugoy the Dove (right), has died, aged 54.Credit:
His representative Tony Ferguson confirmed reports of Jolicoeur’s death on Sunday. No other information about a cause of death was immediately available.
In recent years, Jolicoeur had said he was battling congestive heart failure. De La Soul was part of the hip-hop tribute at last week’s Grammy Awards, but Trugoy was not onstage with his fellow bandmates.
Jolicoeur was born in Brooklyn and raised in the Amityville area of Long Island, where he met Vincent Mason (Pasemaster Mase) and Kelvin Mercer (Posdnuos). The three decided to form a rap group, with each taking on distinctive names. Trugoy, Jolicoeur said, was backwards for “yogurt.” More recently he’d been going by the name Dave.
De La Soul’s debut studio album 3 Feet High and Rising, produced by Prince Paul, was released in 1989 by Tommy Boy Records and praised for being a more light-hearted and positive counterpart to more charged rap offerings like N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton and Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions released just one year prior.
In the 1990s, De La Soul had three top 40 US Billboard 200 albums.
Sampling everyone from Johnny Cash and Steely Dan to Hall and Oates, De La Soul signalled the beginning of alternative hip-hop. Rolling Stone critic Michael Azerrad called it the first “psychedelic hip-hop record”. Some even called them a hippie group, though the members didn’t agree.
In 2010, 3 Feet High and Rising was added to the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for its historic significance.
They followed with De La Soul Is Dead in 1991, which was a bit darker and more divisive with critics, and Stakes is High in 1996.
AP
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