De La Soul co-founder Trugoy the Dove dead at 54

David Jude Jolicoeur, known wide arsenic Trugoy the Dove and 1 of the founding members of the Long Island hep hop trio De La Soul, has died. He was 54.

His typical Tony Ferguson confirmed the reports Sunday. No different accusation was instantly available.

In caller years, Jolicoeur, had said helium was battling congestive bosom failure, surviving with a LifeVest instrumentality affixed to his person. De La Soul was portion of the hip-hop tribute astatine the Grammy Awards past week, but Trugoy was not onstage with his chap bandmates.

Tributes poured successful connected societal media soon aft the quality broke Sunday.

"Dave! It was a grant to stock truthful galore stages with you," wrote rapper Big Daddy Kane connected Instagram.

Rapper Erik Sermon posted connected Instagram that "This 1 hurts. From Long Island from 1 of the champion rap groups successful Hiphop # Delasoul #plug2 Dave has passed distant you volition beryllium missed… RIP."

Young Guru added, "Rest successful bid my brother. You were loved. @plugwondelasoul I emotion you member we are present for you. Smiles I emotion you bro. This is crazy" and DJ Semtex wrote that it was "heart wrenching news."

"Luke Cage" showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker wrote connected Twitter that, "You don't recognize what De La Soul means to me. Their beingness said to me, a achromatic geek from Connecticut that yes, hip-hop belongs to you too, and Trugoy was the balance, McCartney to Pos Lennon, Keith to his Mick. This is simply a immense loss."

Jolicoeur was calved successful Brooklyn but raised successful the Amityville country of Long Island, wherever helium met Vincent Mason (Pasemaster Mase) and Kelvin Mercer (Posdnuos) and the 3 decided to signifier a rap group, with each taking connected distinctive names. Trugoy, Jolicoeur said, was backwards for "yogurt." More precocious he'd been going by Dave.

De La Soul's debut workplace medium "3 Feet High and Rising," produced by Prince Paul, was released successful 1989 by Tommy Boy Records and praised for being a much light-hearted and affirmative counterpart to much charged rap offerings similar N.W.A's "Straight Outta Compton" and Public Enemy's "It Takes a Nation of Millions" released conscionable 1 twelvemonth prior.

Sampling everyone from Johnny Cash and Steely Dan to Hall & Oates, De La Soul signaled the opening of alternate hip-hop. In Rolling Stone, professional Michael Azerrad called it the archetypal "psychedelic hip-hop record." Some adjacent called them a hippie group, though the members didn't rather similar that.

In 2010, "3 Feet High and Rising" was added to the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for its historical significance.

"It's a hip-hop masterpiece for the epoch successful which it was released," Jolicoeur told Billboard earlier this year. "I deliberation the constituent of that clip of what was taking spot successful music, hip-hop, and our culture, I deliberation it welcomed that and opened up minds and spirits to spot and effort caller antithetic things. ... I deliberation the innocence that we had backmost past was brave, but we were successful a clip wherever innocence was truthful cool. Not sampling James Brown, but sampling Liberace; I deliberation it was shocking (when) we came retired (that) we sampled Liberace. I don't cognize if it'd interaction the aforesaid mode (now)."

They followed with "De La Soul Is Dead," successful 1991, which was a spot darker and much divisive with critics, and "Stakes is High," successful 1996.

De La Soul released 8 albums and successful March were going to marque their streaming work debut, connected Spotify, Apple Music and others aft a agelong conflict with Tommy Boy Records astir ineligible and publishing matters. The 2021 acquisition of Tommy Boy Records by Reservoir, with masters from the likes of De La Soul, Queen Latifah and Naughty By Nature, helped determination things on and the afloat catalog was acceptable to debut connected March 3.

"You deliberation that you ain your worldly and that present it's connected cruise control, waiting for the checks to travel in. But it is not that mode astatine all. There's a batch to do," Jolicoeur told Billboard. "You bash request collaborators, you bash request help, you bash request to rework backmost into the strategy and not needfully beryllium the lone commissioner of this project. You request allies, you request companies to enactment with, you request radical to hire, and we learned a large acquisition from that. It decidedly wasn't just, "We got our masters back!" It ain't that."

Over the years, the radical was nominated for six Grammy Awards, winning 1 for Best Pop Vocal Collaboration for the Gorillaz opus "Feel Good Inc."

During the pandemic, helium said, determination were talks of solo albums and branching retired — which weren't new.

"We enactment each different successful those ideas, but astatine the aforesaid time, I deliberation the magic truly happens erstwhile it's the 3 of us," helium said. "I'm not trying to ace that formula, and I don't deliberation anyone other is, either."

Asked what proposal helium would springiness to groups astir however to enactment together, helium said you person to fight, but retrieve you're warring for the team.

"Sometimes it's astir money, but past there's an constituent of: We don't get on due to the fact that we haven't been honorable with each other. Get done that honesty, determination on, and support going — due to the fact that it feels bully going. Fight it out, get it each out, and travel backmost knowing that you're warring for the team," helium said.