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

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FILE - De La Soul's Vincent Mason, left, and David Jude Jolicoeur perform at Rachael Ray's Feedback Party at Stubb's during the South by Southwest Music Festival on Saturday March 18, 2017, in Austin, Texas. Jolicoeur, known widely as Trugoy the Dove and one of the founding members of the Long Island hip hop trio De La Soul, has died at age 54. His representative Tony Ferguson confirmed the reports Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023. (Photo by Jack Plunkett/Invision/AP, File)

David Jude Jolicoeur, known widely as Trugoy the Dove and one of the founding members of the Long Island hip-hop trio De La Soul, has died. He was 54.

His representative Tony Ferguson confirmed the reports Sunday. No other information was immediately available.

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In recent years, Jolicoeur, had said he was battling congestive heart failure and wore a LifeVest defibrillator machine. De La Soul was part of the hip-hop tribute at the Grammy Awards last week, but Trugoy was not onstage with his fellow bandmates.

Tributes poured in on social media shortly after the news broke Sunday.

ā€œDave! It was a honor to share so many stages with you,ā€ wrote rapper Big Daddy Kane on Instagram.

Rapper Erick Sermon posted on Instagram that ā€œThis one hurts. From Long Island from one of the best rap groups in Hiphop # Delasoul #plug2 Dave has passed away you will be missedā€¦ RIP.ā€

Young Guru added, ā€œRest in peace my brother. You were loved. @plugwondelasoul I love you brother we are here for you. Smiles I love you bro. This is crazyā€ and DJ Semtex wrote that it was ā€œheart wrenching news.ā€

ā€œLuke Cageā€ showrunner and hip-hop journalist Cheo Hodari Coker wrote on Twitter that, "You donā€™t understand what De La Soul means to me. Their existence said to me, a black 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 a huge loss.ā€

Jolicoeur was born in Brooklyn but raised in the Amityville area of Long Island, where he met Vincent Mason (Pasemaster Mase) and Kelvin Mercer (Posdnuos) and the three decided to form a rap group, with each taking on distinctive names. Trugoy, Jolicoeur said, was backwards for ā€œyogurt.ā€ More recently heā€™d been going by Dave.

De La Soulā€™s debut studio album ā€œ3 Feet High and Rising,ā€ 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.Aā€™s ā€œStraight Outta Comptonā€ and Public Enemyā€™s ā€œIt Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Backā€ released just one year prior.

Sampling everyone from Johnny Cash and Steely Dan to Hall & Oates, De La Soul signaled the beginning of alternative hip-hop. In Rolling Stone, critic Michael Azerrad called it the first ā€œpsychedelic hip-hop record.ā€ Some even called them a hippie group, though the members didnā€™t quite like that.

In 2010, ā€œ3 Feet High and Risingā€ was added to the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for its historic significance.

ā€œItā€™s a hip-hop masterpiece for the era in which it was released,ā€ Jolicoeur told Billboard earlier this year. ā€œI think the element of that time of what was taking place in music, hip-hop, and our culture, I think it welcomed that and opened up minds and spirits to see and try new different things. ... I think the innocence that we had back then was brave, but we were in a time where innocence was so cool. Not sampling James Brown, but sampling Liberace; I think it was shocking (when) we came out (that) we sampled Liberace. I donā€™t know if itā€™d impact the same way (now).ā€

They followed with ā€œDe La Soul Is Dead,ā€ in 1991, which was a bit darker and more divisive with critics, and ā€œBuhloone Mindstate" and ā€œStakes is High,ā€ in 1993 and 1996 respectively.

De La Soul released eight albums overall and in March were going to make their streaming service debut, on Spotify, Apple Music and others after a long battle with Tommy Boy Records about legal 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 move things along and the full catalog was set to debut on March 3.

"You think that you own your stuff and that now itā€™s on cruise control, waiting for the checks to come in. But it is not that way at all. Thereā€™s a lot to do,ā€ Jolicoeur told Billboard. ā€œYou do need collaborators, you do need help, you do need to rework back into the system and not necessarily be the lone commissioner of this project. You need allies, you need companies to work with, you need people to hire, and we learned a big lesson from that. It definitely wasnā€™t just, ā€œWe got our masters back!ā€ It ainā€™t that.ā€

Over the years, the group was nominated for six Grammy Awards, winning one for Best Pop Vocal Collaboration for the Gorillaz song ā€œFeel Good Inc.ā€

During the pandemic, he said, there were talks of solo albums and branching out ā€” which weren't new.

ā€œWe support each other in those ideas, but at the same time, I think the magic really happens when itā€™s the three of us,ā€ he said. ā€œIā€™m not trying to crack that formula, and I donā€™t think anyone else is, either.ā€

Asked what advice he would give to groups about how to stay together, he said you have to fight, but remember youā€™re fighting for the team.

ā€œSometimes itā€™s about money, but then thereā€™s an element of: We donā€™t get along because we havenā€™t been honest with each other. Get through that honesty, move on, and keep going ā€” because it feels good going. Fight it out, get it all out, and come back knowing that youā€™re fighting for the team,ā€ he said.

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This story was first published on Feb. 12, 2023. It was updated on Feb. 13, 2023, to correct the spelling of Erick Sermonā€™s name.