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

David Jude Jolicoeur, regarded commonly as Trugoy the Dove and 1 of the founding users of the Long Island hip hop trio De La Soul, has died. He was 54.

His agent Tony Ferguson confirmed the reports Sunday. No other facts was immediately obtainable.

In current years, Jolicoeur, experienced reported he was battling congestive coronary heart failure and wore a LifeVest defibrillator device. De La Soul was part of the hip-hop tribute at the Grammy Awards past 7 days, but Trugoy was not onstage with his fellow bandmates.

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

“Dave! It was a honor to share so a lot of levels with you,” wrote rapper Significant Daddy Kane on Instagram.

Rapper Erick Sermon posted on Instagram that “This just one hurts. From Extensive Island from a person of the greatest rap teams in Hiphop # Delasoul #plug2 Dave has passed absent you will be missed… RIP.”

Younger Expert additional, “Rest in peace my brother. You had been cherished. @plugwondelasoul I really like you brother we are below for you. Smiles I really like you bro. This is crazy” and DJ Semtex wrote that it was “heart wrenching news.”

“Luke Cage” showrunner and hip-hop journalist Cheo Hodari Coker wrote on Twitter that, “You do not comprehend what De La Soul implies to me. Their existence explained to me, a black geek from Connecticut that of course, hip-hop belongs to you as well, and Trugoy was the equilibrium, McCartney to Pos Lennon, Keith to his Mick. This is a huge reduction.”

Jolicoeur was born in Brooklyn but raised in the Amityville region of Long Island, in which he fulfilled Vincent Mason (Pasemaster Mase) and Kelvin Mercer (Posdnuos) and the 3 decided to form a rap team, with each having on unique names. Trugoy, Jolicoeur reported, was backwards for “yogurt.” Much more just lately he’d been likely by Dave.

De La Soul’s debut studio album “3 Ft High and Rising,” created by Prince Paul, was introduced in 1989 by Tommy Boy Documents and praised for remaining a a lot more gentle-hearted and positive counterpart to more charged rap offerings like N.W.A’s “Straight Outta Compton” and Public Enemy’s “It Will take a Country of Millions” produced just a single yr prior.

Sampling absolutely everyone from Johnny Cash and Steely Dan to Corridor & Oates, De La Soul signaled the beginning of option hip-hop. In Rolling Stone, critic Michael Azerrad referred to as it the very first “psychedelic hip-hop document.” Some even identified as them a hippie group, although the members didn’t quite like that.

In 2010, “3 Toes Large and Rising” was additional to the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for its historic importance.

“It’s a hip-hop masterpiece for the era in which it was produced,” Jolicoeur informed Billboard previously this calendar year. “I assume the aspect of that time of what was using place in songs, hip-hop, and our tradition, I feel it welcomed that and opened up minds and spirits to see and check out new diverse factors. … I consider the innocence that we experienced back then was brave, but we have been in a time the place innocence was so cool. Not sampling James Brown, but sampling Liberace I believe it was stunning (when) we arrived out (that) we sampled Liberace. I really do not know if it’d effect the similar way (now).”

They adopted with “De La Soul Is Useless,” in 1991, which was a bit darker and much more divisive with critics, and “Stakes is Substantial,” in 1996.

De La Soul introduced 8 albums and in March have been going to make their streaming support debut, on Spotify, Apple Audio and some others immediately after a extensive battle with Tommy Boy Information about legal and publishing matters. The 2021 acquisition of Tommy Boy Documents by Reservoir, with masters from the likes of De La Soul, Queen Latifah and Naughty By Nature, helped shift points along and the full catalog was established to debut on March 3.

“You imagine that you have your stuff and that now it is on cruise control, waiting for the checks to arrive in. But it is not that way at all. There’s a lot to do,” Jolicoeur advised Billboard. “You do have to have collaborators, you do need to have assistance, you do will need to rework again into the program and not essentially be the lone commissioner of this undertaking. You have to have allies, you have to have companies to get the job done with, you have to have people to employ the service of, and we uncovered a massive lesson from that. It certainly wasn’t just, “We acquired our masters back!” It ain’t that.”

Over the yrs, the team was nominated for six Grammy Awards, winning a person for Ideal Pop Vocal Collaboration for the Gorillaz song “Feel Great Inc.”

In the course of the pandemic, he explained, there have been talks of solo albums and branching out — which were not new.

“We aid every other in those people thoughts, but at the same time, I consider the magic truly occurs when it’s the a few of us,” he stated. “I’m not hoping to crack that system, and I do not assume any person else is, either.”

Questioned what advice he would give to teams about how to stay with each other, he mentioned you have to struggle, but try to remember you are fighting for the staff.

“Sometimes it’s about dollars, but then there is an ingredient of: We really don’t get along because we have not been truthful with each individual other. Get by that honesty, move on, and keep going — since it feels very good going. Struggle it out, get it all out, and appear again recognizing that you are fighting for the workforce,” he stated.