De La Soul

A Short Story by Mark Rae. Jesmond, June 1987. ‘If you take then put back good, if you steal, be Robin Hood’. Prefab Sprout’s Steve McQueen is spinning on the Marantz home stereo, the VU meters bounce on beat with ‘Appetite’. My name is Mark, at school they called me…

“What I do ain’t make-believe People say I sit and try But whan it comes to being de la It’s just me myself and I” — Me Myself And I, by De La Soul. I grew up in the suburbs of the Twin Cities. There was no gang-banging in my…

Like new credit, the blood work’s indebted Microphone donor, two pints of get right I got my cardio up my n — a Don’t give a damn about a party I do it for the body - Dave aka Plug 2 aka Trugoy The Dove I remember having a conversation…

Destroy the brand, save the Soul. (91/100) — As the ’80s drew to a close, nobody in hip-hop had a stronger brand than De La Soul. The Long Island, NY trio’s surrealist sensibility and colorful aesthetic instantly stood out from the hip-hop pack. Behind Tommy Boy Records’ savvy marketing campaign stickily tagging the group “the hippies of hip-hop,”…

One of hip-hop’s greatest catalogues is finally streaming, and 3 is the magic number… — It seemed a good omen for the nascent year of 2023 that on the 3rd day of the year, it was announced that the entire catalogue from one of hip-hop’s greatest trios will finally arrive to your favorite streaming services on 3/3/23. Alas, it proved quite the opposite with the…

Last week Sunday after a grocery store race to the end of the line I grabbed my phone. There were about 10 people ahead of me with carts…

If you’ve perused any of the numerous tributes to Dave Jolicoeur — better known as Trugoy the Dove — who recently left this world, you’ve likely seen his group De La Soul’s groundbreaking 1989 album “3 Feet High & Rising” hailed as one of the most significant of the past…

The heart in De La’s Soul — It’s one of those bitter ironies with which life is too often littered that De La Soul’s Dave Jolicoeur would pass away of congestive heart failure. The one thing that never failed De La Soul throughout their myriad industry ups and downs was Dave’s heart. His partner in rhyme, the…

Moments of my week in 3. Why is it always 3…? — Each week I base my weeknotes on a new title theme. This weeks’ title is new, but I do find it hard to leave the comfort of the meta-theme of 3. Because in the words of De La Soul (and originally Bob Dorough), 3 is a magic number. The Black (ice) This week…