David Jude Jolicoeur, recognized broadly as Trugoy the Dove and one of many founding members of the Lengthy Island hip hop trio De La Soul, has died. He was 54.
His consultant Tony Ferguson confirmed the stories Sunday. No different info was instantly obtainable.
In recent times, Jolicoeur, had mentioned he was battling congestive coronary heart failure, residing with a LifeVest machine affixed to his particular person. De La Soul was a part of the hip-hop tribute on the Grammy Awards final week, however Trugoy was not onstage along with his fellow bandmates.
Jolicoeur was born in Brooklyn however raised within the Amityville space of Lengthy Island, the place he met Vincent Mason (Pasemaster Mase) and Kelvin Mercer (Posdnuos) and the three determined to kind a rap group, with every taking over distinctive names. Trugoy, Jolicoeur mentioned, was backwards for “yogurt.” Extra just lately he’d been going by Dave.
De La Soul’s debut studio album “3 Toes Excessive and Rising,” produced by Prince Paul, was launched in 1989 by Tommy Boy Data and praised for being a extra light-hearted and optimistic counterpart to extra charged rap choices like N.W.A’s “Straight Outta Compton” and Public Enemy’s “It Takes a Nation of Tens of millions” launched only one 12 months prior.
Sampling everybody from Johnny Money and Steely Dan to Corridor & Oates, De La Soul signaled the start of different hip-hop. In Rolling Stone, critic Michael Azerrad known as it the primary “psychedelic hip-hop document.” Some even known as them a hippie group, although the members didn’t fairly like that.
In 2010, “3 Toes Excessive and Rising” was added to the Nationwide Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for its historic significance.
They adopted with “De La Soul Is Lifeless,” in 1991, which was a bit darker and extra divisive with critics, and “Stakes is Excessive,” in 1996.
