The Pop Corporation

De La Soul are a group that means so much to so many people. There’s not many better debut albums than ‘3 Feet High And Rising’, loved just as much by hip hop die-hards as people who loved pop, rock, dance music, soul music and the rest. At the turn of the ’90s, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a couple of long hot summers in the UK, De La Soul landed at the perfect time, ushering a new type of psychedelic, optimistic hip hop that seemed to correlate with what indie and dance music were doing.

Acid-wash bucket hats, big baggy tees, chunky boots, witty lyrics, sampledelic tracks and a playfulness that was pretty irresistible to anyone who listened. Of course, there’s so much more to De La than the first LP, but let’s not underestimate the cultural impact of it in a bid to try and prove you like the deepcuts too.

With that, it is genuinely sad that one of the architects of the LP – Trugoy – has passed away.

A representative for the group confirmed the sad news, and that he was 54 years old, which is no age. Why he passed away isn’t important to us right now – what he meant to everyone, does.

Trugoy, along with school friends Posdnuos and Maseo teamed up with Prince Paul to bring us ‘3 Feet High’ in ’89, and was impossibly influential. Without De La, it’s hard to think of Tyler the Creator, The Roots, Erykah, Chance the Rapper, Pharrell etc getting their shot. Of course, they didn’t do it alone and were part of the Native Tongues collective, which included A Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers, Monie Love, Black Sheep, and Queen Latifah.

While hip hop tends to focus on the individual, Native Tongues embraced collaboration and unity. Clearly brought together by like-mindedness, rather than finance, it was a real moment in pop culture which birthed a ludicrous amount of brilliant music.

The news comes just after the announcement that De La’s legal troubles seemed to be at an end, with the group’s back catalogue finally appearing on streaming services after years of nonsense. The trouble with sample-heavy music is that a lot of people will want a cut from your spoils.

The group’s back catalogue will be available to all on March 3rd.

“Our music is raw, and it’s funky, but at the same time, it’s deeply soulful because this is the Daisy Age, and this is the sound from within,” Trugoy said in ’14: “Rap doesn’t have to come off with hard basslines and heavy kicks and snares. People sometimes want to listen to soft music — even the hardcore crowd.”

You can only hope that their return to streaming will allow a whole new generation of listeners to fall in love with them all over again.