- Awards And Honors:
- Grammy Award (2005)
- Notable Works:
- “And the Anonymous Nobody”
- “De La Soul Is Dead”
- Date:
- 1988 - present
- On the Web:
- CBC ARTS - How De La Soul honours the late Trugoy the Dove on their new album (Nov. 01, 2026)
De La Soul
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Who are De La Soul?
De La Soul is an American rap group formed in 1988 in Amityville, New York, by Posdnuos (Kelvin Mercer), Trugoy the Dove (David Jolicoeur), and Pasemaster Mase (Vincent Mason).
Their debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising (1989), was highly influential in hip-hop history, known for its conceptual, densely layered style and quirky interlude skits. It influenced groups such as A Tribe Called Quest, Queen Latifah, Public Enemy, and N.W.A. De La Soul's second album, De La Soul Is Dead (1991), addressed serious issues, but later albums like Buhloone Mindstate (1993) and Stakes Is High (1996) were less commercially successful. The group returned with Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump (2000) and continued to release albums, including The Grind Date (2004) and the Grammy-winning collaboration "Feel Good Inc." with Gorillaz in 2006.
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Where and when did De La Soul form?
De La Soul, the influential American rap group, formed in 1988 in Amityville, New York, by three high-school friends Posdnuos (Kelvin Mercer), Trugoy the Dove (David Jolicoeur), and Pasemaster Mase (Vincent Mason). Their debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising (1989), became one of the most influential albums in hip-hop history. Before De La Soul, hip-hop samples primarily came from James Brown's music. After 3 Feet High and Rising, George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic catalog became the go-to source.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What style of hip hop is De La Soul known for?
De La Soul, formed in 1988, is known for an alternative style of hip-hop. Their debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising (1989), was highly influential, known for its conceptual, densely layered style, and quirky interlude skits.
De La Soul influenced a self-constructed "family" of alternative rappers, from A Tribe Called Quest to Queen Latifah, as well as groups such as Public Enemy and N.W.A. In addition, prior to De La Soul, the primary source for hip-hop samples was James Brown; after 3 Feet High and Rising, George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic catalog became the mother lode.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What were some of De La Soul's most famous albums or songs?
De La Soul is an American rap group formed in 1988 consisting of Posdnuos, Trugoy the Dove, and Pasemaster Mase. Their debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising (1989), was highly influential in hip-hop history, known for its conceptual style, dense layers, and quirky interlude skits.
Their second album, De La Soul Is Dead (1991), addressed serious topics, while later albums like Buhloone Mindstate (1993) and Stakes Is High (1996) weren't as commercially successful. In 2000, they released Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump, followed by AOI: Bionix (2001). In 2006, De La Soul and Gorillaz won a Grammy for "Feel Good Inc.". They released And the Anonymous Nobody in 2016, featuring various guest artists.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How did De La Soul influence hip hop music and culture?
De La Soul, formed in 1988, is an American rap group whose first album 3 Feet High and Rising (1989) became one of hip-hop's most influential albums.
Their debut album influenced their own self-constructed "family" of alternative rappers, from A Tribe Called Quest to Queen Latifah, but also groups as disparate as Public Enemy and N.W.A. Moreover, prior to De La Soul, the primary source for hip-hop samples was the music of James Brown; in the wake of 3 Feet High and Rising, George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic catalog became the mother lode.
De La Soul contributed to hip-hop’s development lyrically and musically and took an unabashed stand against the pervasiveness of shallow lyrics and unimaginative sounds they believed to be too characteristic of the hip-hop era they had helped usher into existence.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
De La Soul, American rap group whose debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising (1989), was one of the most influential albums in hip-hop history. The members were Posdnuos (byname of Kelvin Mercer; b. August 17, 1969, New York, New York, U.S.), Trugoy the Dove (byname of David Jolicoeur; b. September 21, 1968, New York—d. February 12, 2023), and Pasemaster Mase (byname of Vincent Mason; b. March 24, 1970, New York).
De La Soul was formed in 1988 by three high-school friends in Amityville, New York. Impressed by the trio’s demo, “Plug Tunin’,” “Prince Paul” Houston of the rap group Stetsasonic helped them secure a contract with Tommy Boy Records and produced their landmark debut. Conceptual, densely layered, and replete with quirky interlude skits, 3 Feet High and Rising influenced not only De La Soul’s own self-constructed “family” of alternative rappers (ranging from A Tribe Called Quest to Queen Latifah) but also groups as disparate as Public Enemy (who were inspired by the collage-sampling technique of “Prince Paul”) and gangsta rap pioneers N.W.A. (who incorporated interlude skits). Moreover, prior to the emergence of De La Soul, the primary source for hip-hop samples was the music of James Brown; in the wake of 3 Feet High and Rising, George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic catalog became the mother lode.
The group’s second—and arguably best—album, De La Soul Is Dead (1991), dealt with weighty issues such as incest, mortality, and the buckling pressure of prior success. Despite the alternative that they offered to the proliferation of increasingly nihilistic and hypermaterialistic hip-hop in the mid-1990s, De La Soul’s next releases, Buhloone Mindstate (1993) and Stakes Is High (1996), failed commercially. On the latter, De La Soul, having contributed so much to hip-hop’s development lyrically and musically, forsook their usual coded poetry to take an unabashed stand against the pervasiveness of shallow lyrics and unimaginative sounds they believed to be too characteristic of the hip-hop era they had helped usher into existence.
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De La Soul returned in 2000 with Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump, the first volume in the proposed Art Official Intelligence trilogy. The album featured guest appearances by Busta Rhymes, the Beastie Boys, and Redman, among others. The second album, AOI: Bionix (2001), won generally positive reviews, but the anticipated third release never materialized. Instead, the band offered a stand-alone album, The Grind Date (2004), which was notably free of skits and featured guest appearances by Ghostface Killah, Common, and Flavor Flav. In 2006 De La Soul and the virtual group Gorillaz shared the Grammy Award for best pop collaboration with vocals for the song “Feel Good Inc.” De La Soul subsequently issued several mixtapes before releasing the Kickstarter-funded And the Anonymous Nobody (2016), a solidly creative if low-key album featuring such guests as Damon Albarn, David Byrne, and Jill Scott.