I am Trugoy/A Dove-like boy/Could wingspread/But instead/I will employ

February 13, 2023 7:58 AM

Plug Two of the iconic hip-hop group De La Soul, Dave "Trugoy" Jolicoeur has died at the age of 54. No cause of death has been announced, but Jolicoeur had been suffering from congestive heart failure in recent years.
posted by 40 Watt (59 comments total)

Trugoy's death hits me super-hard for some reason. I'd listened to hip-hop well before 1989 when 3 Feet High and Rising was released but De La was the first true breakout release in my circle of friends in my average Midwestern hometown. It's especially depressing considering the long-delayed release of all of De La's back catalogue on streaming services coming in March. RIP, Dove.
posted by 40 Watt at 8:06 AM on February 13, 2023 [7 favorites]

I listened to 3 Feet High and Rising literally every day for a couple of years. I was struggling mightily with a lot of shit when it came out, and it was quite literally a lifeline for me. "Tread Water" became like a mantra.

Their subsequent releases never disappointed either. De La Soul feel like close friends I've known for decades. This loss really hits home for me, too.
posted by fikri at 8:12 AM on February 13, 2023 [11 favorites]

This is a bummer. RIP.
posted by symbioid at 8:13 AM on February 13, 2023

It's horrible to see the old heads dying off before they even got to be real old heads. If you want a picture of how systemic racism beats people down over time, look no further than the rap/hip-hop stars of the 80s/90s. So many gone.

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posted by praemunire at 8:15 AM on February 13, 2023 [26 favorites]

praemunire: "It's horrible to see the old heads dying off before they even got to be real old heads. If you want a picture of how systemic racism beats people down over time, look no further than the rap/hip-hop stars of the 80s/90s. So many gone.

."

This right here. 54 is WAY too young.
posted by 40 Watt at 8:17 AM on February 13, 2023 [10 favorites]

Awww, their stuff always seemed so mellow that I figured they had decades ahead of them. Damn it.
posted by wenestvedt at 8:20 AM on February 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

De La Soul is one of the groups that expanded what hip-hop was and could be--just incredibly influential.

My favorite Trugoy verse is probably on 'Stakes is High.'

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posted by box at 8:22 AM on February 13, 2023 [4 favorites]

Too, too soon, like many others, as praemunire points out.

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posted by May Kasahara at 8:22 AM on February 13, 2023

Absolutely horrible news. Nthing what others have said above. The catalog was just about to be released, giving a whole new generation an opportunity to rediscover these blazing pioneers.

And too damn young, indeed.

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posted by gwint at 8:30 AM on February 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

Saw this earlier this morning. Damn. Sad news indeed.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:30 AM on February 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

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Only a very few years older than me.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 8:38 AM on February 13, 2023

I first heard about Three Feet High and Rising in Sassy magazine's Ones to Watch column. They seemed cool, but I assumed I'd never hear them. A few weeks later, my church youth group went to the Topsfield Fair and there was an automated ring toss with cassettes as prizes. If you threw a ring on a cassette (which was moving around on some mechanical setup), you won the cassette. When I saw Three Feet High was one of the cassettes you could win, I put down $5, got three rings, and went into a fugue state--my memory jumps from putting down the money to getting the tape.

At the time, hip hop seemed like it wasn't for me. The crews and MCs accessible to a white kid in the suburbs had gone from novelty and novelty-adjacent acts like the Beasties, the Fat Boys, Biz Markie, and LL Cool J and Run DMC (whose more humorous singles were showing up on Nick Rocks) to a tape dub of Straight Outta Compton that the boys in my school were passing around. It didn't seem relevant to my experiences and I let it slide.

Listening to Three Feet High and Rising on the van ride home to the church felt like I was joking around with some new friends who had a killer record collection. They seemed like the kinds of guys I could befriend if they lived in my suburban town--we could spend Saturday mornings watching Star Trek and eating sugary cereal. "Three Is the Magic Number" made me smile from ear to ear, and once I got past the shock of "Jenifa Taught Me" I found it reassuring that some guys who were funny and talented and popular enough to have a tape you could win in a ring toss at a 4H fair were as confused and weirded out by the opposite sex as I was.

Three Feet High was the right record at the right time for me, and I never caught up with any of their other albums (apart from "Fallin'," since my brother shoplifted the Judgment Night soundtrack at some point). I've been excited to hear the follow-ups, and I'm so heartbroken that Trugoy died so close to them getting their shot at rediscovery.

Rest in peace, Dave Jolicoeur. My 12-year-old self thanks you so much.
posted by pxe2000 at 8:43 AM on February 13, 2023 [22 favorites]

🌼
posted by nightcoast at 8:46 AM on February 13, 2023 [20 favorites]

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Just terrible news, rest in peace. Got to see them live one, and it made me so, so happy. Masterful, all three of them.
posted by Going To Maine at 8:47 AM on February 13, 2023 [2 favorites]

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Three Feet High might have been the first hip-hop CD I ever bought, and unlike a lot of albums I liked back then it's just as good as the day it was released. In a just universe De La would have been massive, like mainstream massive.

Speaking of which...I know 'twas ever thus, but wow does it ever piss me off to see people like this pass away before their time while *certain other individuals* live on and on and on, seemingly forever. There's no justice in this universe.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:49 AM on February 13, 2023 [5 favorites]

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posted by The Baffled King at 8:51 AM on February 13, 2023 [2 favorites]

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posted by anhedonic at 8:52 AM on February 13, 2023

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posted by NoThisIsPatrick at 8:55 AM on February 13, 2023

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posted by ishmael at 9:01 AM on February 13, 2023

The line that popped up in my head when I heard the news was “without my one and two where would there be my three? Mase, Pos and me“. This one came out of nowhere for me and hit hard.

Someone once described 3 Feet High and Rising as the Sgt. Pepper’s of hip hop, and I think there’s something to that, just such unbridled creative joy of a group on the top of their game.

I like the later stuff too, and Here in After, the last song on their 2016 album features a verse by Trugoy about living on when people you care about die, and I think that as far as last words go, that’s damn good.

🌼
posted by Kattullus at 9:02 AM on February 13, 2023 [7 favorites]

I am reminded of Prince Be (of P. M. Dawn) who also died before his time, and whose music was so awesome.

RIP, the two of yous.
posted by wenestvedt at 9:02 AM on February 13, 2023 [7 favorites]

3 Feet High and Rising was the only hip-hop album I ever bought and De La Soul were the only hip-hop artists I ever saw live (while I was a student in the UK). Both were joyous, uplifting experiences that live with me to this day.

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posted by dowcrag at 9:28 AM on February 13, 2023

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posted by The Great Big Mulp at 9:31 AM on February 13, 2023

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posted by penduluum at 9:33 AM on February 13, 2023

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posted by Kosmob0t at 9:34 AM on February 13, 2023

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posted by dlugoczaj at 9:40 AM on February 13, 2023

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posted by elkevelvet at 9:46 AM on February 13, 2023

so sad! we are the same age (way too young to die) and I still remember how blown away I was by Three Feet High and Rising back in college.

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posted by supermedusa at 9:49 AM on February 13, 2023 [2 favorites]

🌼
posted by lalochezia at 9:49 AM on February 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

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This is a devastating loss, truly. And nthing praemunire.
posted by kensington314 at 10:01 AM on February 13, 2023

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posted by misteraitch at 10:25 AM on February 13, 2023

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posted by WalkingAround at 10:27 AM on February 13, 2023

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posted by pt68 at 10:31 AM on February 13, 2023

Hesitating a little bit to post this because I don't want to derail remembrance of Trugoy, but it feels relevant following on praemunire's point. I went back and found and updated a list I sent a culture journalist a couple years ago--I've never seen an article that deals in any thorough way with the fact that the people who basically created modern American popular culture are dying at an alarming rate. Still haven't.

Everyone on this list died before 60, aside from Jimmy Spicer. None from violence--heart attacks, strokes, cancer, diabetes, and so on. Every last one left a lasting mark on the broader culture, whether we recognize it day to day or not.

Trugoy the Dove (54, 2023)t
Coolio (59, 2022)
Grand Daddy IU (54, 2022)
DJ Kay Slay (55, 2022) (DJ, not rapper)
Gift of Gab (50, 2021)
Prince Markie Dee of the Fat Boys (52, 2021)
DMX (50, 2021)
Shock G of Digital Underground (57, 2021)
Black Rob (52, 2021)
MF DOOM (49, 2020)
5th Ward Weebie (42, 2020)
Ecstasy of Whodini (56, 2020)
Malik B of the Roots (47, 2020)
Bushwick Bill of the Geto Boys (52, 2019)
Jimmy Spicer (61, 2019)
Lovebug Starski (57, 2018)
Craig Mack (46, 2018)
Prodigy of Mobb Deep (43, 2017)
Phife Dawg of A Tribe Called Quest (45, 2016)
Sean Price (43, 2015)
Hussein Fatal (42, 2015) (car accident)
Pumpkinhead (40, 2015)
Koopsta of Three Six Mafia (40, 2015)
Big Bank Hank (57, 2014)
Tim Dog (46, 2013)
Nate Dogg (42, 2011)
Lord Infamous of Three Six Mafia (40, 2013)
Heavy D (44, 2011)
GURU (40, 2010)
posted by kensington314 at 10:32 AM on February 13, 2023 [15 favorites]

Don't forget Gangsta Boo of Three Six (43, 2023).
posted by praemunire at 10:37 AM on February 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

Oh wow. That is a real lapse on my part. I was shocked to see this last month. RIP Gangsta Boo.
posted by kensington314 at 10:40 AM on February 13, 2023

Big 'ol dot for Tru. 3foot was part of that 1989 when it seemed like everyone was listening to hip hop all of a sudden, not just me and my friends and the football team.

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posted by Sphinx at 10:40 AM on February 13, 2023 [2 favorites]

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posted by Etrigan at 10:42 AM on February 13, 2023

Like a lot of others, 3 Feet High was the first hip-hop album I ever bought, and I love it. I know it so well. 54 is far too young.
posted by greycap at 10:46 AM on February 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

Dying early at 54 while struggling with congestive heart failure during an out of control pandemic that attacks the heart among other things.

I think we will see a lot more of this for people of this age group (uncomfortably for me it's my age grouping as well). Covid mortality risk starts its exponential climb at 55.
posted by srboisvert at 11:05 AM on February 13, 2023 [4 favorites]

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posted by SystematicAbuse at 11:06 AM on February 13, 2023

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posted by KillaSeal at 11:17 AM on February 13, 2023

I'm a dyed in the wool hip-hop fan, and not long ago, I had some youtube playlist on and it was depressing that even in its crappy repetitive suggestions that it was going from dead rapper to dead rapper.

> Prince Markie Dee of the Fat Boys (52, 2021)

Buffy died in the 90s at 28 of a heart attack. Kool Rock-Ski is the last Fat Boy.
Big Pun also died young of weight issues.

Biz Markie died from diabetes at 57.

MCA of the beastie boys at 47 from cancer.

Jay Dee / Dilla 32 liver failure -- pretty much worked himself to death.

T-Roy / SubRoc / Left-Eye from accidents.

Gangsta Boo of 3-6-mafia of drugs earlier this year.
ODB, Eyedea, Dj Skrew, Pimp C of UGK, Mac Miller, Juice WRLD, and so many more, also drugs.

And Easy-E from AIDS complications.

That's a depressing list, and unfortunately not comprehensive.
posted by lkc at 11:53 AM on February 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

This here piece of the pie
Is not dessert, but the course that we dine
And three out of every darn time
The effect is "Mmm" when a daisy grows in your mind
Showing true position, this here piece is
Kissin' the part of the pie that's missin'
When that negative number fills up the casualty
Maybe you can subtract it
You can call it your lucky partner
Maybe you can call it your adjective
But odd as it may be
Without my one and two where would there be
My three? Mase, Pos and me
And that's the magic number.

1989-90, driving around DC in the heat of late summer in speedlime's Plymouth Neon, an absolute crapmobile of which I was nevertheless wildly envious because I didn't have a car at all. Windows down because the aircon was weak. Rubbery smell of overheated Plymouth Neon interior and the sweet sound of my best friend cursing creatively at the wheel.

But when a certain cassette was in the tape deck-- a cassette whose cardboard in the case was bright yellow with daisies and three faces-- for THAT tape we'd shut up and listen. And giggle our heads off. And sing along.

Speedy had a theory that the world took a turn for the worse when Trugoy stopped calling himself Trugoy and became Dave. Luckily he later made peace with the sweetly playful name his younger self chose. RIP Trugoy the Dove, and may daisies grow from your earth.
posted by Pallas Athena at 12:07 PM on February 13, 2023 [5 favorites]

Aw hell. That sucks.

I'm a latecomer. It took me a really long time to recognize how good some of the music was outside of the limited scope I was into as a youth. I didn't get hip hop, or at least thought I didn't, or didn't think it was for me, or that it had no relevance to me. But really, when I opened my brain up and started listening, I realized how many of the groups I had already heard and how many of the songs I already knew, but didn't really acknowledge that the music had made impacts on me.

I'd hear a track, and suddenly I'm a middle or high schooler again and I'm going "hell yeah, this is great." Me Myself and I is one of those tracks.

I don't know why it took me until I was much older to recognize that my worldview was narrower and less alive if I refused to give the music a chance. I don't know why some groups were OK but others, I didn't try, not until a long time after. But I'm glad I got there. I'm glad that when De La Soul said "fuck it, here's everything we ever recorded, for free" I was ready to receive it. I've been on their mailing list ever since.

I'd like to say it was a journey, but it's still a journey. I'm still trying to get to that place. I'm sad that it took me so long. I'm sad I'm still on my way. I wish I had been there sooner. I'm sad that the group is dealing with this loss.

There are too many voices that I didn't let myself hear until after they were gone.
posted by caution live frogs at 12:24 PM on February 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

A simple how ya do...
posted by lkc at 12:25 PM on February 13, 2023

Let's zip on by/ Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, let's zip on by
posted by box at 12:54 PM on February 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

🌼
posted by socialjusticeworrier at 2:09 PM on February 13, 2023 [2 favorites]

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EPMD and De La Soul were when hip hop finally caught my attention in '89. Hoping Dave and Phife can kick off that award tour with the mic in their hand.

Dilla was definitely not taking care of himself, but he died of Lupus and a rare blood disease. One of my favorite releases from De La was the re-record of earlier rhymes on top of Dilla tracks. De La Soul was known for being one of the first acts to pay for his production.
posted by SoundInhabitant at 2:10 PM on February 13, 2023 [2 favorites]

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One of my first albums, for sure. For me, it was De La Soul, Tribe, and Public Enemy. The best live show I have ever seen, hands down, was De La at the 40 Watt in Athens, Ga. in the mid-Nineties. After the 2-hour show, Mase stayed onstage spinning a fantastic set. It was the wee hours, and wall-to-wall with blissed-out hip hop heads. The vibes were so upbeat and positive. It felt like some kind of Inner Circle, like a family reunion. Naturally, joints were being passed around. Pos and Plug Two came down and worked their way through the crowd- dancing, giving hugs, dapping people up...and maybe, just maybe, after hitting one of the communal joints, I handed it off to the person standing next me. And maybe that person happened to be Plug Two:

"Oh man, I'm nervous- I love you guys!"

"Thank you! So, what's your name, man?"

"Bob."

"Bob, I'm Dave. Pleased to meet you!"

He gives me a great big hug and all I can really do is smile. And I'm smiling right now just thinking about it.
posted by Bob Regular at 2:13 PM on February 13, 2023 [25 favorites]

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posted by fedward at 5:04 PM on February 13, 2023

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posted by evilDoug at 10:01 PM on February 13, 2023

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posted by myopicman at 11:01 PM on February 13, 2023

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posted by talking leaf at 2:34 AM on February 14, 2023

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posted by Saxon Kane at 10:13 AM on February 14, 2023

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posted by adekllny at 1:12 PM on February 14, 2023

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posted by eckeric at 7:41 AM on February 15, 2023

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posted by not_on_display at 2:02 PM on February 22, 2023

Cookies and Yogurt is a lovely obituary of David Jolicoeur by Nieal Orr. Here’s an excerpt:

In ‘Me Myself and I,’ Jolicoeur asks: ‘Mirror mirror on the wall/Tell me mirror, what is wrong?/Can it be my De La clothes/Or is it just my De La song?’ Later in the tune: ‘Proud, I’m proud of what I am/Poems I speak the Plug Two type/Please, oh please let Plug Two be himself, not what you read or write.’ This was a new, perhaps unconscious form of Kaufman’s footprintism – Jolicoeur freeing himself of outmoded restrictions and asking listeners to take him on his own terms.

In an electronic press kit pegged to the release of 3 Feet High and Rising, the trio introduced themselves. ‘My name happens to be Trugoy the Dove,’ Jolicoeur says, ‘and I’m a pioneer of a phrase called “talk”.’ He explains that ‘Trugoy’ is the word ‘yogurt’ spelled in reverse. ‘I enjoy to eat yogurt, I mean, I eat it a lot.’ He introduces viewers to Purdue, the group’s pet dove.

I want to freeze the frame here, before Jolicoeur’s death, on 12 February, at age 54. His professed love of yogurt – so serious he named himself after it – recalls a line from Kaufman’s manifesto: ‘Abomunism’s main function is to unite the soul with oatmeal cookies.’ On the phone to my brother once I asked if he was paying attention to what I was saying. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, ‘I just got a text message and I’m eating a cookie’ – a distracting combination of confection and communication. The soul, and da inner sound, wants cookies and yogurt, satisfying sustenance, a distillation of pure good feeling, the same vibe you find in De La Soul’s approach to music: silky, soulful delicacies, full of rare grooves.

posted by Kattullus at 5:19 AM on March 1, 2023 [4 favorites]