Trugoy The Dove

More sad news for 2023. I hadn't even got around to writing about the death of Burt Bacharach when it was announced that Trugoy The Dove had died aged just 54. Trugoy The Dove, also known as Plug 2 and Dave Jolicouer, was one of the trio of Long Island friends who formed De La Soul and who in 1989 released one of the most important records of that year, their debut album 3 Feet High And Rising. It's difficult to overstate the impact De la Soul had on 1989, an album and a bunch of songs that crossed over between all kinds of scenes and audiences. De La Soul's songs could be heard wherever music was being played,  songs like Eye Know and The Magic Number fitting in perfectly alongside Soul II Soul, The Stone Roses, Black Box, Inner City, 808 State and Happy Mondays. The day- glo graphics, long sleeved t- shirts, CND symbols, irreverent attitude to sampling and Daisy Age, positive lyrics made them stand out in a year when Public Enemy and NWA also made era- defining hip hop records but with a very different sound and tone. In 1989, it felt like wherever you went where good music was being played, De La Soul were part of it, their songs stitched into the feel good times of that year. 

'Three is the magic number', the hook from one of their best known 1989 songs, was sampled from a 1973 Bob Dorough song aimed at helping American kids in the 70s and 80s learn maths. They laid it over the drums from Double Dee and Steinski's Lesson 3, first written and demoed onto cassette in 1986. They had multiple legal wranglings over sample clearance and then with the record label Tommy Boy and had finally sorted out many of their legal issues last month, with The Magic Number finally appearing on streaming services

The Magic Number

De La Soul would go on to make several more albums, the follow up De La Is Dead saw them try to move on from the Daisy Age styles and 1996's Stakes Is High saw them still in good voice and top form. Later on they recorded with Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's Gorillaz, making Feel Good Inc, one of the stand out Gorillaz songs and co- written by Trugoy/ Dave. 

RIP Dave Jolicoeur.