De La Soul have spoken to NME about the 20th anniversary of their classic ‘The Grind Date’, as well as an unreleased Mac Miller collab, mourning Trugoy the Dove, and what the future holds.
From their classic debut album ‘3 Feet High and Rising,’ to their Grammy Award-winning Gorillaz collaboration ‘Feel Good Inc.’, the hip-hop legends have been earning the title of rap royalty for over 35 years – and are now celebrating two decades of their seventh album.
In 2004, after their label Tommy Boy Records ended its joint venture with Warner Records, the New York trio (comprised of Posdnuos, Trugoy the Dove and DJ Maseo) released ‘The Grind Date’ – their first album on Sanctuary/BMG Records. Featuring the likes of Common, Ghostface Killah, MF DOOM and Sean Paul, as well as production from J Dilla, Madlib, 9th Wonder and Supa Dave West, the album kicked off a new era for De La Soul.
Speaking to NME from New York, Posdnuos and Maseo shared their memories of making the classic album, while also opening up about the loss of Trugoy the Dove (aka Dave Jolicoeur), who passed away in February 2023, and whether they plan to release new music following his death.
NME: Hello De La Soul. The story of ‘The Grind Date’ actually started when you found yourselves stuck in the Warner Records system. How did you get over to Sanctuary Records?
Posdnuos: “Once the unfortunate thing happened when Tommy Boy [Records] and Tom [Silverman, founder] had owed Warner a ton of money and he didn’t meet whatever deadline he needed to meet, the parent company snatched the label away from him. So then all the artists on the label ended up in the Warner system ready to be picked up by other labels. When it looked like we were gonna go to Atlantic with Sylvia [Rhone], she wanted Timbaland to do the entire album. We was like, ‘Nah, we’re not going to do that’.
“Warner allowed us to be released and then Kim Spikes, who used to work at Tommy Boy, she was already working at Sanctuary and she brought us over.”
You were actually supposed to put out a third ‘Art Official Intelligence’ album at the time, but instead you released ‘The Grind Date.’ Why the decision to pivot?
Posdnuos: “Once we were gonna [move over to Sanctuary], we just knew that it would have been hard to give someone ‘AOI III,’ which was supposed to pretty much be like a DJ album — it wasn’t even supposed to have lyrics on it. So we just felt like we had to give them a conventional De La album.”
Was anything ever recorded for ‘AOI III’?
Posdnuos: “Yeah, there’s a bunch of stuff.”
Will fans ever get to hear it?
Posdnuos: “Most likely, because we really feel like it needs to come out. The process was started but never finished because while we were doing it that’s when all the chaos happened with Tommy Boy exploding. So yeah, there’s a bunch of stuff on there, and over the years Maseo has worked on even more stuff, including something with Mac Miller. He got us a bunch of stuff.”
You guys have an unreleased track with Mac Miller?
Posdnuos: “It’s actually just Mac Miller and Maseo. It’s not actually a De La and Mac Miller joint because it was Maseo who started working on getting certain individuals for this DJ concept that he was doing for ‘AOI III.’ And yeah, he ended up getting a verse from Mac before he passed.”
The anniversary reissue of ‘The Grind Date’ includes the previously unreleased ‘Bigger,’ as well as ‘Respect,’ a rare track featured on your ‘Impossible: Mission’ mixtape. Were there any other tracks that didn’t make the cut?
Posdnuos: “Yeah, there’s a bunch. Vitamin D, who produced ‘Bigger,’ also did this other record called ‘Nerve’ but there’s only my verse on it, Dave never wrote to it. There’s a bunch of incomplete stuff. We got a remix to ‘Rock Co.Kane Flow’ that never came out because I started it and Dave never completed it.”
‘Rock Co.Kane Flow’ has gone on to become a cult classic among fans. How did that Jake One beat find its way into De La Soul’s hands?
Posdnuos: “It was Vitamin D who told us about Jake One and then Jake sent us a bunch of beats. But what’s funny is that Jake said he wasn’t even meant to put ‘Rock Co.Kane Flow’ on the CD he gave us because — and we laugh about this to this day — he thought it was something he was gonna give to G-Unit or Busta [Rhymes]. He was so shocked that we liked it.”
Then MF DOOM got on the track. How did that come about?
Posdnuos: “After Dave wrote his verse, he was like, ‘Yo, we really should put DOOM on this.’ Then the rest is history. The day DOOM walked into the studio with this devilish grin, you could see it in his face. He knew he had the fuckin’ fiery lyrics. Then he got in the booth and lit it to pieces.”
Do you guys have any other unreleased music sitting in a vault somewhere?
Posdnuos: “There’s a bunch of stuff. I’ve prided myself on holding on to any and everything, even the things we just tried. So there’s a bunch of stuff we tried and a bunch of stuff that didn’t make it. There’s not a whole 2Pac catalogue of stuff, you know what I’m saying? Like how 2Pac probably has like nine more albums waiting. It’s not that.”
What about new music, are there plans to drop a new De La Soul album any time soon?
Posdnuos: “There’s plans. I can’t really touch too much on that, but there’s definitely plans. Me and Maseo want to continue to make music, that’s for sure. We love what we do. Even Dave’s family cornered me and Maseo at Dave’s house when we were gathering to honor him, his life and his memory. They were like, ‘Look, man, if y’all stop, Dave stops. We’re not putting necessary pressure on you, but we would love to see y’all continue on.’ Even before that we knew that we needed to keep the group going.”
It’s now been two years since Trugoy the Dove’s passing. How have you guys been adjusting to him no longer being here?
Maseo: “It’s hard, man. I don’t know what it’s like to lose a limb, but it kind of feels that way. If I was walking without one of my legs or walking without one of my arms, that’s exactly how that feels. He was someone I was able to depend on for a lot, and someone I dearly love. The grief hits me at odd times, when I don’t even know it’s going to hit, and Pos has been helping me get through it since day one. He came and got me out of a dark place. Because when Dave passed, I fell completely off the radar for a couple of weeks.”
What’s one of the memories you cherish most about him?
Maseo: “One of our favourite movies was Beat Street. It was something we cherished over our career, and it would always come on the tour busses. The conversations and quotes from the movie and all of that, we would throw back and forth through the years, me, Pos and Dave. So for Pos to come to me and be like, ‘Yo, Dave is our Ramon, man. We have to celebrate Ramon. We have to turn this whole release of the catalog into celebrating our Ramon.’ When he said that, he was right. The moments are still bittersweet, but that was definitely something that was able to give me some light and inspiration to want to continue to carry the flag.”
De La Soul’s ‘The Grind Date (20th Anniversary Edition)’ is out now via BMG.