De La Soul’s David Jolicoeur ‘Trugoy The Dove’ Has Died
The member of the influential hip-hop trio was 54.
By Andy Kahn Feb 13, 2023 • 7:43 am PST
David Jolicoeur, who performed as “Trugoy The Dove,” “Plug 2” and “Dave,” as a member of the influential hip-hop innovators De La Soul, has died at age 54. CNN confirmed his death through the group’s publicist Tony Ferguson. A cause of death was not given.
Jolicoeur was born in Brooklyn, New York on September 21, 1968, and raised on Long Island. He attended high school in Amityville, New York. With his classmates, Kelvin Mercer (“Posdnuos”) and Vincent Manson (“Pasemaster Mase”), the trio formed De La Soul in 1988.
De La Soul’s groundbreaking 1989 debut album, 3 Feet High And Rising, is considered among the quintessential hip-hop albums of all time. The trio’s colorful and charismatic personas matched the group’s uplifting output, putting them in the same upper echelon as their peers in the Native Tongues collective alongside fellow hip-hop pioneers, A Tribe Called Quest, The Jungle Brothers, Black Sheep, Queen Latifah and others.
De La Soul followed their standout debut album with the critically and commercially successful De La Soul Is Dead in 1991. Their next album, Buhloone Mindstate, was released in 1993 and was their last with producer Prince Paul who worked on the group’s prior albums. De La Soul’s self-produced Stakes Is High was released in 1996.
Four years later, De La Soul issued Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump, which was intended to be the first in a three-part trilogy. The second installment in the series, AOI: Bionix, came out one year later, in 2001.
Their next album, The Grind Date, intended initially to conclude the trilogy, was instead released in 2004 as a standalone album. Jolicoeur (“Plug 2”) and Mercer (“Plug 1”) released Plug 1 & Plug 2 Present… First Serve in 2012. Jolicoeur’s last album with De La Soul was their most recent release, And the Anonymous Nobody…, which came out in 2016.
De La Soul’s innovative use of sampling, particularly on their first four albums, later caused issues with copyright clearance, keeping their music off digital streaming and download platforms. De La Soul announced in January 2023 that the legal issues had been resolved and their catalog will land on all major streaming platforms for the first time on March 3, 2023.
De La Soul have a run of shows coming up in the United Kingdom, with the first slated for April 8. De La Soul has been touring with Gorillaz, coming onstage each night to perform their parts on “Feel Good Inc.,” the Grammy Award-winning hit from the 2005 Gorillaz album, Demon Days.
