De La Soul Bio Hip-hop may never be able to repay the debt it owes to De La Soul. When the trio of Kelvin “Plug Won” Mercer, David “Trugoy” Jolicoeur (now simply Dave) and Vincent “Maseo” Mason emerged in 1987 they empowered a new generation of MCs and fans to color outside the yellow lines of the asphalt jungle, charting a new course in the process. Sonically, lyrically and even visually De La Soul challenged the still gestating genre and imbued it with the DNA of irreverent humor, self- reflection and individuality not hindered by ego. Hailing from Long Island, they were good kids in the mad city giving rap a vaudevillian flair with game show inspired skits, reminding us that the present and future were indeed odd. Songs like “Potholes In My Lawn” were wonderfully subversive in their blunt honesty: There’s grass where we live, people literally dig us, but they still steal our shit But more impressive than the influence they had on the culture, was the impact they had on each other, allowing the group to evolve with each project. From the colorful yet disparate pallets of Three Feet High & Rising, De La Soul is Dead and Buhloone Mindstate, to the clarion call of Stakes Is High De La’s music has always kept a kaleidoscopic lens on the world around them while reflecting on their place and participation in it. Despite their well-documented jabs at the music industry and the culture it profits from, De La Soul always played well with others. Helping give birth to the legendary Native Tongues (along with A Tribe Called Quest and The Jungle Brothers) few groups can claim an album guest list that stretches across so many regions and genres. Their catalogue flaunts contributions by everyone from Maceo Parker, Zhané, Ceel-Lo Green, Devin The Dude and Chaka Khan to Slick Rick, Mos Def and Busta Rhymes without missing a beat. Literally and figuratively they were the original plugs. After returning to the radio and video charts with the AOI: Mosaic Thump & AOI: Bionix, 2004’s The Grind Date ushered in a new era for the group as their first album not released on Tommy Boy Records. It was a lean, skit-free declaration of independence flexing chunky drums and battle-ready rhymes that bridged the gap between their day one fans and the digital minded millennials. They followed up this effort by collaborating with Gorillaz on the Grammy Award winning track “Feel Good,” and several other songs while also touring and participating in a special series of shows sponsored by SCION. The latter introduced them to their band Rhythm Roots All Stars and a creative partnership was born. With more than a decade passing since their last album, in 2015 De La Soul called on their legion to repay the aforementioned debt and fund their newest work, and the Anonymous Nobody. In an unprecedented response the group raised over $600,000 via Kickstarter to bring their vision to life. “Sometimes you feel like you just want to do something where you’re not trying to make it an event,” Dave says of the title. “You just want to contribute and that’s what this is really about. This album is about lending to the scape of music in 2016, trying to give something, not for the sake of we want to balance what’s going on or fix hip-hop. We just want to say something to the creative aspects of music.” Groundwork for and the Anonymous Nobody was laid via a series of jam sessions with the band that would serve as the source material for sampling and replays. “This process was pretty new and we loved the challenge,” says Pos. “We’d never taken a band, put together a jam session, then treated the music as samples or looping it up. We’d go back and listen to a 20- minute jam session and pick out parts that moved us like putting a needle on a record.” Flush with thick drums and vibrant melodies and the Anonymous Nobody flaunts the sonic genome of vintage De La Soul, most notably the avante garde Buhloone Mind State and the aforementioned The Grind Date. But it stands firmly as a wholly original body of work. Recording started at The Bomb Shelter and was later moved to Vox Studios, one time used by legends like Frank Sinatra and Sammie Davis, Jr. Here the old analog boards were used to give the album a warm, timeless sound. One of the first songs recorded was the smoky victory lap, “Royalty Capes.” An unorthodox 9 bar loop of saxophone was slowed down and reconstituted for Pos and Dave to “squeeze the blood out of felt tips.” “It was one of those rare moments where he wrote his part first,” Pos recalls. “He said it just sounded like royalty walking in and he put his rhymes down and I followed his lead. Dave also had an idea involving a female voice speaking after the opening horns so I called my peoples Gina Loring to give it a go.” However, in true De La fashion the process didn’t always follow the blueprint. The resplendent “Memory Of” featuring Estelle and Pete Rock began as a collaboration between the British soul star and the Chocolate Boy Wonder. When the group was first soliciting contributions to the album she direct messaged Pos on Twitter offering the song. “It was a demo from stuff that Pete Rock gave her. We thought it was such a great record. But I said this can’t work for a live project. But when I let Dave hear it he said ‘Nah this gotta go on this album. If Pete is cool with it we’ll replay it and insert verses.’” Producer and friend Dave West connected De La with Detroit producer Pirahnahead who added a lush string arrangement. “That song was amazing when we heard it raw as it was,” adds Dave. “But I appreciate that we can see further sometimes. Break things down and then rebuild them again." Even the consensus group favorite, “Whoodeeini,” (featuring 2 Chainz) didn’t just happen in the typical way. The group originally reached out to the Atlanta trap star to provide a hook for the spacey narrative, but he insisted that he wanted to do a full verse. Knowing his lyrical prowess from his days with Disturbing The Peace, De La once again bunked expectations and ended up with a tenable tag team. “Sometimes that additional instrument is a human being and adding 2 Chainz was just what we needed,” says Dave.and the Anonymous Nobody wins because it reaches forward without leaving De La’s core fan base behind. The bouncy “Pain” featuring Snoop feels like their classic “A Roller Skating Jam Called Saturdays” but slowed down to a Sunday afternoon pace, and “Property Of Spitkicker” is littered with lyrical Easter eggs from ghosts of albums past. But ambitious cuts like “Drawn” featuring Little Dragon challenge listeners to think outside of the box with its expansive instrumental punctuated by Pos’ confessional in its waning moments. “I don’t mean to sound egotistical but the more the conversation comes up about our music I begin to feel like we’re our own sub-genre,” says Maseo. “Every time they hear the record they just say ‘It’s just De La. It’s De La.” De La as a brand has always stood for uncompromising creativity that still adheres to hip-hop’s foundations of clever wordplay over superlative soundscapes. Maintaining that quality over several decades is what places them among the elite, and having the fans support that legacy today is a testament to their effort. “I think that De La Soul has and will continue to be a name that is synonymous with freedom,” says Dave. “I don’t think they have an expectation of what De La is supposed to do, but there is a definition of what De La does. If I could put it in a word musically it’s freedom. People don’t tie us to any real category or heading when it comes to our music and who we are as a group. We can be anywhere and do anything. We don’t have boundaries or borders. I think it’s a pleasant place to be in.” Creating music without borders has allowed for a loyal and growing populace to claim citizenship in that special place where De La Soul and all of the other “anonymous nobodies” call home. “I think it’s a really honest piece of work and we’ve put a lot into it,” Pos concludes. “You will feel it even if you’re not a fan of us. You can tell quality.” .