De La Soul’s David Jolicoeur aka Dove died Feb 12, 2023. Dave was the Andre 3000 of De La Soul. Dove was soft-spoken, vulnerable and clever. David Jolicoeur’s death is central for comprehending De La Soul’s new album Cabin the Sky as an artistic innovation.

De La Soul is one of the most important groups in music. In Hip Hop, I liked to think about De La Soul as our Sonic Youth or Velvet Underground. De La Soul in a recent interview with the Breakfast Club said Tyler, The Creator and Earl Sweatshirt were who De La Soul relates with from the newest generation.

De La Soul were the smart kids who were funny. De La Soul is a weird catch in music. De La Soul’s 3 Feet High And Rising, De La Soul is Dead and Buhlune Mind-state are experimental and artistic in the realm of Daydream Nation or Velvet Underground and Nico.

De La Soul then went minimal and serious.

Stakes Is High in 1996 was a moralist manifesto which accelerated Mos Def, and J-Dilla. Stakes is High was kinda like Nirvana’s Nevermind if Nirvana demanded rappers to act like adults. Velvet Underground and Nirvana use drugs. Stakes is High sounded like Straight Edge Muslims. Stakes is High’s commentary and music weren’t artsy. Dilla brought some hard sounds.

Stakes is High didn’t sound weird. Stakes is High said selling drugs, idealizing mobsters, prostitution, and violence wasn’t sustainable for humans. Stakes is High rejected the lifestyle rap videos advertised for an historically oppressed people.

After Stakes is High, De La Soul entered almost a decade of grown and sexy music until De La Soul dropped The Grind Date which featured Rock Cokane Flow with MF Doom which was just a really hard rap song.

Today, we will skip everyone’s curiosity about the monstrosity 2016 De La Soul album, And the Anonymous Nobody. I opened a separate word processing document, cut and paste and saved my writing about De La Soul’s understanding of Trumpworld’s bad taste.

David Jolicoeur of the legendary De La Soul died in 2023. De La Soul campaigned for Clinton in Columbus in 2016 after visiting President Obama. I remember David Jolicoeur of the legendary De La Soul’s presence in Columbus while we thought Trump would go away in 2016.

And the Anonymous Nobody 2016 found release while Hillary Clinton was using 1996 De La Soul’s Stake as High single as her catchphrase. De La Soul’s Stakes is High kept being used as Trump repellant by Barack, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris also used Stakes is High from 2016-2024.

I wondered in 2025, is De La Soul still Hip Hop’s Sonic Youth or are De La Soul just responsible parents who can rap.

Would De La Soul in 2025 without Dave sound like if Raka Iriscience and Phonte formed a supergroup? Would Cabin in The Sky sound like honest men bragging with a professional delivery, and properly eqd production?

People don’t view functional adults as avant garde artists.

Cabin in The Sky begins by introducing the artists involved in Cabin in the Sky with a roll call:

Bilal, Black Thought, Common, DJ Premier, Josh, Eric, Gareth Duncan, Gina Loraine, Hope from Spitkicker, Jake One, Jay Pharaoh, Killer Mike, K Butler and The Collective, Lady Stout, Nas, Nottz, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, Slick Rick, Supa Dave West, Yukimi, Yummy, Pos D Nous, Maceo.

We find David Jolicoeur aka Dove isn’t present. After about five songs, I understand De La Soul is surrounded by friends. The beats are uptempo. The rhymes are dope. The songs are quick.

Pos, and Mace are in a positive mood. PosdNous sprinkles classic OC Times Up quotes in with wordplay.

DJ Premier scratches. Something missing. Even during songs where Dove raps, something’s missing. I can’t tell if it’s a melody, bass line, hook or bridge which would make a complete song.

In each song, De La Soul captures the feeling of grieving without sounding sad. Cabin in the Sky almost sounds like a breakbeat mixtape. I’m impressed that De La Soul composed rap songs that didn’t explicitly say anything about depression but you can just feel an absence. De La Soul is aware of but still maintaining needs of a rap record.

Cabin in the Sky’s first single the Package plays and you realize previous songs were dismantled records which still sounded like rap records you couldn’t believe were Sprite commercials.

PosDNous job is a rapper. Pos still attends work even though he is missing a close friend. Mace shows up, raps, and deejays even while dealing with his friends’ death. Package doesn’t sound like a mixtape song. It does create a subtle intentional contrast.

We went from a flurry of breaks into a single without realizing we were that far into an album.

My favorite De La Soul album is De La Soul is Dead.

I feel like I’m bumping comparable Buhlune Mind state. Cabin in the Sky doesn’t sound like Buhlune Mind state but I really feel an intended aesthetic which it completely working which it’s context.

De La Soul is rocking the party people in the house while mourning during Cabin in the Sky.

At first, Day in The Sun with Q-Tip seemed like an underwhelming dance song by itself. In context, Day in The Sun sounds like if Roller Skating Jam Called Saturdays was blue but still wanted to have sex.

Run it Back with Nas follows that dance song with lyrical syllables where the emphasis is De La Soul, and Nas rhymes schemes. De La Soul can rap, even if Dove is dead. De La Soul found a minimal way of contrasting pure rap with the fact someone everyone loved died.

I wouldn’t quite call Run It Back as absurd things often seem around the seriousness of death. Nas, and De La Soul are flowing. Dove’s dead, and Nas is kicking a dope verse. At track 13, during Patty Cake, De La Soul shows some awareness of their creation in lyrical vulnerablity.

Everything is still uptempo. I’m realizing despite Hip Hop Cabin in The Sky’s commitment to sounding like a traditional rap album.

Cabin in the Sky is an exceptional and innovative listen. I’m astounded. Cabin in the Sky wouldn’t work if my Apple Music shuffled out of sequence. I’m listening to a complete album from front to back. The second I’m aware De La Soul is still capable of avant rap composition, I then hear raps which remind me why I was arrogant about liking De La Soul.

Silent Like of Truth and En Eff with Black Thought deliver De La Soul caliber Stakes Is High social commentary. Black Thought quotes Stakes as Hight so subtle similarities isn’t lost on the listener.

Four different Democratic leaders like De La Soul’s boom-bap. De La Soul still sounds the voice of rap.

Then, church choirs appear at Believe in. We are at Dove’s funeral after Black Thought, and De La Soul reminded me I loved Native Tongues lyricism. Cabin the Sky is still uptempo, and quick like mixtape. I’m reminded of Pos playing with OC’s Time’s Up early in Cabin in The Sky.

Yours features Slick Rick rapping Hey Young The World Is Yours, adlibs with De La Soul and Common. Slick Rick shows up and references Mass Appeals’ Nas sampling him. De La Soul was once sued for the colleges in 3 Feet High Rising. Now De La Soul just calls Slick Rick if they need a quick melody. I’m once again wowing at composition.

Then, I’m Buhlane Mindstate I am I Be wowed by Palm of His Hands. PosDnous is dealing with his own mortality while Bilal croons into the uptempo melancholy.

I repeat, Cabin in the Sky is 3 Feet High and Rising production collage meets Buhlane Mindstate introspection.

De La Soul’s Cabin In The Sky summarizes its namesake while comparing Dove’s death with his father who is still living in his 90s, which discusses the idea of everyone eventually dying and achieving a heaven residence or a Cabin in The Sky.

I’m cognitively and sonically impressed.

Dove finishes Cabin in The Sky with a message which deals with the deceased De La Soul rapper’s various frustrations during Don’t Push Me until exiting Lil Uzi Vert with a harp.