(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE MAGIC NUMBER")
DE LA SOUL: (Singing) Three, that's the magic number.
LAUREN FRAYER, HOST:
In 1989, "De La Soul" burst onto the hip-hop scene with a fresh and vibrant sound that never left their music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE MAGIC NUMBER")
DE LA SOUL: (Singing) Was born three - Mase, Dove and me, and that's the magic number.
FRAYER: From the beginning, there were three, Kevin "Posdnuos" Mercer, Vincent "Maseo" Mason, and David Jude Jolicoeur, aka Trugoy the Dove. Well, Jolicoeur died two years ago. And as the group says in their new song "YUHDONTSTOP"...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YUHDONTSTOP")
POSDNUOS: And remember when it's Pos and Maseo you see, the magic will always remain three.
MASEO: Because that magic is simply De La.
POSDNUOS: And staying true to that magic hasn't always been easy. Even Dave said...
TRUGOY THE DOVE: Often the real true soldiers just don't get that shine like they should.
FRAYER: And now Pos is with us to talk about the group's new album, "Cabin In The Sky." Welcome to the program.
POSDNUOS: Oh, thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
FRAYER: So this is your first album in nine years. It's the first since Trugoy the Dove passed away. And we hear verses from him and reference to him all over this album. How did he influence the way you made this record?
POSDNUOS: It was just very important for us to make sure that the quality of what De La has been known for remained. And, of course, at the top of all that was just honoring our brother. The songs that he is on, those were songs that he was actually on, songs that we had put together, different things that we had tried over a few different years, and also just having his energy and his intention felt throughout the entire album as well, so not only from songs he vocally was on, but just songs he produced. Like, the song "YUHDONTSTOP," that was a beat that he actually put together.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YUHDONTSTOP")
DE LA SOUL: (Singing) And you don't stop.
FRAYER: I'm wondering if there were times when you did want to stop, you did want to do things differently because Dave was not there with you.
POSDNUOS: Honestly, when he passed, we were a month out from all of our catalog being finally released digitally. So, you know, we felt like, you know what? - let's turn that into a celebration of not only that, but for Dave, as well. We honor his legacy, as well as the plans that we had before he passed. We had a lot of great plans for what we was going to do with the music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YUHDONTSTOP")
DE LA SOUL: (Rapping) Keep moving at my best. Cindy said, if y'all stop, then Dave stops. And that wouldn't be the sure shot.
POSDNUOS: Cindy, his sister, at his memorial at his home, said you know what? - I don't know what you and Mase were thinking, but us and the family have been talking, and we just really would like y'all to know that we would love for y'all to keep going because we feel that if y'all stop, Dave stops. And me and Mase had already had a similar conversation. So to have the blessing of his family as well, as well as what we wanted to do, it was just, you know, all guns ahead from that point on.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YUHDONTSTOP")
DJ PREMIER: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. It sounds dope, but it's in the wrong key. It should sound like this.
FRAYER: And you mentioned De La Soul's full catalog actually wasn't available online until 2023. There were copyright obstacles surrounding samples in your old songs that needed to be cleared for digital release. Can you talk about what it was like to have your music unavailable to stream for so long?
POSDNUOS: I mean, it was challenging. These six albums that we had recorded and put up through our first label, Tommy Boy, they weren't available. So you got to realize that that means they weren't available for the download era, as well as going into the streaming era. However way your music is available - whether it's through streaming, through, you know, being played in a movie or TV show - it becomes a soundtrack at some point for someone's life to make our catalog continue to matter, not only to the people who were there from the beginning, but the younger people who come on later.
I really know how much damage it did for people to not know that music, and then they would find out about us from other avenues, whether it was - we were with The Gorillaz, and Marvel came and put it in a "Spider-Man" movie, and now that introduced us to a whole bunch of fans. So OK, we love this song, and wait a minute, and we hear that you have other albums, but they couldn't find it. So it was very challenging.
FRAYER: For generations of De La Soul fans, your music has stood out for, you know, energy and optimism. And there are songs on this album, like "Will Be," that longtime fans - people like me who grew up in the '90s listening to your music - will find the sound familiar.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WILL BE")
DE LA SOUL: (Singing) Run it up.
NATALIE COLE: (Singing) This will be.
DE LA SOUL: (Rapping) That song that makes you feel free. The joy we bring is sharp to the touch, like the boy who stabs you in the heart where arrow serves them a la carte.
FRAYER: How do you maintain the signature De La Soul sound after, you know, 30 years more than that?
POSDNUOS: For us, it's not - I'm being honest, it's not like rocket science to us. I mean, we...
FRAYER: (Laughter).
POSDNUOS: You know, for real, though. It's like, we equate our music to, like, our lives.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WILL BE")
DE LA SOUL: (Rapping) We all will have our day in the sun.
YUMMY BINGHAM: (Singing) De La's total freedom. A good time, they guarantee them.
POSDNUOS: We learn so much. We take advantage of listening and being a student to not only people that we respect, but I take really lessons from even the younger guys and the younger women who come out. So we're still students, and we learn, and then we apply that to our music. So it's - that's where that classic signature sound of who we are and the fun and the way we look at trying to put things together, whether it's with using instrumentation or samples.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WILL BE")
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Why is the music slowing down?
POSDNUOS: It comes along with what still feels fresh today because we still pay attention to what goes on today.
FRAYER: Let's talk about the sampling 'cause that's a real staple of De La Soul's sound. You continue that tradition on this record. Is there a song that you think best exemplifies that sampling approach?
POSDNUOS: One of the best ones, I would say, is the title track, "Cabin In The Sky."
(SOUNDBITE OF DE LA SOUL SONG, "CABIN IN THE SKY")
POSDNUOS: It's composed of, like, two main samples, kind of, like, quite honestly, like, a light-hearted Moog sample.
(SOUNDBITE OF DE LA SOUL SONG, "CABIN IN THE SKY")
POSDNUOS: But then you have this blaring, amazing voice from the lead singer of Boston from the song More Than A Feeling" saying, you know, in the sky and slip away.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MORE THAN A FEELING")
BOSTON: (Singing) Slip away.
POSDNUOS: We then build an entire subject matter around it to talk about Dave and about losing him and what happens when you lose people and what happens when you transition.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CABIN IN THE SKY")
DE LA SOUL: (Rapping) We're waiting to get a view of all the faces we loved that slipped away. It makes me wonder, when it's over, will I get a cabin in the sky?
POSDNUOS: In the chorus, it is something that I've been blessed to have a lot of people, you know, so far, listening to it - have them relate to someone they've lost. It has people crying and overwhelmed. And when I wrote those rhymes, I was crying as well. And it's - even though it was therapy. I'm glad that people feel that it can be therapy for them as well.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CABIN IN THE SKY")
DE LA SOUL: (Rapping) Became worldlier too, though - heartache deserves a good mourning, so my attitude is gratitude when the sun comes on it.
FRAYER: That was Kelvin Pos Mercer of De La Soul. And De La Soul's new album, "Cabin In The Sky," is out now. Pos, thank you so much for joining us.
POSDNUOS: Oh, thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CABIN IN THE SKY")
DE LA SOUL: (Rapping) In the sky. So they may reach the ones who we love that had to slip away. It makes me wonder, when it's over, will I get my cabin in the sky? And how will my family deal with it all when they watch me slip away? Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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