Dr. Austin McCoy, Assistant Professor of History, just published his first book, Living in a D.A.I.S.Y. Age: The Music, Culture, and the World De La Soul Made. Congratulations, Dr. McCoy!
In his book, McCoy explores how De La Soul redefine not only music, but also American and global Black culture. Centering the group’s legendary discography, he investigates how Posdnuos, Trugoy the Dove, and Maseo used hip hop culture to forge their identities as three Black men growing up on Long Island in the 1980s, to challenge dominant understandings of Black masculinity in hip hop and Black culture and revolutionize rap production.
Over the last three decades, De La Soul has been central to cultural and technological developments in music. They innovated rap album construction with their collage sampling techniques and world building. De La Soul even created their own language. In doing so, they advocated a creative philosophy emphasizing constant sonic innovation and individuality. After the group adopted the bright Day-Glo aesthetic that led critics and fans to call them “hippies,” they were the first group to “kill off” their “D.A.I.S.Y” image, leading them to change their style and sound on almost every album.
And while De La Soul helped influence scores of rap artists and collectives that followed, they also sit within a broader lineage of Black artists like Marvin Gaye, George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, Maseo Parker, Prince, and Tracy Chapman. And, like Chapman, De La Soul positioned themselves at the vanguard of conscious music as they raised awareness around drug addiction and spoke out against violence, materialism, and racism. Lastly, their struggles with Tommy Boy and Warner Bros. over the rights to control their catalog offered a model for artists to challenge record and streaming companies. As we contend with the rise of generative artificial intelligence in music production and consumption, De La Soul helped educate fans in the perils of tech companies’ control over the distribution of art.
De La Soul was one of the few rap groups who were able to disrupt rap’s status quo, change with the times, while never compromising their artistic philosophy. Music videos like “Me Myself and I,” “Potholes in My Lawn,” and “Itzoweezee” demonstrated to Black youth that it was okay to be different, weird, and nerdy. Posdnuos, Trugoy, and Maseo inspired many rap groups to embrace reinvention. Their influence in rap is everywhere, from groups like Wu-Tang Clan, The Roots, and OutKast, to soloists like Tyler, the Creator, Kendrick Lamar, Doechii, and Denzel Curry.