De La Soul founding member rapper David Jolicoeur dead at the age of 54

12 February 2023 , 23:46

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David Jude Jolicoeur has died (Image: FilmMagic)

De La Soul founding member David Jolicoeur has tragically died at the age of 54.

The iconic rapper - known as Dave and Trugoy the Dove in his chart heyday - passed away at a hospital in Maryland on Sunday with no official reason for his death currently released.

Reports suggest that he had been battling with an 'undisclosed illness' and died of 'natural causes' but no details have been confirmed and the loss is yet to be announced on with De La Soul's official social media accounts or by De La soul members Kelvin Mercer aka Posdnuos and Vincent Mason aka Maseo.

Dave has passed away at the age of 54 (FilmMagic)

The sad news was confirmed by David' representative tony Ferguson on Sunday ( February 12).

Dave was known to have suffered with poor health in recent years having previously confirmed he was battling congestive heart failure and that he was using a LifeVest machine.

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De La Soul were part of the hip-hop tribute at the Grammy Awards last weekend but Dave did not appear on stage with his bandmates.

The band formed in 1987 and had huge success in the '90s (Michael Ochs Archives)

The band first formed in 1987 and racked up a string of hits over the years crafting some of the most famous rap songs ever and putting out an impressive three studio albums in the '90s.

Two of those releases achieved platinum status with the third hitting gold as they churned out popular tracks including The Magic Number, Eye Know, Stakes Is High, Me, Myself and I, Ghetto Thang, All Good, Breakadawn and many many more.

While their work has been hard for fans to listen to in reason years due to a lack of agreements with streaming platforms a deal was made recently which means their back catalogue will become more readily available next month.

The group were part of a hip hop celebration at the Grammys (AFP via Getty Images)

The group historically saw three of their tracks nominated at the Grammy's, with their collaboration with the Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc - bagging the award for Best Pop Collaboration back in 2006.

Born in Brooklyn, Trugoy had begun calling himself Dave in recent years and admitted he got his name in the band by spelling "yogurt" backwards.

Dave grew up in the Amityville district of Long Island which was where he met Vincent and Kelvin, with the trio embarking on the adventure of a lifetime when they decided to join forces and form De La Soul.

Ayeesha Walsh