# Kelvin Mercer

Kelvin Mercer (born August 17, 1969), also known by his stage name Posdnuos, Plug 1 and occasionally Pos, is an American rapper and record producer from East Massapequa, New York, best known for his work as one third of the hip hop trio De La Soul. Through his work with the group, Mercer is considered to be one of the most consistent and underrated MCs of all time. Beginning with the highly acclaimed 3 Feet High and Rising in 1989, Mercer has gone on to release nine albums with De La Soul.

## Cameos and album appearances

| Year | Album | Notes |
| 2000 | Rawkus Records' Hip Hop for Respect, on the track "One Four Love (Part 1)" | with many Various Artists |
| 2002 | Mint Royale's Dancehall Places, on the track "Show Me" |
| 2005 | Gorillaz's Demon Days, on the track "Feel Good Inc" |
| 2006 | Oh No's Exodus into Unheard Rhythms, on the track "Smile a Lil Bit" |
| 2007 | LA Symphony's Unleashed, on the track "Universal" |
| 2007 | DJ Jazzy Jeff's The Return of the Magnificent, on the track "Let Me Hear U Clap" |
| 2008 | Jake One's White Van Music, on the track "Oh Really" | with Slug of Atmosphere |
| 2008 | J-Live's Then What Happened, on the track "The Upgrade" | with Oddisee |
| 2009 | Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip's re-release of Thou Shalt Always Kill single | |
| 2009 | Master Ace and Edo G's Arts and Entertainment, on the track "Good Music" | |
| 2010 | Slum Village's Villa Manifesto, on the track "Scheming" | with Phife Dawg, J Dilla and Vice Verse |
| 2011 | DJ Shadow's The Less You Know, the Better, on the track "Stay the Course" | with Talib Kweli |
| 2011 | Official remix of Mac Miller's song "Of the Soul" | with Raewon |
| 2013 | Statik Selektah's Extended Play, on the track "Game Break" | with Lecrae and Termanology |
| 2013 | Marco Polo's PA2: The Director's Cut, on the track "Glory (Finish Hard)" | with A.G., Masta Ace, and Dion Jenkins |
| 2013 | Wrekonize's The War Within, on the track "Church Road" |
| 2013 | Yancey Boys' (Illa J and Frank Nitt) Sunset Blvd., on the track "Beautiful" | with Botni Applebum |
| 2014 | Statik Selektah's What Goes Around, on the track "God Knows" | with Bun B and Jared Evan |
| 2015 | Étienne de Crécy's Super Discount 3, on the track "WTF" | with Dave |
| 2015 | Hot Chip's Why Make Sense?, on the track "Love Is the Future" | |
| 2018 | The Black Eyed Peas' Masters of the Sun Vol. 1, on the track "All Around the World" | with Phife Dawg and Ali Shaheed Muhammad |
| 2019 | Grand Analog's "Mutations", on a single | |
| 2020 | Potatohead People's Mellow Fantasy, on the track "Baby Got Work" | with Kapok |
| 2022 | Robert Glasper's Black Radio III, on the track "Everybody Love" | with Musiq Soulchild |
| 2022 | Phife Dawg's Forever, on the track "2 Live Forever" | with Little Brother and Darien Brockington |
| 2022 | Diamond D's The Rear View, on the track "Flyin' High" | |
| 2022 | Ibrahim Maalouf's Capacity to Love, on the track "Quiet Culture" | |
| 2023 | Planet Hemp's JARDINEIROS: A COLHEITA, on the track "NUNCA TENHA MEDO" | |
| 2023 | Statik Selektah's Round Trip, on the track "Round Trip (for Dave)" | |
| 2024 | Ana Tijoux's Vida, on the track "Tu sae" | with Talib Kweli |
| 2024 | Common & Pete Rock's The Auditorium Vol. 1, on the track "When the Sun Shines Again" | with Bilal |

## Aliases

All three members of De La Soul have used a number of aliases. The following are Mercer's most significant:
* Posdnuos/Pos – Pronounced "poss-duh-noose" (/pɒsdənus/). The name may be a combination of the reversed words sop, meaning "gift," and sound, a name Mercer went by while acting as a high school DJ. According to some sources, the fact that the words spelled backward are "sounds op [i.e., operative]" is intentional.
* Plug One – An early concept for 3 Feet High and Rising involved music being transmitted from Mars by three microphone plugs (each one representing a member of the group). Though this idea was abandoned, the titles "Plug One", "Plug Two" and "Plug Three" still became relevant on the album. Mercer's title of Plug One would eventually evolve into Plug Wonder Why, which would be shortened to a homophone of the original, Plug Won.
* Mercenary – Derived from the last name, "Mercer". This name was given to him by DCQ, brother of Mos Def.
* P-Pain – Caricature of the rapper T-Pain. He uses this alias in the song "Supervillainz" by DOOM.