page_title: De La Soul
section_title: Since The Grind Date
hierarchical_section_title: De La Soul / History / Since The Grind Date
caption_attribution_description: De La Soul live at Marsatac 2008.
context_page_description: De La Soul is an American hip hop trio formed in 1988 in the Amityville area of Long Island, New York. They are best known for their eclectic sampling, quirky lyrics, and their contributions to the evolution of the jazz rap and alternative hip hop subgenres. The members are Posdnuos, Trugoy and Maseo. The three formed the group in high school and caught the attention of producer Prince Paul with a demo tape of the song "Plug Tunin'". With its playful wordplay, innovative sampling, and witty skits, the band's debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising, has been called "a hip hop masterpiece."
  The album was the band's biggest commercial success to date, with subsequent ones selling progressively less, despite receiving high praise from critics. They were influential in the early stages of rapper/actor Mos Def's career, and are a core part of the Spitkicker collective. They are the second longest standing Native Tongues group, after the Jungle Brothers. In 2006, the group won a Grammy for their collaboration with Gorillaz on the single "Feel Good Inc."
context_section_description: In 2005, De La Soul collaborated with Gorillaz on the hit single "Feel Good Inc.," which won a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Collaboration (the first Grammy win in the group's career) after being nominated for a total of three Grammys. De La Soul also appeared on the LA Symphony single "Universal" and Posdnuos collaborated with the Portuguese MC Boss AC on a track called "Yo (Não Brinques Com Esta Merda)". The following year they released mixtapes Hip-Hop Mixtape, a covermount with British dance magazine Mixmag, and The Impossible: Mission TV Series - Pt. 1, a release on the group's own AOI Records label. De La Soul collaborated with the athletic sneaker company Nike to produce two versions of the Nike Dunk under their skateboarding division, Nike SB. 
  In 2008, the group joined A Tribe Called Quest, Nas, Tech N9ne, The Pharcyde and others on the annual Rock the Bells tour and were honored at the 5th Annual VH1 Hip Hop Honors. Later in the year they collaborated with dan le sac vs Scroobius Pip on a re-recording of the British group's debut single "Thou Shalt Always Kill."
  De La Soul returned as a guest on the third Gorillaz studio album, Plastic Beach alongside Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys on the song "Superfast Jellyfish". Two other collaborations were recorded, but did not make the final cut for the album. They were supposed to appear on a track entitled "Sloped Tropics", though this song did not make the final cut. The group remixed indie rockers Yo La Tengo's single, "Here To Fall for the Here To Fall" remixes EP which included remixes by RJD2 and Pete Rock, and were featured on a remix of Matt & Kim's single "Daylight" by DJ Troublemaker.
  In 2011, the group earned Top 5 rankings on both NPR and Soul Train’s year end “Best of” lists with the Amerigo Gazaway produced De La Soul/Fela Kuti mashup, Fela Soul. De La Soul and Nike released Are You In?: Nike+ Original Run, which was the group's first original material since The Impossible: Mission TV Series - Pt. 1. The album features Raheem DeVaughn as well as production from the Chicago-based duo Flosstradamus. The recording is a single-track recording at 44 minutes, 17 seconds, part of a continuing series of releases through the "Nike+ Sport Music" section of the online store. 
  The group released De La Soul's Plug 1 & Plug 2 presents... First Serve in April 2012, an album that did not feature any contributions from Maseo. With very little promotion, the album was released to positive reviews. This was followed by releasing one track a month during 2013.
  In March 2015, De La Soul created a Kickstarter to help fund their upcoming album. It surpassed the original goal of $110,000 in under ten hours. The resulting album, And the Anonymous Nobody, was released in August 2016. Originally planned for an April release, but delayed due to rights issues,  the full-length was preceded by 4 track EP For Your Pain & Suffering and the single Pain, featuring Snoop Dogg. The album was nominated at the 59th Grammy Awards for Best Rap Album.
  De La Soul was featured on the track "Momentz" on Gorillaz' 2017 album Humanz, on Leap of Faith by Mr. Jukes, alongside Horace Andy, and on Tom Misch's 2018 single "It Runs Through Me." A tenth studio album, featuring production contributions from Pete Rock and DJ Premier, will reportedly be released by Mass Appeal Records.
caption: Posdnuos of De La Soul performing at the Marsatac Festival in 2008
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