How two remaining members of De La Soul turned an album full of loss into a celebration — with the voice of their deceased friend still at the center.
There's a certain kind of moment that record collectors learn to recognize. Not the silence just before the needle hits the groove, but the opposite: a name spoken aloud that suddenly sucks all the air out of the room.
De La Soul - Cabin in the Sky opens with such a moment. Actor Giancarlo Esposito, solemn as a master of ceremonies, reads off the names of the guests you're about to hear — a hall of fame of hip-hop. And then, at the end, one name lands differently than the rest. Dave.
At that moment, the tone shifts, just for a moment, before the first beat lifts everything up again. Because this is no ordinary record. This is the album De La Soul made with the voice of a band member who is no longer here.
The voice that faded too soon
David "Trugoy the Dove" Jolicoeur — one of De La Soul's two rappers, along with Posdnuos, with Maseo behind the decks — passed away on February 12, 2023, at the age of 54, after years of health issues.
The timing was cruel. Two weeks later, after decades of legal battles over samples and rights, De La Soul's entire back catalog finally became available on streaming — on the day their debut 3 Feet High and Rising turned exactly 34 years old. Dave did not get to celebrate the party the group had waited half a career for.
That loss hung over everything that came after. The easy choice would have been to stop. The difficult choice — and the more beautiful one — was to continue.
The decision to continue
Cabin in the Sky was released on November 21, 2025, via Mass Appeal, Nas's label. It is De La Soul's first album in nine years, since the crowdfunded And the Anonymous Nobody from 2016.
(Do the math, because this is often misreported: it's regularly called their tenth album, but if you count the studio albums, it's their ninth. A small detail, but it says something about how grand the myth surrounding this group has become.)
Posdnuos and Maseo continued as a duo. Yet Dave is everywhere. The album features previously unreleased recordings of his voice, interwoven through the tracks — he raps along at his own memorial. The group itself described the album as both therapy and celebration: the pain you carry, and the joy that still breaks through.
A funeral that sounds like a party
Here lies the wonder of this record. An album about death could have become terribly heavy. Instead, Cabin in the Sky feels like a New Orleans-style jazz funeral, where people dance and cry with equal fervor.
Even the heaviest moment — "A Quick 16 for Mama," where Pos and Maseo, along with Killer Mike, honor their deceased mothers — sounds more like an embrace than a lament. It's precisely the trick De La Soul has mastered since the late eighties: hiding seriousness under color and playfulness, so it hits home without crushing you.
The whole family showed up
You don't call for a farewell alone. The guest list reads like a family reunion: Nas (on "Run It Back"), Common, Black Thought of The Roots, Killer Mike, Q-Tip, Slick Rick, soul vocalist Bilal, and Yukimi from Little Dragon. Behind the boards is an equally impressive crew — DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Supa Dave West, Jake One, Nottz — alongside De La Soul themselves.
That's no coincidence. These names come from the same world: the Native Tongues, the jazzy, soulful, playful branch of hip-hop that De La Soul helped to establish. It also explains why the record sounds so good on vinyl. Warm, sample-based beats instead of sterile digital production — this is music that demands analog. The press almost unanimously hailed the album as one of the best hip-hop records of the year.
Yellow or light blue
For collectors, there's another choice. Cabin in the Sky wasn't released in just one way, but in two color variants, each with its own cover: a yellow edition featuring the main artwork by artist Hebru Brantley, and a light blue edition with an alternative cover (which also appeared on CD and cassette).
The yellow for those who want the Brantley art; the light blue for those seeking the rarer edition. With limited color pressings, the same almost always applies: these are precisely the versions you won't easily find in a few years.
What the story really tells
The easy ending is: legend returns, album is good, done. But beneath the surface lies something more poignant. Cabin in the Sky is what happens when artists refuse to let what they cherish disappear. The voice of a deceased friend here becomes not a relic behind glass, but a living part of new music. A memorial you can dance to.
And perhaps that is precisely why this album takes on so much meaning on vinyl. Streaming is air; a record is a thing. Something you hold, flip over, keep. For a group that had to fight for years to keep their own music tangible, and who just lost their third voice, a physical object is more than a product. It's a way of saying: this remains.
Cabin in the Sky is now playing on turntables around the world. And somewhere within it, among the guests and the grooves, the voice of Dave still resonates — not as an echo, but as a participant.
Do you already have Cabin in the Sky in yellow or light blue at home? Or another De La Soul record you'll never get rid of? Let us know in the comments.
Luister