-Thank you, thank you so much for coming on.
It's always great to see you.
And I just want to really thank you,
because this must be hard
for you guys because you lost one of your founding
members of De La Soul, Dave, not less than a month ago.
I know this is a tough time for you,
but you making the trip to come on our show
and talk to everybody, and talk about Dave
and talk about De La Soul means a lot to us,
but also to the fans out there.
This means a lot. Thank you.
-Thank you. Thank you.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Yeah, man. It's bittersweet, you know?
-It's got to be bittersweet because you've been trying
to get your stuff available for years.
-Yeah. -About a good 15 years.
-I remember having -- we had you on in "Late Night."
We talked about that with Dave,
and we had you on "Tonight Show" as well.
I go, "Is it out yet?" "Jimmy, hold on.
Wait a sec." We're almost there.
It's coming." -Almost, yeah.
-"Almost." finally, it's available on Spotify, anything.
You get De La Soul, type it in, stream it.
Give it to everybody. It's finally...
[ Cheers and applause ]
Yo. -Yeah, Dave.
-Dave, they're doing it. -Yeah, man.
-What do you -- what do you remember
about this debut, the first one?
-I remember me having hair.
[ Laughter ]
-Cutting high school my last year.
-Is that right?
-To make that record. -To make this record.
-I was supposed to graduate in '88.
I ended up graduating in '89 because I cut.
[ Laughter ]
-Because of this. -To make that record.
-Did you guys -- did you meet in school?
-Yeah.
-Summer school.
[ Laughter ]
-Is that right?
-I was trying to get extra credit.
-Yeah.
-No, he wasn't. -No, he wasn't. Yeah.
-We were all failing English. -Yeah.
-We had to take an English class.
-That's interesting. That's where you guys met.
-Yeah, yeah, I mean, I've known Dave through his brother, Mike.
So, by me moving from the Bronx to Long Island,
met Mike Jolicoeur, and that's how I met Dave.
Yeah, we just became cool, and of course,
hip hop just embraced us.
-What school in Long Island?
-Amityville. -Amityville High School.
Amityville Junior High and High School.
-Amityville. Amityville's in the house.
-Amityville. -Yeah, we got some Long Island.
[ Cheers and applause ]
So many people have said this album changed their life,
including Questlove, who it changed him.
Quest, how -- how did it change your life?
-I mean, for the first time, we just saw, like, ourselves.
This is how, like, the group bonded, Tariq and I.
We just saw three friends just having fun with each other,
practical jokes and all that stuff.
And we had never seen that in hip hop before.
-Yeah.
-Do you guys feel like you were being free
when you were making this and rhyming.
-Definitely, cause we were just having fun in Mase's basement,
and it literally went from the basement to the studio
because by the luck of the draw
we have someone like Prince Paul.
-Yeah, Prince Paul. -Implemented that freedom.
-Yeah.
-How did you hook up with Prince Paul?
Just through a label?
-No, he was from Amityville. -He's from Amityville.
He went from -- yeah.
-Yeah, I used to do a bunch of parties around Long Island,
and Paul come from the battle scene.
So, he would come to these parties and deejay for about
20 minutes, and do all his tricks
until somebody went to pop a tape in.
And he would stop, take the tape, pop it out and leave.
That's how -- that's how, yeah.
-He say don't play my tape.
-You know, he didn't want nobody biting his tricks.
He didn't want nobody stealing his tricks.
-Oh, wow. -Yeah.
And Paul was part of the legendary group Stetsasonic.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-And how crazy enough that they're from Brooklyn,
he's from Long Island. -Yeah, I didn't know that.
-Yeah, I moved from Brooklyn to Long Island,
and here it is, I moved closer to my dream
by meeting Prince Paul.
-What was the basement like? [ Cheers and applause ]
Do you remember the basement? -The basement?
-Yeah, your basement. -My basement?
Oh, it was very dark.
[ Laughter ]
-Did you have anything to sit on? What was it?
-We had stuff to sit on because my uncle made it, like,
a little sanctuary where he would bring his girlfriends.
and all that.
[ Laughter ]
-Wow.
-It was beautiful. -But then I took over
with the records and the equipment.
-And you started taking over.
I have a picture of you guys back then.
Look at this. -Oh.
-Yeah.
I refuse to wear those pants.
-Yeah, why didn't you -- why didn't you wear the pants?
-I wasn't with it, man. -That was dope though.
-That was our first performance.
Yeah, man. We were scared.
DMC was right up front, cheering us on.
-DMC was there. Jay was there.
-Yeah. -What?
-Kane was there. -No.
I wouldn't have -- I wouldn't have gone on.
[ Laughter ]
"You've got to get out of here, and then let us perform."
And what were they like after you guys performed?
-They loved it, man. It was actually Stesasonic's
release party, but we got to perform at it.
And we did the one song, and I remember DMC came backstage,
was like, "Yo, do the song again."
Like, it was just amazing.
-And it was -- yeah. [ Cheers and applause ]
It was at Urban Plaza, yep.
-Was that Urban Plaza? -Urban plaza, yep.
-Urban Plaza here in the city.
I know it's been years and years just legal battles
trying to get this thing out.
I just want to let everyone know a couple
accolades about this album.
University recognizing one of the best and most influential
albums in hip hop history.
One of the greatest albums of all time.
"Rolling Stone" listed as one of the 200 greatest
hip hop albums of all time at number 33.
Library of Congress added the album to the National
Recording Registry for its for cultural significance.
Since it was released, it is now -- right now currently
number 15 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
It is back.
De La Soul is back! [ Cheers and applause ]
I love you guys, and thank you for playing.
You're going to play with The Roots tonight?
-Yes, of course. -"Stakes Is High."
-I would like to thank -- I would like to thank
Reservoir Media for making this all possible.
-Okay. -The new owners,
people who actually bought the catalog who made
the deal extremely right for us, you know?
-That's awesome.
-And I also want to thank --
[ Cheers and applause ]
I also want to thank Dave.
-Want to thank Dave. -I want to thank Dave.
I want everybody -- can you please say for me,
"Thank you, Dave?"
-Thank you, Dave!
-Thank you. -Come on.
Tonight he's watching. -Yeah, man.
-Check out De La Soul's entire back catalog available now
on all streaming platforms.