De La Soul returns, bruised but no worse for the wear, with their first album in nearly a decade, Cabin In The Sky. The pioneering Long Island rap trio’s eighth and last album And the Anonymous Nobody… came out in 2016; since then, the group has experienced both triumphs and loss.
After a decades-long struggle to regain control of the publishing rights to their beloved catalog, De La was able to secure their ownership and bring their groundbreaking discography to streaming in January 2023. However, just one month later, founding member Trugoy The Dove died at age 54.
However, the group has apparently continued as a duo as Posdnous and Maceo continue to carry Trugoy’s legacy forward. Thanks to Nas and Mass Appeal Records, that care for their fallen brother is solidified in Cabin In The Sky, a 20-track effort including contributions from frequent collaborators Black Thought, Common, Q-Tip, and Yummy Bingham. Bilal, Killer Mike, and Slick Rick also appear, as do actors like Giancarlo Esposito and Jay Pharaoh and actor Gina Loring.
Of course, as Nas helped make all this possible thanks to Mass Appeal’s Legend Has It… initiative, it’s only right he appears on their song, “Run It Back!!” where Posdnous reminisces on De La’s formation (“It’s the birth of a team here to clean up the turf”) and Nas shouts out the generation carrying the torch for Golden Era hip-hop (“Now it’s just Doechii, Dot and SZA with most powerful hits”). You can listen to it above.
Cabin In The Sky is out now via Mass Appeal Records. You can find more info here.