Trugoy the Dove, one third of the De La Soul trio.

Daily Orange: How important is crowd participation to your show?Trugoy the Dove: When you have a crowd that is familiar to your work, it’s easy. When you have some newcomers, like these, who are new to our music, it’s challenging. You have to discover what new ways to have the whole crowd pumping. But it’s part of our show.

DO: Is that almost more fun to have to get the crowd into it?Trugoy: It is. They could just play the record if that was the case. Pulling them into it and not just being at the show, but being a part of it is what it’s all about. And I have a great time doing that.

DO: What’s it like playing at a university?Trugoy: We do these types of shows all the time. This is nothing new to us. It’s fun. It’s a great opportunity to introduce our music to a bunch of people who love hip-hop and support it in every way.

DO: How has hip-hop changed since you guys started in 1988?Trugoy: It’s definitely kicked down a lot of doors. The only sad part is that we lost some of the art and we lost some of the respect for the art. But it gave an opportunity for a lot of you guys and girls to become entrepreneurs and have an opportunity to get involved in this thing and be a part of it.

DO: It’s no secret that you guys don’t like playing ‘Me, Myself and I,’ which might be your biggest hit. Still, you played it today.Trugoy: It’s a song that we must do and it’s a song that people love. It’s what catapulted our career. We’ve got to do it. It’s always good hearing the song, but I think performing it gets tiring. We have a lot more songs that we love and appreciate that just define more who De La Soul is.

DO: Is performing hip-hop harder than rock?Trugoy: For groups that really take pride in the stage show, as opposed to just going up there and playing hits, it is tough. It’s a little bit more tough, but you have fun trying to figure it out. When we first started, we got booed a lot of times. But it’s just a part of the game, trying to learn how to do this performance thing. Some folks just want to see people perform their record and some want a show. But you’ve got to figure it out along the way.

Published on September 6, 2004 at 12:00 pm