De La Soul Unveil New Album ‘Cabin in the Sky’ with “The Package”
De La Soul, photo by Robert Adam Mayer
De La Soul have announced their tenth studio album, Cabin in the Sky. The foundational hip-hop group’s follow-up to 2016’s And the Anonymous Nobody… is also its first since the death of founding member Dave Jude Jolicoeur, aka Trugoy the Dove, who passed away at the age of 54 in 2023. To preview the project, arriving on Nov. 21 via Mass Appeal, they’ve shared the Pete Rock-produced lead single “The Package.”
“Cabin in the Sky lives in that space between loss and light,” Posdnuos said in a statement. “It’s about the pain we carry and the joy that somehow still finds us. This album is therapy and celebration at the same time. There’s a vulnerability in these songs, because everything we’ve been through has brought us to this moment, to this album, honoring what we’ve lost and lifting up what still remains. That duality. That’s life, and that’s De La.”
Cabin in the Sky reunites Posdnuos and Maseo in honor of their friend Plug 2, whose presence resounds throughout the project by way of vocals and production recorded before his passing. Other production came from returning collaborators DJ Premier, Supa Dave West and Pete Rock, with guest spots from Killer Mike, Little Dragon’s Yukimi, Common, Nas and Black Thought. The album will be the sixth release in Mass Appeal’s seven-part Legend Has It… campaign, which has celebrated the titans of golden age New York hip-hop with offerings from Slick Rick, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Mobb Deep and the late Big L.
“It was my mission to make sure that Dave’s true energy was felt throughout the entire record,” Posdnuous elaborated on the process behind Cabin in the Sky for Pitchfork. “So, there was a beat he had played for me and the producer Supa Dave West during the pandemic that he had just made at the house. And he just kept saying, ‘Ya don’t stop,’ throughout the track, and just going for about 30 seconds and he’s just saying, ‘Ya don’t stop.’ So I just figured, like, you know what, this could be a cool way to start the album off, and so I extended that track that Dave made, put lyrics to it with his voice throughout it as he’s kind of the heartbeat of the track and the motivation of keeping me moving.”
“The Package” is a warm, soulful and matured spin on De La Soul’s signature off-kilter boom-bap sound, and a promising preview of the perspective that charges their fist album in nine years. Cabin in the Sky is available to pre-order and pre-save now.
