Producer, DJ, Voiceover Artist & Radio Host

Innovative, bold, tumultuous, independent...These are a few words used to describe the 30 year history of Tuff City Records.

Originally rooted in hip-hop, Tuff City has transitioned its focus toward rescuing thousands of blues, jazz, funk, soul and R&B treasures from obscurity, thus creating several specialized reissue imprints devoted to music of the highest caliber.

This summer Tuff City will be releasing its Anniversary Box Set featuring old school 80s hip hop recordings from the likes of Spoonie Gee, The Cold Crush Brothers and Grandmaster Caz. Stay tuned for exclusives and updates!

Plymouth’s 14th best DJ!

My new album Digging For A Living is out now!
AldoVanucci.lnk.to/DiggingForALiving
7" Vinyl :
AldoVanucci.lnk.to/PonderosaKnewYouWereComing

https://linktr.ee/wearedelasoul

De La Soul is back—but did they ever really leave? After delivering their seminal debut 3 Feet High and Rising in 1989 with the production genius of Prince Paul, the New York City-bred trio of Posdnuos (Pos), Dave and Maseo went on to further impact Hip Hop culture with five more groundbreaking albums: De La Soul Is Dead (1991), Buhloone Mindstate (1993), Stakes Is High (1996), Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump (2000) and AOI: Bionix (2001). But once the digital age exploded in the late ‘90s, De La Soul’s celebrated catalog was unavailable to stream. As the decades passed, the tight-knit group forged ahead anyway—touring the world, connecting with their adoring fanbase and making music on their own terms. Following 2004’s The Grind Date, De La Soul took a hiatus from making albums, but joined The Gorillaz on the track “Feel Good Inc” which won them a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Collaboration.  In 2015, the group raised over $600,000 on Kickstarter from fans to independently release their album and the Anonymous Nobody, which was their first #1 on the Rap Albums chart, and was also nominated for a Best Rap Album Grammy.   

However, the demand for unreleased De La Soul music was palpable and the cry for access to the first six albums grew louder. Unfortunately, De La Soul was stuck riding a roller coaster of stalled negotiations, dashed hopes and dead-end conversations with their old label, and the group nearly gave up. 

"We have lived without the music up for long, these six albums haven’t been up—ever,” Pos says. “We got used to knowing they weren’t up.” In June of 2021, Tommy Boy Music was acquired by Reservoir, giving De La Soul’s catalog a new home.  In March of 2023, the six missing albums were finally available to stream.  But sadly, right before the catalog release, Dave, the beloved member of De La Soul, passed away. Though bittersweet, De La Soul preserves his legacy and the ongoing impact of their music. 

As iconic songs such as “The Magic Number”, found new life in the film Spiderman: No Way Home in 2021, De La Soul continues to resonate with a diverse population of people. 

As Pos notes, “We’ve noticed over the past several years of tour like, ‘Wow, there’s a father here with his child who also is here with their child. ‘We’re generational. To me, there’s nothing more gratifying than that. That means something. That’s telling about a group. What we were doing wasn’t just stuck to that time.”

“We really naturally been that group for everyone,” Pos says. “It was never about we’re just here for this community, that community, this set of people or these certain fans of Hip Hop culture. We see music as music. We’ve been very resilient, even being a group that didn’t have our music up [on streaming platforms]. We still had these beautiful opportunities through young people finding out about us through a commercial or Spider-Man. Now that it can all be there for people to gravitate to, I’m really happy about that.” 

De La Soul's impact on the musical landscape is immeasurable, with 3 Feet High and Rising widely regarded as one of the most influential albums of its era. Pioneering inventive sampling, playful lyrics, and eclectic beats, the album broke new ground and set a standard for creativity in the genre. Recognizing its cultural significance, the album was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress.

Dave Paul began his music career in 1984, starting as a mobile dj and evolving into a prominent college radio dj, club dj, and remixer in San Francisco. In 1991 he launched the now legendary publication The Bomb Hip-Hop Magazine and in 1996 Paul transformed the magazine into a record label. The company was named “one of the fifteen independent labels that matter” according to Rolling Stone and the labels Return of the DJ series was ranked by Spin Magazine as #25 in their 90 Greatest Albums of the 90′s list. Dave Paul has appeared on the front cover of Billboard magazine and is featured in the motion picture Scratch. Mr. Paul has dj’ed throughout the US, toured Europe and the UK, released over 100 projects on his record label and currently produces themed dj parties including the decade running Prince and Michael Experience.

Dan Greenpeace is following