Austin McCoy, "Living in a D.A.I.S.Y. Age: The Music, Culture, and World De La Soul Made" (Atria/One Signal, 2026)

Mar 11, 2026

Austin McCoy, Assistant Professor of History at West Virginia University and author of Living in a D.A.I.S.Y. Age, traces De La Soul’s cultural revolution. He explains the DAISY concept and the group’s aesthetic risks. He shares new archival findings, mixes memoir with scholarship, and debates algorithms versus mixtape curation.

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INSIGHT

DAISY Age As Declaration Of Authenticity

The DAISY Age stands for "Da Inner Soul Y'All" and signals De La Soul's commitment to authentic, creative artistry rather than following trends.
Austin McCoy ties that declaration on Three Feet High and Rising (1989) to how the group shaped hip hop and Black culture over ensuing decades.

INSIGHT

Whimsy As Political Commentary

De La Soul used playful, fable-like lyrics to deliver social criticism about the crack era, violence, and survival in the late 1980s.
McCoy discovered deeper political readings in songs like Say No Go and Tread Water while researching archival context.

ANECDOTE

Inside The Prince Paul Split

McCoy learned detailed backstory about De La Soul's split with producer Prince Paul while researching Stakes Is High.
They parted because the group wanted a more serious tone and Prince Paul's comedic production no longer fit their direction.

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For fans of Dilla Time and The Chronicles of DOOM, a culturally connected celebration of the groundbreaking hip-hop group De La Soul, and how they changed the look, sound, and feel of Black America.

Music artists and trends come and go, but every once in a while, a moment arrives that genuinely changes everything. In 1988, De La Soul, three young men from Amityville, Long Island, did exactly that. Their always innovative work pulled inspiration from artists of the past and popularized cutting-edge music sampling techniques to blend jazz, R&B, and rap as they created a sound unlike any the world had heard before.

But the De La Soul experience didn’t end there. These weren’t just musicians—they were game-changers in so many ways. From the way they dressed, to the words they spoke, to the day-glo colors of their breakout 3 Feet and Rising, De La Soul rejected convention, refused to be talked back into the box, and left the door open for everyone behind them.

Now, in Living in a D.A.I.S.Y. Age: The Music, Culture, and World De La Soul Made (Atria/One Signal, 2026), West Virginia University history professor Austin McCoy explores how De La Soul not only defined a new era of hip-hop, but also American and Black culture at the same time. Through his eyes, ears, and well-studied recall of ‘80s, ‘90s, and 2000s America, McCoy takes us on a journey through the world this innovative musical act made.

One of the few hip-hop groups of their era to stay together long term, De La Soul lived astonishing highs and lows, from forming the Native Tongues collective to influential fights with their publishers to assert the artist’s right to control their creations. And after a lifetime left out of music’s digital revolution, in 2023 they finally hit streaming services just as it lost founding member David Jolicoeur too soon to see his work reach a brand-new generation of fans.

Living in a D.A.I.S.Y. Age will connect with DLS fans, ‘80s babies, and students of the rap game alike, in a beautifully rendered and deeply researched tome that places this group atop the pedestal it deserves.

Guest: Austin McCoy is an assistant professor of history at West Virginia University, specializing in African American History, labor history, social movements, and hip-hop culture. His work has appeared in numerous outlets including CNN, The Baffler, The Washington Post, Black Perspectives, and Truthout. He lives in West Virginia.

Host: Michael Stauch (he/him) is an associate professor of history at the University of Toledo and the author of Wildcat of the Streets: Detroit in the Age of Community Policing, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2025.

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