“We were all walking through Macy’s to a local mall,” remembers MC and producer Dave Jolicoeur, “and I saw a Mickey-Mouse T-shirt with a big daisy on it. It just looked great, and I was like, ‘How could I incorporate something that looks so cool to me into what we’re doing? What could daisy mean and be really cool?’”

With that revelation, Dave (then known as Trugoy) invented the ‘DAISY Age’ – ‘Da Inner Sound, Y’All’ – the concept that would embody De La Soul’s intelligent, sensitive lyrics, colourful style and sly humour. It would also quickly lead to them being labelled “the hippies of hip-hop”, a term they hated.

“At that time it was all about challenging yourself to be different,” says producer Maseo. “Run-DMC wasn’t the Beastie Boys, LL wasn’t Rakim, Rakim wasn’t Big Daddy Kane, Public Enemy wasn’t De La. Everybody was different.”

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