Contrary to what Neil Sedaka said in his 1962 hit, breaking up is not really all that hard to do, honestly. That’s why a lot of bands give in at the first sight of difficulty and go their separate ways. If you ask De La Soul DJ Maseo, three key factors will lead a band to break up, but his group found the antidote.
Earlier this year, Vincent “Maseo” Mason sat down for a conversation with Classic Pop Magazine to discuss his career with De La Soul. During the interview, the legendary DJ clarified that neither he nor his bandmates—Kelvin “Posdnuos” Mercer and the late David “Trugoy the Dove” Jolicoeur—ever had huge egos.
Maseo says that the members of De La Soul are nothing like how “the music industry tries to paint” them
“No one who’s up on that stage is a superhero, even though the music industry tries to paint us like that,” Maseo explained. “The truth is, when we’re not on that stage, we’re dealing with real life: how can I make my granddaughter’s school recital? Once you’re off stage, real life s*** still goes on. But the two hours we are on stage? That’s super-fun. We get to have fun with our friends, who are still alive. Great!”
As for how the band was always to keep it together, Maseo confessed that “there’s no secret to it.” He continued, “People put so much emphasis on how De La have stayed together because we’re in the music business, where you get to hear more tragic stories than good ones.”
One thing that can bring a band down is anyone messing with their money
Maseo then offered his take on what exactly causes a band to start down a slippery slope: “But in my opinion, there are only three things that break up a group: somebody is shady with money, somebody has a significant drug problem beyond marijuana, or someone is messing with somebody’s girlfriend or boyfriend.”
“None of those have happened to us,” he added. “Those things destroy any relationship. It’s just on public display if you’re in the entertainment business.”
De La Soul survived nearly 40 years by being intentional about their friendship
Elaborating on how De La Soul has avoided the same pitfalls as other bands, Maseo asserted, “I’m going to be candid here. Three Black men sticking together, that’s beautiful and it’s important. What we’ve been faced with, culturally, coming from the Black race? Sticking together is important. The business of De La is our friendship.”
“There wasn’t a blueprint,” he continued. “No one had the thought process to say, ‘I’m the leader’ or ‘You be the leader.’ It all started with this idea of friends making music. We’d go to one of our houses, play around as friends, and ideas would just click. Pos and I would like an idea of Dave’s, or vice versa, and we’d hang around working on that idea for the day or the week. Each of us followed the others’ lead.”
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