Living in a D.A.I.S.Y. Age

The Music, Culture and World De La Soul Made

De: Austin McCoy

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 colours 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, 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.

©2026 Austin McCoy (P)2026 Hachette UK Limited

Reseñas de la Crítica

What a gift. Austin McCoy has written a deep and beautiful account of De La Soul's music and the world it transformed. Crafted with a fan's heart, critic's ear, and historian's eye, this book is insightful, surprising, and compelling. Just like De La Soul (Charles L. Hughes, author of COUNTRY SOUL and WHY BUSHWICK BILL MATTERS)

Living in a D.A.I.S.Y. Age feels like a ghost story. De La Soul vanished -- their back catalog gone and legacy dead to our digital culture, it seemed. But Austin McCoy brings them back. His deeply researched and tenderly written book reminds us how De La Soul changed the game, and why they still matter. Maybe a ghost story for fans like me, but for a newer generation raised on Doechii, Kendrick Lamar, and Tyler, The Creator -- artists inspired by De La Soul's genre-bending, introspective blueprint -- this is an essential origin story (Felicia Angeja Viator, author of TO LIVE AND DEFY IN LA and curator for the GRAMMY Museum's Hip Hop America: The Mixtape Exhibit)

Austin McCoy deftly weaves together the perspectives of a fan with the contextualization of a historian in this rich and personal reconstruction of De La Soul's musical career. McCoy digs underneath the sampling and lyricism to unearth how revolutions in hip-hop, the music business, and the nation's politics and culture shape music consumption and community. Vividly narrated and blending the sensibilities of both hip-hop head and historian, McCoy has crafted a new way to think about music and history in conversation (Katherine Rye Jewell, author of LIVE FROM THE UNDERGOUND)

With his own mix of professional and personal insights, Austin McCoy has provided a gripping account of the impact of one of the most transformative musical groups of all time (Kevin Kruse, author of FAULT LINES)