De La Soul & The Roots Salute Trugoy The Dove Live on 'The Tonight Show'

Posdnous and Maseo line up with The Roots to perform a De La Soul classic live on late-night.

De La Soul and The Roots put one up for the late David Jolicoeur on The Tonight Show last night.

Against a monochromatic cascade of animated daisies and with the band at their back, Posdnous and Maseo turned an NBC studio into the latest site for a Trugoy The Dove vigil, performing the J Dilla-produced title track from their classic 1996 album, Stakes is High, with Black Thought subbing in to perform Dave's first verse. As the performance came to a close, the lights went out and gave way to a clip of a young smiling Trugoy looking over the group in a touching and trying moment of silence.

Before the performance, Pos and Mase lined up across from Jimmy Fallon to discuss the group's early years, how failing an English class led to their paths crossing in summer school, and the Stetsasonic record release party that served as their very first show.

The late-night appearance arrives on the heels of the group's recent streaming debut, which was celebrated with a night of hip-hop royalty convening at NYC's Webster Hall on the eve of their catalog's arrival on DSPs. A hard-fought and bittersweet milestone, the availability of the group's full discography has been considered a culture-wide victory. And there's a good chance the festivities will continue throughout the year. In fact, just yesterday, DJ Drama seemingly confirmed ground had been broken on a De La Soul edition of his iconic Gangster Grillz mixtape series on a new episode of Elliot Wilson and B. Dot's Rap Radar podcast. And, as of this morning, it appears the group's debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising, has reemerged on the Billboard 200 chart at a new peak of No. 15.

Watch De La Soul and The Roots pay tribute to Trugoy The Dove live on The Tonight Show below along with their interview.