Hit song was like a punishment

For De La Soul rapper Trugoy the Dove — who died at 54 on Sunday — the group’s biggest hit, 1989’s “Me Myself and I,” was created under duress.

“ ‘Me Myself and I’ was almost like a punishment,” the rapper, whose real name was David Jude Jolicoeur, told Rolling Stone in one of his final interviews. “It’s typical — the label comes and says: ‘Hey, we need one more, but we need something poppy and something familiar.’ ”

The song — which went on to become De La Soul’s only No. 1 song on the Billboard R&B chart — famously sampled Funkadelic’s 1979 classic “(Not Just) Knee Deep” at the suggestion of De La Soul’s Mase. 

“When we heard that, we were like, ‘Of course we love “Knee Deep,” we could work this. This doesn’t feel like the worst punishment in the world. Let’s do this,’ ” recalled Trugoy.

The Long Island-born trio also took rhyming inspiration from the Jungle Brothers’ “Black Is Black.” “We borrowed that; we nicked that from there,” Trugoy said.

And when it was all done, Trugoy the Dove knew that “Me Myself and I” was something special. 

“Once the song was completed, it was like, ‘Yeah, this is a great song,’ ” he said. But, he added, “we didn’t have the indication or idea of commercial radio [loving it]. The label [Tommy Boy Records] saw that and knew they had something they could really work with. It’s a blessing … That song was special for us. We’ve obviously played that record more than any other record in our lives.”

“Me Myself and I” — from De La Soul’s classic debut album “3 Feet High and Rising” — will finally be available to stream, along with the rest of the group’s catalog, for the first time on March 3.