Kelvin Mercer

Kelvin Mercer (born August 17, 1969),[1] known professionally as Posdnuos and occasionally Pos, is an American rapper and producer from East Massapequa, New York best known for his work as one-third of the hip hop trio De La Soul. Through his work with the group, Mercer is considered to be one of the most consistent and underrated MCs of all time.[3] Beginning with the highly acclaimed 3 Feet High and Rising in 1989, Mercer has gone on to release nine albums with De La Soul.

Kelvin Mercer
Kelvin Mercer aka Posdnous of De La Soul at Gods of Rap 2019 in Berlin, Germany
Background information
Birth name	Kelvin Mercer
Also known as	Posdnuos Mercenary Plug One Sop Sound Plug Wonder Why Pos
Born	(1969-08-17) August 17, 1969[1] New York City, New York, U.S.
Genres	Hip hop
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Vocalist
Years active	1988–present[2]
Labels	Tommy Boy, Sanctuary, AOI
Associated acts	De La Soul
Website	www.spitkicker.com

Kelvin Mercer aka Posdnous and Vincent Mason aka Maseo of De La Soul at Gods of Rap 2019 in Berlin, Germany

Cameos and album appearances

Year	Album	Notes
1997	Common's One Day It'll All Make Sense, on the track "Gettin' Down at the Amphitheater"	with Dave
1998	Propellerheads' Decksandrumsandrockandroll, on the track "360° (Oh Yeah?)"	with De La Soul
2000	Rawkus Records' Hip Hop for Respect	with Various Artists
2002	Mint Royale's Dancehall Places and Pop Is..., on the track "Show Me"
2005	Boss AC's Ritmo, Amor e Palavras, on the track "Yo (Não Brinques Com Esta Merda)"	with De La Soul
2005	Gorillaz' Demon Days, on the track "Feel Good Inc."	with De La Soul
2006	Oh No's Exodus into Unheard Rhythms, on the track "Smile a Lil Bit"
2007	LA Symphony's Unleashed, on the track "Universal"
2008	Jake One's White Van Music, on the track "Oh Really"	with Slug of Atmosphere
2009	Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip's re-release of Thou Shalt Always Kill
2009	Master Ace and Edo G's Arts and Entertainment, on the track "Good Music"
2010	Gorillaz' Plastic Beach, on the track "Superfast Jellyfish"	with De La Soul
2010	Slum Village's Villa Manifesto, on the track "Scheming"	with Phife Dawg, J Dilla and Vice Verse
2011	DJ Shadow's The Less You Know, the Better, on the track "Stay the Course"	with Talib Kweli
2011	Official remix of Mac Miller's song "Of the Soul"
2013	Statik Selektah's Extended Play, on the track "Game Break"	with Lecrae and Termanology
2013	Wrekonize's The War Within, on the track "Church Road"
2013	Yancey Boys' (Illa J and Frank Nitt) Sunset Blvd., on the track "Beautiful"	with Botni Applebum
2014	Statik Selektah's What Goes Around, on the track "God Knows"	with Bun B and Jared Evan
2014	Stalley's Ohio, on the track "Navajo Rugs"	with De La Soul
2015	Étienne de Crécy's Super Discount 3, on the track "WTF"	with Dave
2015	Hot Chip's Why Make Sense?, on the track "Love Is the Future"
2017	Gorillaz' Humanz, on the track "Momentz"	with De La Soul
2018	The Black Eyed Peas' Masters of the Sun Vol. 1, on the track "All Around the World"	with Phife Dawg and Ali Shaheed Muhammad

Aliases

All three members of De La Soul have used a number of aliases. The following are the most significant:

• Posdnuos – Pronounced "pas-da-noos". The name may be a combination of the reversed words sop, meaning "leftover," and sound, a name Mercer went by while acting as a high school DJ. According to some sources, the fact that the words spelled backward are "sounds op [i.e., operative]" is intentional.[4]
• Plug One – An early concept for 3 Feet High and Rising involved music being transmitted from Mars by three microphone plugs (each one representing a member of the group). Though this idea was abandoned, the titles "Plug One", "Plug Two" and "Plug Three" still became relevant on the album. Mercer's title of Plug One would eventually evolve into Plug Wonder Why, which has been shortened to Plug Won.
• Mercenary – Derived from the last name, "Mercer". This name was given to him by DCQ, brother of Mos Def.[5]
• P-Pain – Caricature of the rapper T-Pain. He uses this alias in the song "Supervillainz" by DOOM.

References

1. "Posdnuos - Album Discography". AllMusic. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
2. Greg Tate (November 23, 2019). "De La Soul". Encyclopædia Britannica.
3. DJ Shadow (September 23, 2011). "DJ Shadow: The Internet Is Not Your Savior". Wired.com. Retrieved September 23, 2011.
4. "Posdnuos - MusicBrainz". musicbrainz.org. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
5. "De La Soul Interview". www.daveyd.com. Retrieved May 19, 2019.