De La Soul have announced their full back catalogue is coming to streaming services.
The wait has been long and painful. ‘Eye Know’ and ‘Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)’ have been absent from an impossible-to-quantify number of party playlists. But De La Soul’s new label Reservoir Media are coming good on their promise to bring the classic hip hop crew’s long stymied discography to streaming platforms.
Trugoy, Posdnuos and Maseo made the announcement in a video conference posted to Instagram. “We have finally come down to a deal between ourselves and Reservoir Media to release our music in 2021,” said Trugoy. “We’re trying to work hard and diligently along with the good folks up at Reservoir to get this done.”
De La Soul were signed to Tommy Boy Records from their 1989 debut, 3 Feet High and Rising, up until 2001’s AOI: Bionix. Tommy Boy had tried to get the band’s music on streaming platforms in 2019, but De La Soul said no on account of the “unbalanced, unfair terms” of its contract, which would’ve guaranteed them just 10% of streaming profits. Currently, you can only find their post-2001 releases on streaming services.
Reservoir Media acquired Tommy Boy earlier this year, paying an apparent US $100m for the privilege. One of Reservoir’s first points of business was to bring classics like 3 Feet High and Rising, De La Soul is Dead and Buhloone Mindstate back to the people.
“I’m not speaking to bash Tom Silverman or Tommy Boy in any way, but we are happy that that chapter is over and done with and we’re looking forward to our relationship with Reservoir Media, which is awesome,” said Trugoy. “I think we needed new soil to work with and these … are good people who are looking after us and trying to do the right thing.”
