Part of the legendary American hip-hop group’s discography had never been released on streaming platforms due to copyright issues.
The music of the pioneers of hip-hop, the group De La Soul, will finally appear on streaming platforms. As announced on Tuesday the American rap group, formed in 1988, the first albums of its discography will be available online from March 3.
If De La Soul fans had to wait years to be able to listen to their favorite band online, it was partly because of the use of samples – pre-existing sound clips used to compose new music – which posed legal problems for the copyright level.
In an interview at the BBC in 2016, De La Soul member Kelvin Mercer aka Posdnuos explained that in his contract with his label at the time, Tommy Boy, the band were only allowed to release their music on “vinyl and cassette”. because of these samples.
“Our contracts on our early albums specifically said ‘vinyl and tape. The wording was not vague enough to lend itself to new musical technologies,” he told the BBC.
Redemption of their discography
But in 2021, De La Soul’s catalog owned by Tommy Boy Records was acquired by Reservoir Media. Following this acquisition, the company announced the upcoming distribution of the entire De La Soul discography on streaming services through the Chrysalis Records label.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_dczSc7VeQ
To coincide with the 34th anniversary of the release of De La Soul’s iconic debut album 3 Feet High And Risingthe rap group will make this album available on streaming platforms on March 3, as well as From Soul Is Dead (1991), Buhloone Mindstate (1993), Stakes Is High (1996), Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump (2000) and Art Official Intelligence: Bionix (2001).
Until then, only the group’s three most recent albums were present on Spotify: The Grind Date released in 2004, First Serve in 2012 and And The Anonymous Nobody… released in 2016.
