De La Soul Charging to U.K. Chart High After Streaming Debut

De La Soul could cap an eventful stretch with a career-best U.K. chart position for the hip-hop legends’ 3 Feet High and Rising (via Chrysalis).

At the midweek point, De La Soul’s 1989 debut LP blasts to No. 5, well ahead of its No. 13 peak from January 1990 and a potential career high.

A top 5 appearance would cap a particularly eventful stretch for the Grammy Award-winning trio, which lost its founding member Trugoy the Dove (born David Jude Jolicoeur) last month, at the age of 54.

The rush for 3 Feet High and Rising is powered by streaming, and the long-overdue release of the New Yorkers’ catalog on digital streaming services last Friday (March 3) for the first time.

That campaign followed months of work with the act and their record label, AOI, along with Reservoir, and includes De La Soul’s first six albums, 3 Feet High and Rising, De La Soul Is Dead (1991), Buhloone Mindstate (1993), Stakes Is High (1996), Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump (2000), and AOI: Bionix (2001). Just one of those LPs has cracked the U.K. top 10 — De La Soul Is Dead, which peaked at No. 7.

Flying high at the top of the Official Chart Update is the Lathums’ From Nothing to a Little Bit More (Island). If it holds its position, the Wigan, England rock outfit will earn a second leader following their 2021 debut, How Beautiful Life Can Be.

Close behind is British rapper slowthai, who is chasing his third consecutive top 10 with UGLY (Method). It’s new at No. 3 on the chart blast. Raised in Northampton (and born Tyron Frampton), slowthai landed a No. 1 with his previous, sophomore effort, Tyron.

Completing the podium on the chart blast is Mimi Webb’s first full-length album Amelia (RCA), set for a No. 3 debut.

Also eyeing top 10 stars are Scottish folk band Tide Lines (An Ocean Full of Islands currently at No. 6 via Tide Lines Music); “Songbird” singer Eva Cassidy’s posthumous collection with the London Symphony Orchestra and Australian-British composer Christopher Willis (I Can Only Be Me at No. 7 via Blix Street) and prog-rock legends Genesis (BBC Broadcasts at No. 9 via UMR/Virgin).

U.S. country star Morgan Wallen will need to show a clean set of heels in the final stages of the chart race if he’s to nab his first U.K. top 40 appearance. Wallen’s 36-track third album One Thing At A Time (EMI) appears at No. 40 on the Official Chart Update.

All will be revealed when the weekly chart is published Friday.