De La Soul’s back catalogue is finally coming to streaming

3 January, 2023

De La Soul

De La Soul’s first six albums are set to be made available on streaming services from March 3, 2023.

To coincide with the 34th anniversary of the release of their iconic debut album ‘3 Feet High And Rising’, De La Soul will be making it available on streaming platforms alongside ‘De La Soul Is Dead’ (1991), ‘Buhloone Mindstate’ (1993), ‘Stakes Is High’ (1996), ‘Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump’ (2000) and ‘Art Official Intelligence: Bionix’ (2001).

As it stands, only the group’s three most recent albums are currently on Spotify; 2004’s ‘The Grind Date’, 2012’s ‘First Serve’ and ‘And The Anonymous Nobody…’ which was released in 2016.

Alexa, what's the magic number. Full catalog release 3.3.2023 #delasoul @amazonmusic pic.twitter.com/657U845cwf

— De La Soul (@WeAreDeLaSoul) January 3, 2023

De La Soul’s classic albums weren’t released on streaming initially due to a dispute with their label, Warner Records, who were allegedly reluctant to clear samples for digital release. Apparently the samples used across those early records were only cleared for physical media distribution.

De La Soul’s catalogue was then purchased in 2017 by Tommy Boy Records and in 2019, the group announced that their music would be coming to streaming services soon. However a royalties dispute delayed this release until 2021, when Tommy Boy was acquired by Reservoir Media in a deal thought to be worth $100million (£80million).

A few months later, rapper Talib Kweli announced via Instagram that De La Soul now owns the rights to their own masters “after years of being taken advantage of by the recording industry in the worst possible ways”.

Announcing their imminent arrival on streaming the trio, which features Posdnuos, Trugoy and Maseo, took to Instagram to write: “The De is finally here”.