De La Soul have hit back at their former record label, claiming they’re set to make almost nothing from a new streaming deal.
If you’ve found yourself trying to revisit some classic hip-hop, you might have realised that a lot of De La Soul’s early records are absent from streaming services.
Yes, while fans have attempted to stream landmark releases like 3 Feet High And Rising or De La Soul Is Dead, they’ve found their efforts unsuccessful, with the group’s music nowhere to be seen.
Now, the good news is that this is all about to change, but the bad news is that the group are getting a raw deal in the process.
As Complex notes, De La Soul took to Instagram recently to reveal to their fans that their music is heading to streaming services, but they’re not pleased with it.
“Dear fans, The music WILL be released digitally,” De La Soul explained. “After 30 long years of good music and paying their debt to hip-hop, De La Soul unfortunately will not taste the fruit of their labor.”
As the group noted, 90% of the royalties will be lining the pockets of former label Tommy Boy, while 10% will go towards the band.
As a result, De La Soul encouraged fans to stream The Grind Date, and 2016’s And The Anonymous Nobody…, their later era albums that are already available for streaming and were not released through Tommy Boy.
Likewise, De La Soul also hit back at their former label’s way of doing business, noting that when Tommy Boy were asked whether the samples on these albums had been cleared for release, the label allegedly stated that “it would be better to move forward with the release and deal with all claims/lawsuits later on.”
In an interview with Rolling Stone, De La Soul noted that while their music will indeed be available on Spotify and Apple Music, Tidal have decided not to offer up the band’s music as a way of showing solidarity with the band.
“It’s not going up on Tidal,” Maseo explained. “Jay-Z reached out, he’s not willing to support this.”
“[Tidal] supports the artist,” Trugoy added. “That’s just the bottom line.”
“That’s a great thing to know that people recognize the nonsense and they recognize and empathize with the artists. At the end of the day, you feel like that’s why your peers are reaching out to you, in support of you.”
Check out De La Soul’s ‘A Roller Skating Jam Named “Saturdays”‘:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Tu-qDHSSZo
