Iconic hip-hop trio De La Soul’s entire discography will finally be available across streaming platforms this spring. But, with the catalog dating back to 1989, what took the group’s music so long to reach digital streaming platforms? After several failed attempts behind the scenes to agree with their former record label, Tommy Boy, emcees Posdnuos, Trugoy, and Maseo took to social media to air their grievances.
The legal battle began back in 2018. Then, the Long Island natives began planning to release their first six albums on streaming servers in 2019 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of their debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising. Still, they weren’t pleased with the terms Tommy Boy brought to the negotiating table.
On February 26, 2019, the group took to Instagram to reveal the details behind the meeting, writing, “the music will be released digitally,” by Tommy Boy. Still, the group would not be paid fairly, “your purchases will roughly go 90% Tommy Boy, 10% De La,” as the trio allegedly still owed the label 2 million dollars in unrecovered debt.
Quickly fans were outraged by the label’s plans to move forward without the group being onboard, sparking the hashtag #BoycottToyboyRecords. Fellow rapper Jay Z shared in this anger. As the owner of the streaming platform, Tidal, his company refused to upload the albums to its server until De La Soul was satisfied with the financial terms.
The label even attempted to enforce a confidential agreement to restrict the group from speaking on a deal if one had been reached with the public.
Fast-forward to August 8, 2019, the group shared an update on the matter, writing, “After 30 years of profiting from our music and hard work and after seven long months of stalled negotiations, we are sad to say that we’ve been unable to reach an agreement and earn Tommy Boy’s respect for our music/legacy.”
The label shot down the group’s attempt to gain control over their master recordings. The group wrote on Instagram, “Tommy Boy says they are ‘not in the business of giving artists back their masters,’” adding, “Be aware, all parties involved will profit, but De La Soul will not benefit or earn deservedly/fairly. We really tried.”
With the public’s support, the group continued to fight for their music back, even appearing in the animated show Teen Titans Go! in February 2021. The episode featured De La Soul fighting an octopus trying to steal their music (a metaphor for Tommy Boy Records).
Then in August 2021, Talib Kweli revealed the group had reached an agreement with Tommy Boy in an Instagram post captioned, “After years of being taken advantage of by the recording industry in the worst possible ways, De La Soul now owns all the rights to their masters and is in full control of the amazing music they have created.”
Now, Tommy Boy Records has been acquired by Reservoir Media. In a statement, Reservoir’s Executive Vice President of A&R and Catalog Development, Faith Newman, addressed the matter, saying, “As someone who has devoted my life to hip-hop for over 30 years, my relationship with the guys in De La Soul dates back to my early days in the industry, and I can attest to how influential their catalog is to the genre.”
Newman added, “When Reservoir acquired Tommy Boy, the first call we made was to De La Soul. We vowed to bring their music to streaming, and it means the world to our team to make good on that promise and expose a whole new generation of listeners to one of the most important catalogs in hip-hop history.”
De La Soul’s first albums will be available on streaming platforms on March 3.
The Long Island natives took to Twitter to share that to mark the 34th anniversary of the release of De La Soul’s N0. 1 debut album, 3 Feet High And Rising, their catalog will be uploaded to streaming platforms on Friday, March 3.
The members (emcees Posdnuos, Trugoy, and Maseo) are relieved that they were able to strike a deal with Reservoir Media after they acquired Tommy Boy. “We can’t believe this day is finally here, and we are excited to be able to share our music with fans, old and new. Golnar, Rell, Faith, and the Reservoir team have been great partners in this entire process. We’re grateful that our relationship with them all has enabled this to happen,” the group said.
Although their music will be available across platforms, Spotify was the first streamer to share the news with their subscribers, tweeting a promotional video announcing the catalog will be accessible on its platform.
Reservoir Media, excited about the news, released a statement, “[we are] pleased to share that De La Soul’s first six albums, ‘3 Feet High and Rising’ (1989), ‘De La Soul Is Dead’ (1991), ‘Buhloone Mindstate’ (1993), ‘Stakes Is High’ (1996), ‘Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump’ (2000), and ‘AOI: Bionix’ (2001), will be available to fans everywhere.”
With a platinum plaque, two gold records, and a Grammy Award to their names, you would think rap trio De La Soul’s catalog would be available for enjoyment across streaming platforms. But, unfortunately for the Library Of Congress inductees, due to several legal issues — including potential earning disputes with their record label, Tommy Boy — emcees Posdnuos (real name Kelvin Mercer), Trugoy (real name David Jude Jolicoeur), and Maseo (real name Vincent Lamont Mason Jr.) never signed off on the agreement.
Now that Reservoir Media has acquired the label, the pioneer posse’s music will be uploaded to streaming services this spring thanks to distribution from its subsidiary Chrysalis Records.
In a joint statement, the Long Island natives spoke on the news, saying, “We can’t believe this day is finally here, and we are excited to be able to share our music with fans, old and new. Golnar, Rell, Faith, and the Reservoir team have been great partners in this entire process. We’re grateful that our relationship with them all has enabled this to happen.”
Streaming giant Spotify took to Twitter to let their subscribers know De La Soul’s catalog will be accessible on its platform on Friday, March 3, to mark the 34th anniversary of the release of De La Soul’s N0. 1 debut album, 3 Feet High And Rising.
As for what music will be uploaded, a statement shared from Reservoir Media shared, “[we are] pleased to share that De La Soul’s first six albums, ‘3 Feet High and Rising’ (1989), ‘De La Soul Is Dead’ (1991), ‘Buhloone Mindstate’ (1993), ‘Stakes Is High’ (1996), ‘Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump’ (2000), and ‘AOI: Bionix’ (2001), will be available to fans everywhere.”
Reservoir’s Executive Vice President of A&R and Catalog Development, Faith Newman, who is also a fan of the group, shared how important this news is to the greater music community, saying, “As someone who has devoted my life to hip-hop for over 30 years, my relationship with the guys in De La Soul dates back to my early days in the industry, and I can attest to how influential their catalog is to the genre.”
Newman later added, “When Reservoir acquired Tommy Boy, the first call we made was to De La Soul. We vowed to bring their music to streaming, and it means the world to our team to make good on that promise and expose a whole new generation of listeners to one of the most important catalogs in hip-hop history.”
As a treat, De La Soul will release their hit single “The Magic Number” earlier (on January 13) to hold their fans over until their entire discography is made available.
De La Soul announced on March 3, 2023, their whole discography will be accessible via all streaming services and digital shops. De La Soul’s catalog, which includes the albums 3 Feet High and Rising (1989), De La Soul Is Dead (1991), Buhloone Mindstate (1993), Stakes Is High (1996), Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump (2000), and AOI: Bionix (2002), will be made available to fans on all streaming platforms for the first time ever (2001). The group will also issue limited edition vinyl, CDs, and cassettes through their label AOI and through Chrysalis Records as part of this historic release.
Posdnuos, Dave, and Maseo have formally secured possession of the rights to the master recordings through their new partnership with Reservoir and Chrysalis Records after decades of litigation for their in-demand back catalog. “It’s been 20 plus years overdue, but finally, we are here,” says DJ Maseo.
In the late 1980s, Posdnuos, Trugoy, and Maseo formed De La Soul. By the early 1990s, the group had established itself as a distinctive collective, leveraging early hip-hop inspirations to propel the genre into its Golden Age and beyond. Their critically acclaimed debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising, was created by Grammy-winning hip-hop producer Prince Paul and released on March 3, 1989. The one-of-a-kind album was included to the National Recording Registry, a collection of audio files that the Library of Congress has considered “culturally, historically, or aesthetically important.” The group advanced hip-hop and showed the significance of a well-crafted album as a whole piece of art.
On this date in 1993, De La Soul dropped their third full-length studio album, Buhloone Mindstate.
The legendary Long Island Hip Hop trio known as De La Soul showed and proved that the third time was the charm when they released their Buhloone Mindstate album two years after their oxymoronic De La Soul Is Dead LP. Marketed and promoted by Tommy Boy Records for DSL’s third time around, Buhloone Mindstate flew pretty much under the radar but still managed to make 10th on comedian Chris Rock’s Top 25 hip-hop albums of all time as published by Rolling Stone magazine.
The most familiar single would be “Breakadawn,” which features the unforgettable samples from Michael Jackson’s “I Can’t Help It” and Smokey Robinson’s “Quiet Storm.” Even the late great Guru from Gangstarr appeared on “Patti Dooke,” making this project one of the most well-rounded LPs from the three Plugs.
Salute to Trugoy, Mace, and Posdnous for this classic project!
Despite The Notorious B.I.G. rapping “you never thought that hip-hop would take it his far” on his 1994 breakout single “Juicy,” even he might have been shocked to see just how far the genre has come since then if we were still around. After all, when he wrote that line, the genre had only been around for around twenty years, going by the widely accepted “birthday” of August 11, 1973. For much of that time, hip-hop was seen as a passing fad, a little like its immediate predecessor disco.
But here we are, coming up on hip-hop’s 50th anniversary. The culture and the music both look way different than they did when they started, even factoring in the 20-year fashion cycle. One thing that can’t be denied, though, is that hip-hop underwent some of its biggest stylistic evolutions and innovations during the ’90s when people finally began to realize that this “fad” might be here to stay. And while things have changed a lot, many of those innovations remain the bedrock upon which almost all future offshoots of hip-hop are based.
While there have been multiple generations born into a world where hip-hop has always been part of pop culture, those generations often find themselves at odds because as new fans are born every day — literally or figuratively — they often come into those discussions missing valuable context about the roots and history of the music both sides love so much. Rather than shooing these newcomers out the proverbial gates, why don’t we welcome them in?
Being a good citizen starts with a good education, and since it’s hard to know where to start with the hip-hop canon, we wanted to give the kids (and new hip-hop fans of all ages) a primer on some of the most groundbreaking and important rap albums of the ’90s. By no means is this list comprehensive or complete — that’d be borderline impossible without turning it into a book instead — but these albums have contributed to a canon that has turned out to be dynamic, inclusive, and at times borderline ridiculous. You might see some familiar favorites or even a few unexpected additions, but they all form part of hip-hop’s beloved and elaborate tapestry.
(P.S. In case it’s not immediately obvious, this list is in alphabetical order. Please don’t mistake this for a ranking and yell at me for putting MC Lyte “above” Tupac or something stupid like that.)
8Ball & MJG — Comin’ Out Hard
You might be surprised to see the 1993 debut album from the Memphis duo here, but one listen to the title track will almost certainly call to mind the groovy style still in use today by the likes of Curren$y, Denzel Curry, Joey Badass, Larry June, Le$, and more.
A Tribe Called Quest — Midnight Marauders
As the debate between which Tribe album, 1991’s Low End Theory or 1993’s Midnight Marauders, holds more weight in the Queens crew’s canon, there’s simply no denying that the latter saw them at the height of their powers, standing toe-to-toe with gigantic contemporaries as the standard-bearers for so-called “alternative hip-hop” on the radio and at MTV.
Black Star — Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are…
When you think of modern “conscious rap” today, nearly every practitioner of the form comes from the lineage of this culture defining album.
Da Brat — Funkdafied
She may have been a gender-flipped Snoop Dogg clone on her 1994 debut, but she was the first female solo rap act to receive a platinum certification, opening the door for the sisterhood to follow. She proved women could be commercially viable — and inadvertently opened the door for queer representation in hip-hop, even if it took 25 years for her to openly admit her sexuality.
De La Soul — Stakes Is High
De La Soul’s discography is one of the heartiest in hip-hop history — and the hardest to hear — but their 1996 album remains a high watermark as an exemplar of the then-burgeoning underground movement against hip-hop’s growing commercialism.
E-40 — In A Major Way
Aside from being one of hip-hop’s longest-tenured pioneers to retain a foothold on contemporary tastes, E-40 is also one of its foremost businessmen. He showed rappers how to grind independently without label backing; in addition, the stripped-down production of his early Bay Area projects has come to define the sound of many modern rising rappers, from Southern California to Detroit.
Freestyle Fellowship — Innercity Griots
The criminally overlooked Los Angeles collective might not be a household name, but their jazz-influenced, freeform take on the genre had a lasting impact on alternative rap, from their contemporaries like Pharcyde to modern-day descendants such as Kendrick Lamar. Their 1993 sophomore album took a quantum leap in innovation from their 1991 debut To Whom It May Concern…
Lauryn Hill — The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill
20 years later, the argument about whether Ms. Hill’s 1998 solo debut belongs in the rap category or the R&B one continues. But one thing is for certain: it’s the blueprint on which dozens of future stars’ albums are built.
Lil Kim — Hardcore
Let’s put it this way: If you like pretty much any female rapper in 2022, there’s a 99 percent chance there’s some Lil Kim in her stylistic DNA. From Nicki Minaj to Cardi B and all their flourishing progeny, Lil Kim is the godmother of them all, bringing unabashed sex appeal, unfiltered raunchiness, and high fashion sensibilities to gritty, mafioso-style rap. It all started here in 1997.
MC Lyte — Bad As I Wanna Be
Without MC Lyte, there wouldn’t be a Lauryn Hill — or a Rapsody, Blimes & Gab, or dozens of other flow-forward women in rap who earned the respect of the fellas while holding it down for the ladies.
Missy Elliott — Supa Dupa Fly
Futuristic, funky, and fun; Missy Elliott’s debut album brought a completely unique perspective to the rap world in 1997. It’s been discussed before but it can never be overstated: Hip-hop has never seen an artist like Missy and it might never do so again. Supa Dupa Fly reintroduced the world to the Virginia native’s golden pen and her industry-defining partnership with Timbaland.
Mobb Deep — The Infamous
Let’s say you really love the menacing, blunt street rap from acts like Griselda rappers Benny The Butcher and Mach-Hommy. You owe a debt to Mobb Deep’s 1995 sophomore release. Leaps and bounds beyond their ’93 debut Juvenile Hell, The Infamous practically created a subgenre in itself — one that remains darkly alluring to all kinds of hip-hop fans from the rugged ghettos depicted here to the desk jockeys bumping Freddie Gibbs in their Priuses before clocking in for a hard day of accounting.
Nas — Illmatic
Look, man. This album could never be considered overrated for the fact that Nas still has a career after I Am… and Nastradamus sheerly because hip-hop fans felt in their bones that he had the potential to match this. He hasn’t yet, but he’s gotten closer than he has in years thanks to Hit-Boy. Still, a gold standard debut that I’ve taken to using for anyone who overachieves their first time at anything (see also: Jordan Peele).
The Notorious B.I.G. — Ready To Die
Another pick so obvious, you almost want to skip it, but know you couldn’t, because there are some sacred cows you just leave alone. Origin of the above-mentioned awed line, Ready To Die is so meaningful perhaps mostly because it kicked off the so-called “jiggy era.” It had glitzy production, flashier presentation, and oh yeah, it pretty much gave Puff Daddy free license for the next 25+ years of shenanigans.
Outkast — Aquemini
Give Outkast credit for elevating (heh) so much three albums into their careers. In 1998, they could have rested on their laurels. ATLiens had reversed hip-hop’s view of Southern rap, set them apart from almost everything else out, and justified Andre 3000’s Source Awards declaration that “the Souf got sum to say.” Then, they went to another dimension, crafting a trippy, P-funk-inspired excursion beyond the boundaries of contemporary hip-hop sound. This is when Outkast really started to become Outkast.
The Roots — Things Fall Apart
I will admit some bias here; “You Got Me” was my favorite song when it came out in 1999, and completely changed my perspective of what hip-hop could be. Apparently, it did so for plenty of others, as well; “You Got Me” won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group in 2000, legitimizing alternative hip-hop in the eyes of the wider musical establishment once and for all. This one is 90 percent of the reason Questlove’s opinions hold so much weight.
Snoop Dogg — Doggystyle
In 1993, all eyes were on Snoop after his breakout appearance on Dr. Dre’s The Chronic two years before. He knocked it out of the park, becoming a nigh-ubiquitous figure in American pop culture seemingly overnight. What’s impressive is that his current persona is almost night and day with the rambunctious young adult who detailed his life of pimping, gangbanging, and being the biggest dog on the block.
Three 6 Mafia — Mystic Styles
You can’t listen to the Memphis group’s 1993 debut without instantly hearing so many of the musical elements that define modern rap: the trunk thump, the skittering snares, and the pitter-pat rap cadence that can be heard in the flows of artists from ASAP Rocky to Megan Thee Stallion — to say nothing of a swarm of the Mafia’s successors in the Memphis scene like Yo Gotti, Moneybagg Yo, Duke Deuce, and more.
Tupac — All Eyez On Me
“He runnin’ around like he ‘Pac.” When Kanye said that, he was referring to this 1996 version of Tupac Shakur (there are so many, after all): The swaggering, thugged-out, and increasingly paranoid superstar Tupac became between his release from prison and his fatal shooting seven months after the album’s release. Was its impact inflated a bit by that latter fact? The world may never know, but for a time, Tupac seemed invincible and this album is a huge part of the reason why — and why so many rappers still mimic ’96 Pac’s persona to this day.
UGK — Ridin’ Dirty
You just can’t talk about Southern hip-hop without talking about Houston. This 1996 album is a large part of the reason why. While the city had a flourishing hip-hop scene of its own before this, Ridin’ Dirty demonstrated just how influential that scene could be. Its impact reverberated through 2005’s Houston breakout, which in turn informed a last genre-wide infatuation with chopped and screwed beats. Arguably it all started here, with the duo’s best-selling album — a status it acquired with no official singles and minimal label promotion.
Wu-Tang Clan — Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
If you ever “Shimmy Shimmy Ya’d” or if your favorite rapper rhymes incessantly about anime, thank these guys for breaking down the door. They also set the precedent for massive super crews like Raider Klan, Beast Coast, Odd Future, and Brockhampton, created the blueprint for Kanye’s chipmunk-soul production style, and spawned a veritable family tree of acolytes, associates, imitators, and literal offspring that continues to expand throughout the world of hip-hop.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Last year, alt-rap pioneers De La Soul made their animated debut on Cartoon Network’s Teen Titans Go!, appearing as themselves to help the titular superhero team defeat a giant octopus monster. Over the course of the episode, it’s revealed that the Titans were actually huge fans of the group, so Beast Boy, Cyborg, Raven, Robin, and Starfire would be excited to learn that their rhyme heroes are set to make their return to the show in its upcoming eighth season, according to Cartoon Network’s Winner Take All panel at San Diego Comic-Con this past week.
In the previous De La Soul guest episode, Robin gave his fellow Titans — dressed as old-school rap figures, naturally — a lesson in music royalties, a moment that held special meaning for the guest stars, who had been fighting to disentangle themselves from their original 1989 recording contracts over the past few years. Ironically, superhero fans encountered the fallout of that struggle in late 2021, after falling in love with De La’s musical stylings in the credits sequence of Spider-Man: No Way Home only to discover that the song is unavailable on DSPs, along with the bulk of the trio’s catalog.
And while De La has finally gained control of their masters as of August 2021, they’ve still got to unravel a labyrinth of sample clearances to avoid any legal issues in bringing those albums to streaming. Until then, they’ll keep fighting the forces of evil, and perhaps even offer some new musical renditions alongside the Teen Titans when the episode airs during season eight, whose start date has yet to be announced.
On this day in Hip Hop history, De La Soul released their second album De La Soul is Dead.
Being one of the first albums to earned the coveted ‘Five Mics’ from The Source magazine, De La Soul Is Dead marked a change in direction for De La Soul. Although the title would suggest the end of the group as a whole, instead the meaning behind the album’s cryptic title is an allusion to the ‘death’ of this old style. Through this album, De La Soul began to separate themselves from their previous pseudo-1960 flower-child aesthetic that was set up by their popular debut. The title also represents the group’s separation from mainstream Hip Hop.
Regardless of the fact the group stuck to their skit heavy, storytelling structure, critics and charts were all but kind to this album. Unlike their uber-successful debut, De La Soul is Dead did not appear on any charts and was not recognized as a good album until years after it’s release. In the late 90s however, the album rose to critical acclaim when publications realized the impact the album had on the careers of De La Soul and Hip Hop as a whole. The album has been ranked by Rolling Stone, The Source, Pitchfork Media, and others as one of the greatest albums, regardless of genre, of the 1990s.
Following this album, De La Soul went on to be one of the most respected rap groups of their generation. The rebranding that came from De La Soul is dead allowed for De LA Soul to cross over as artists into the realm of respected artistry rather than a continuing their career riding the wave set by their debut.
