When audiences sat through Marvel’s 2022 hit Spider-Man: No Way Home, Gen Xers, millennials, and zoomers alike were thrilled to hear De La Soul’s 3 Feet High And Rising song “The Magic Number” during the film’s closing credits. However, they were equally disappointed once they checked Spotify (or Apple Music or Tidal, depending on their individual preference) only to learn that De La’s catalog remained woefully out of circulation on DSPs (or Digital Streaming Platforms). This was, of course, due to a protracted legal battle with their former label, Tommy Boy Records, as well as the dozens — possibly hundreds — of potentially uncleared samples throughout their first six albums.
This year, though, those fans got the best news: De La Soul has not only retained their publishing for those albums, but they also sorted their sample issues, announcing that the catalog would be available for streaming this March. And today, fans got the first fruits of those efforts, fittingly, with the debut of “The Magic Number,” the group’s surprise 30-year-old hit, on DSPs. We embedded the YouTube up top, but you can check it out on the streamer of your choice.
Meanwhile, the rest of the catalog comes to streaming on 3/3/23, giving fans the chance to follow Pharrell’s advice about which two albums are must-listens (I argue that they all are).