De La Soul Beef With Former Label Over Streaming Royalties
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De La Soul’s landmark debut album, 3 Feet High And Rising, turns 30 years old on Sunday. And soon, MissInfo reports, you might actually be able to stream it online, along with the rest of De La Soul’s first six albums. The iconic hip-hop trio has long been struggling to get their early catalog on streaming services and digital retailers like iTunes. It looks like they’ve finally won the battle, but it seems it’s something of a pyrrhic victory.
In a series of Instagram posts and an appearance on SiriusXM’s Sway In The Morning yesterday, De La Soul announced that although their full catalog will be available to stream and purchase online, they’re fighting with their former label Tommy Boy Records over royalties. “We are not happy about releasing our catalog under such unbalanced, unfair terms,” they wrote. “Your purchases will roughly go 90% Tommy Boy, 10% De La.”
Tommy Boy recently reacquired the rights to De La’s catalog after dissolving a partnership with Warner Bros. Records. Presumably, one of the reasons that Warner Bros. never made the music available to stream before is sample clearance issues — De La Soul recorded their debut back in the Wild West era of sampling, an era that ended in part after the Turtles sued De La Soul over an uncleared sample in 1989.
But it seems that Tommy Boy is just ignoring all of those pesky sample clearance issues. “When confronted and questioned whether or not all samples had been cleared for our catalog’s streaming release, Tommy Boy felt that it would be better to move forward with the release and deal with all claims/lawsuits later on,” De La Soul wrote on Instagram. “Really???? That’s just not smart business. We don’t want to be sued.”
“Don’t feed the vultures, support and respect the culture. If you wanna support De La Soul, cop the #grinddate and #anonymousnobody albums,” De La Soul added in another Instagram caption before seemingly teasing some new music: “Coming soon: #delasoul @realpeterock and @djpremier 2019!!!” Check out their Instagram posts and Sway In The Morning interview below, along with a message of support from Questlove.
