De La Soul's Tommy Boy albums to be released on streaming services this year
Those looking to hear 3 Feet High and Rising without having to tolerate ad-infested YouTube videos are in luck.
Pitchfork reports that De La Soul’s Tommy Boy catalog will be available on streaming services this year.
“We have finally come down to a deal between ourselves and Reservoir Media to release our music in 2021,” said Dave “Trugoy” Jolicoeur in an Instagram Live post on August 10.
The announcement marks the end of De La Soul’s long, public fight with Tommy Boy over streaming rights to their catalog.
Via Forbes, De La Soul publicly severed ties with the record company in 2019 after a failed 7-month negotiation. According to the group, Tommy Boy would have netted 90% of the profits from their albums had the deal gone through.
The good news follows Reservoir Media’s $100 million acquisition of Tommy Boy in June, which included the rights to some of De La Soul’s most iconic albums like De La Soul Is Dead, Buhloone Mindstate, etc. Trugoy said it only took the group two weeks to work out a streaming deal with Reservoir Media.
“It was kind of impressive how fast we got it done — maybe in two weeks time tops,” said Trugoy on Instagram Live.
Rolling Stone says the albums will drop on streaming services “later this year,” though details on the exact release dates are scant. In the meantime, if you’re looking for something to hold you over until then, check out season one of Open Mike Eagle’s podcast What Had Happened Was, which takes a deep dive into the mind of Prince Paul, the executive producer of De La Soul’s first three albums.
Check out De La Soul’s announcement on Instagram Live below.