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De La Soul Receives Full Copyrights to their Music Catalog
“After years of being taken advantage 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,” Kweli wrote as the caption of his Instagram post.
It has been quite some time since we’ve heard from De La Soul. The legendary trio from Detroit rose into prominence from 1989 through 2004. From then on, the trio would release several singles, even an album back in 2016 titled And the Anonymous Nobody which debuted number 12 on the US Billboard charts, 3 in the US R&B charts, and number 2 on the UK charts.
However, within their sporadic hiatus, fans often wondered why a sonically sounding group who was consistently dropping music for over three decades – became sporadic and not as consistent?
Well, the answer which is commonly known in the entertainment business — the record label. For years since the group’s departure from Tommy Boy Records in 2001; Posdunos, Trugoy, and Maseo has been fighting the rights to their music ever since. Two decades long.
Over the weekend, Talib Kweli took to Instagram to display his excitement of his comadres winning a fueled court battle against their once dictator.
“After years of being taken advantage 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,” Kweli wrote as the caption of his Instagram post. The rapper continued, “Let’s salute Plugs 1, 2, and 3 for sticking to their guns and showing us that we can all beat the system if we come together as a community. Let’s hear it for black ownership of black art! Congratulations fellas!”
Maseo from De La Soul later confirmed the exciting milestone. Tommy Boy Records was also sold to Reservoir Media, who acquired the label for nearly $100 million, including gaining ownership of their catalog. What does this mean for De La Soul? The new label will publish the trio’s six albums on social media platforms and are currently in talks of the next steps.
Reservoir Media told Variety, “We have reached out to De La Soul and will work together to bring the catalog and music back to the fans.”
Definitely excited to hear new and old music from the legendary acts.
