*Talib Kweli took to Instagram on Saturday to confirm that hip-hop trio De La Soul finally owns the rights to their music, and now the group is speaking out about their music coming to streaming services.
De La Soul fought for years to gain control of their back catalog.
In 2019, De La Soul announced that their music would be streaming but 90% of the money would go to their former label Tommy Boy Records. After months of negotiations, both sides failed to reach an agreement, with Tommy Boy noting that they’re “not in the business of giving artists back their masters.”
De La Soul previously encouraged their fans to avoid streaming their music, Complex reported.
Tommy Boy was ultimately sold to Reservoir Media in a deal reprotedly worth $100 million.
READ MORE: De La Soul Finally Owns the Rights to Their Masters
De La makes it official. They back on streaming this year! ???? pic.twitter.com/VZPceF3jZS
— joseph patel (@jazzbeezy) August 10, 2021
De La Soul’s first six albums, including “3 Feet High” and Rising,” “De La Soul Is Dead,” and “Buhloone Mindstate” are owned by Reservoir Media, which wants to bring the group’s full catalog to streaming platforms.
“We have already reached out to De La Soul and will work together to bring the catalog and the music back to the fans,” Reservoir told Variety in June.
“We’re thrilled,” said the group’s Dave “Trugoy the Dove” Jolicoeur on Instagram Live.
“We have come to a deal between ourselves and Reservoir to release our music in 2021 — our catalog will be released this year, we are working diligently with the good folks at Reservoir, and we sat down with them and got it done pretty quickly actually,” said Jolicoeur. “Our music will be released in 2021 on all streaming platforms — we’re trying to get the whole catalog out there. It’ll take a minute… a little minute… November.”
Hear more from Jolicoeur about it via the Twitter clip above.
