After years of rights disputes and several fierce fights, the first six albums of the hip-hop group De la soul will be released on March 3 on streaming platforms. And to let us wait a little more calmly before the bombs to which we will finally be entitled to our smartphones, the single “The Magic Number” will be available from January 13th.
The date of March 3 was not chosen at random. The day marks the anniversary (the 34th) of the release of the album 3 Feet High and Rising of De La Soul but now also the disclosure of the mythical first albums of the American rap group on streaming platforms. Only available in physics because of the dozens of samples used, the six projects of the legendary threesome will appear there for our greatest pleasure.
In 2016 at the BBCKelvin Mercer alias Posdnuos, member of De La Soul, explained these publication difficulties by the specific mention ‘vinyl and cassette’ in their contracts. “The wording was not vague enough to lend itself to [nouvelles] technologies musicales”. With the onset of the digital music era, their then-Warner Bros. record company did not want “just don’t care regarding it”. It was therefore necessary to wait for the takeover of Tommy Boy Records by Reservoir for 100 million dollars in June 2021, so that the machine can move forward and ultimately deliver these six albums.
On his first and illustrious album 3 Feet High et Rising (1989), the group had used no less than 70 different samples, authorized for the majority. But without this long and laborious work of finding rights holders and renegotiating contracts for their streaming releases, De La Soul’s first projects would have remained on our record players or in our walk-mans, to the great misfortune of fans of technology. Before this famous March 3, these hip-hop pioneers will offer computer servers their hit “The Magic Number” available from January 13.
The albums concerned by this next release:
3 Feet High and Rising (1989)
De La Soul Is Dead (1991)
Buhloone Mindstate (1993)
Stakes Is High (1996)
Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump (2000)
AOI : Bionix (2001)
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