De La Soul’s early albums are finally coming to streaming platforms. After a long and exhausting battle with their label Tommy Boy Records, the group announced the news on social media on Tuesday (Feb. 26).
While De La’s music will soon be available to the masses, it will come at a hefty price. “Dear Fans, the music WILL be released digitally,” the group– which is comprised of Posdnuos, Trugoy , and Mase– wrote. “After 30 years of good music and paying their debt to Hip Hop, De L Soul unfortunately will not taste the fruit of their labor. Your purchases will roughly go 90% Tommy Boy, 10% De La.” In other words, Tommy Boy will be reaping the profit of De La Soul’s digital sales.
The bittersweet announcement comes briefly after the group revealed that they were engaged in intense negotiations with Tommy Boy. “Dear fans…just got wind that Tommy Boy was not happy about our last post. Touché. We are not happy about releasing our catalog under such unbalanced, unfair terms,” they wrote in a previous Instagram post.
It’s unclear if the deal has been set in stone or when De La Soul’s projects will hit streaming services at this time.