De La Soul's catalog has been famously trapped in limbo for years, as far as streaming is concerned. There have been flickers of hope that the legendary Long Island trio's work would be released to major platforms, but ongoing battles with their former label, Tommy Boy Records, have often mucked up the works. But it looks like there could be hope on the horizon.
According to Variety, the recent sale of Tommy Boy's assets means De La Soul's catalog could be freed up very soon. New York-based music-rights company Reservoir acquired the Tommy Boy catalog this Friday (June 5).
A spokesperson for Reservoir tells Variety: “We have already reached out to De La Soul and will work together to the bring the catalog and the music back to the fans.”
De La Soul has been transparent about the issues with Tommy Boy and the problems with uncleared samples from their earlier work.
"For some years, the catalog had been held up because … of the issues that existed behind the projects," Maseo told Sway In the Morning back in 2019. "With samples not being cleared.”
But when it looked like their catalog would be available that year, De La Soul made sure to explain to the public that this wasn't an ideal situation for the group.
“I can’t say I’m not with [the music being on streaming],” Maseo told Sway. “I’m just not with the administrative structure behind it. Let’s be straight up: We don’t really financially benefit — there’s so many infractions around this whole thing that we’ll probably never see no money from it or any project that has these infractions.”