Artist News

De La Soul back in control of their masters

By | Published on Monday 9 August 2021

De La Soul are back in control of their master recordings. Or so says Talib Kweli, who wrote in an Instagram post yesterday that he’d been told about this development by De La Soul member Maseo.

Kweli wrote: “Ladies and gentlemen, I spoke to Maseo from the legendary De La Soul today and it’s official… after years of being taken advantage [of] 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”.

“Let’s salute Plugs 1, 2 and 3”, he added, “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”.

The news follows the recent acquisition by Reservoir of the label that released most of De La Soul’s albums, that being Tommy Boy. At the time, many people wondered whether that deal could bring to an end the long running dispute between De La Soul and Tommy Boy which has meant that the group’s classic albums have been unavailable on the streaming services.

Following the deal, a rep for Reservoir told Variety: “We have already reached out to De La Soul and will work together to the bring the catalogue and the music back to the fans”. Meanwhile a post on the De La Soul Instagram around the same time read “woke up feeling a greater sense of peace of mind”.



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