De La Soul Speaks on Their Catalogue Returning to Streaming Services

After decades of legal battles with Tommy Boy Records, De La Soul announced today that their full catalog will soon be available to stream everywhere.

The announcement comes as the group’s original label, Tommy Boy Records, was acquired by Reservoir Music in a $100 million deal. “We’re thrilled,” said the group’s Dave “Trugoy the Dove” Jolicoeur on Instagram Live. 

De La Soul’s iconic discography will be available later this year, though details as to exactly when remain vague at this time, but the group seems to be shooting for November. “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.”

While the announcement pleased De La Soul fans tuning into the livestream, Jolicoeur trying to get his other fellow group members to join into the stream was more of a hilarious highlight than the actual announcement. Kevin “Posdnuos” Mercer was about to step onstage with Gorillaz at London’s O2 Arena, and Vincent “Maseo” Mason was in Florida. It was long after their originally scheduled time of 3 p.m. ET before Mason was finally able to tune in. “That was all planned, by the way,” the group posted after the session. “Thought the suspense would add good effect!”