By now, it’s well documented De La Soul and Tommy Boy Records’ founder Tom Silverman aren’t seeing eye-to-eye. The legendary New York Hip Hop trio has been in a battle to take control of their first six albums for what feels like an eternity.
Last week, Posdnuos, Dave and Maseo revealed negotiations had stalled, and there was no resolution. According to one of De La’s Instagram posts, Silverman flatly stated he’s “not in the business of giving artists back their masters.”
But in a recent interview with HipHopDX, Maseo explained that while he understands that’s often part of the business, he noted they were so young when they got into it that it was easy for the powers that be to persuade them into signing something that might not have been in their best interest.
“I was young,” he tells DX. “First of all, the way it was presented to me at the time, you know, it was presented in a manipulating manner when I think back. You’ve got your lawyers, and your business manager … when you’ve got all these people and here it is, they already have ongoing relationships with one another prior to it, you kind of get coerced to do something that appears to be customary.
“I actually spoke about this with Dave the other day. I was like, ‘Dave, man we were coerced to do those certain things.’ I was like, ‘After going through the trials and tribulations and gaining knowledge of this whole thing, people give you a perception like things are just customary.’ When publishing advances were offered, it was like this is what’s customary to take because they definitely wanted the publishing, you know?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzOOCnkUlnA
Maseo does say they received writer’s credit but that well eventually ran dry.
“At the end of the day, we did get publishing advances and we got writer’s credit,” he explains. “Writer’s credit means we’ll get paid for the songs we played, but we have no ownership. Records do stop playing, so when they stop playing, you stop getting paid. But overall, the catalog still holds some value.”
Although Tommy Boy didn’t literally say, “fuck you guys,” it was essentially implied, at least that’s how Maseo perceived it. He’s also baffled by the fact Tommy Boy attempted to release their first six albums on all streaming platforms on the 30th anniversary of 1989’s seminal De La Soul album, 3 Feet Hight and Rising.
“In much nicer words he said, ‘I’m not in the business of giving artists back their masters. Period,'” he says. “You know, at the end of the day, it’s like come on, man. I deserve my masters based on the value that I give to sustain myself and my group.
“There must have been a reason to celebrate all of this on our anniversary. You could have actually released an entire Tommy Boy catalog that you got back and waited for your anniversary. Why are you not trying to do this on his anniversary?”
This isn’t the first time Tommy Boy has been at the center of controversy. Naughty By Nature’s Treach once unleashed a small army of vermin and reptiles into their former New York City offices, which Maseo says is the reason most major labels have security.
“Anybody who gets into this kind of situation, you’re definitely angry, you’re in a rage,” he admits. “You really want to hurt somebody. You go through these emotions that … in Hip Hop, most rappers will act out. You know what I’m saying? But I’m gonna wait.
“Once upon a time, Treach did go up to the offices and let out a bunch of rats and snakes. This was the mid-90s when Tommy Boy was still on 86th Street. Treach went in the office and let out rats and snakes all throughout the office. They had to shut down. That’s what also led to them moving downtown. That is also the reason why most record companies have security up there.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRIc_EjwMp8
Maseo says there was a period when Silverman welcomed the drama.
“Tom, once upon a time, even used to like artists hitting the label,” he recalls. “He’d always think the good and bad helped sell records, really the artists talking shit about the label, that’s good for record sales. He would say stuff like that. Now it’s kind of taboo because you’re looking like you may not be able to do normal business in the future.
“But let’s be clear, they fell off. They’re trying to make a comeback. They’re too busy trying to say we’re not relevant when they’re not relevant. We’ve had continued success without Tommy Boy. Let’s close the coffin on this so we can really get back to work.”
De La is currently cooking up two new full-length albums, including a third installment of the Art Official Intelligence series. DJ Premier and Pete Rock are providing beats for the projects. They will serve as the follow-ups to De La’s 2016 Grammy Award-nominated album, And The Anonymous Nobody.
Naughty by Nature. Another group we only know exists thanks to tommy Boy’s distribution, studios, mixing and publicity. Why aren’t they calling for a boycott? Strange.
People don’t care about NBN like that. De La had more impact.
OPP, Uptown Anthem, and Hiphop Hooray are still on regular rotation. “Me,Myself, and I” is the only DeLa song that still gets played here and there.
De La Soul are just being some whiny uppidy bitches. They’re looking mad corny to me right now.
C’mon with the revisionist BS. Naughty by Nature were much bigger than De La ever were. I like De La much more but OPP and Hip Hop Hooray are bigger than anything De La ever released and they won a grammy for their Poverty’s Paradise album. The only major hit De La had was Me Myself and I and the rest of their catalog, despite not selling even gold after “Is Dead”, they chose to stay with Tommy Boy for all those years because they liked the creative freedom. Coolio, Naughty, Digital Underground, NORE, Latifah and all the other Tommy Boy artists were with them for 2-3 albums and today you don’t hear them whining about their profits for streaming even though they, too, were ripped off from the contracts they signed. They accept the fate their old work got and decided to move on. Maseo keeps talking about how he’s moving on and understands this is business but is still gullible enough to think Tom will just be like “You know what, you’re right, you were just a kid who I fucked over with a bad contract so now I will just surrender everything and hand it over to you!”. The longer they try to keep their classics from being streamed, the more it hurts their own legacy.
De La Soul tours the whole world till this day and 1000’s of fans go to see them.
Naughty By Nature plays State fairs
Naughty was great and had giant records.
De La was great and had giant catalogs and loyal fans
For real, RZA and the GZA got jerked by Tommy Boy back in the day too.
So I guess your 6 albums on the label are irrelevant also right?
THAT IS WHAT THEY DO YOU EXPECTED MORE SLAVERY IS SLAVERY
Was that English? What does that comment even mean? Was that a haiku? Please don’t comment if it doesn’t make sense…
Boo boo. Dial nine Whaaan whaaan and get a whambulance out ASAP for these lames. Want some French cries with that whamburger, cry baby ass motherfuckers. You obviously can afford FOOD… Nice to know you feel entitled to go back magically on a legally binding contract. Dorks. Fuck all the dindus supporting this bullshit too.
Shut your dirty fuckin palefaced mouth
Hahahahaha. So you’re saying they can’t read? Hilarious. “Rigged contract?” Like the ones Suge, Puffy, Baby etc lush to all of their artists? Pale faced mouth? HahahA. I’m a Latino, clown. How has “shut your palefaced mouth” worked for you so far, historically. Hilarious answers from illiterate savages. Don’t sign any “rigged contracts” kids. Them words in clear English will get you if you don’t know how to read. LOLOLOLOL
They clearly signed a rigged contract at a young age, its your type of legal fiction that profits off misery.
Legal fiction? LOL. What is the “fiction” here, buddy? They were all 18 years old or the contract wouldn’t be LEGALLY BINDING. If the contract was “RIGGED”, it wouldn’t be LEGALLY BINDING. They are from NY, they’re not some simpleton country bumpkins from Nebraska. I actually think all 3 of them have college educations. If you don’t understand a contract, you pay a lawyer a few hundred dollars to read it for you, or don’t CRY LIKE A BITCH when you’ve fucked yourself. It’s called personal accountability, young dindu. Nice failed, flawed and completely fictional arguments. I hope you never have to interact with the police, lawyer or a judge. LOL
We need new De La albums asap! Unfortunately they signed the contract with Tommy Boy. Their isn’t much that can be done at this point besides continue to negotiate privately. People will buy De la albums (including me) as soon as they hit streaming services!
So are they claiming they were illiterate when they signed that contract? LOL
“Let’s close the coffin on this so we can really get back to work”
That’s how Maseo closes this but his actions don’t appear to reflect this attitude at all. They talk about how they want fans to be able to access the music for years and when it was about to happen, they blocked it by throwing a hissy fit about their payment. The self pity and victim attitude doesn’t make them look any good in this. It’s well known that rappers got jerked around and signed bad deals where they barely made the money they “should” from record sales because they were young and just wanted a chance. Now after having been in the business for 30 years, they still don’t appear to understand it.
“I deserve my masters based on the value that I give to sustain myself and my group” sorry, Mase, but sadly that’s not how this works. You signed the contract and now decades later, you expect a handout because you “deserve” it? Unfortunately, deserving doesn’t mean shit in life and certainly not in a cut throat business like the music industry. The best they can hope for is just getting what little they can financially from the streaming and gain exposure from younger people in the streaming era who have never had the chance to listen to their earlier work who may stick around for their newer music and buy concert tickets/merch to keep the money rolling. As it is right now, they are only fucking themselves over when the music is not made available. Because instead of 10%, they’re getting precisely $0 and no chance of their music being easily accessed.
They also don’t seem to know what they want at all. In an earlier interview, they were whining that the label had no idea about anything and wanted to randomly release them last November when the 30th anniversary was around the corner. Suddenly here, Maseo is talking about how the same 30th anniversary date is proof that they see value in their catalog. Think logically and not emotionally, it’s almost like they’ve found comfort in their music being offline.
Why is this story still getting attention? They fightin themselves now. De La have always been cry babies. Your all millionaires and still crying? I read in an interview they had Rush managment back in the days? And they got robbed? bruh I smell a rat. And Treach and Naughty buried that hatchet 20 years ago, why he draggin Naughty into this shat. Truth is nobody cares bout them unless they crying. Yawn.
Everyone up here dissing De La, STFU…your punk asses would’ve signed the contracts as well if you were that young. This was in 88…Y’all sound like the clowns that say they wouldn’t have been slaves if they lived during slavery…They deserve at bare minimum a raise in pay for their catalog or at least part ownership…FOH!
If I had signed that contract, I would simply live with the consequences of my choice and get on with it. Just like how all the other rappers have when they signed unfavorable contracts to get major record deals in the 80s/90s and you don’t see any of them whining on social media about their streaming royalties. A written contract that has been signed is the terms they chose to accept and sadly for them, “deserving” something will get them nowhere because they don’t have a leg to stand on. It’s one thing if they had a legal case to fight it but they don’t. Instead they are gonna keep their music buried in the vault and away from streaming services because Tommy Boy owns it and can choose to keep it that way. At least even for pennies, they would get more exposure if people could access their music on Spotify/Apple but now it’s nothing.
Beggars can’t be choosers, Maseo thinks he can just dictate the terms like that and demand full ownership. Tommy Boy agreed to negotiate better terms (which was probably a raise in percentage) but instead Maseo keeps rambling on about “I want to own that catalog”. With this level of arrogance from him, I can hardly blame Tom for telling him to fuck off.
If Suge Knight was OUT, He’d get De La Soul’s Masters 4 Them!!!! Just sayin’……..