De La Soul and Tommy Boy Records had a very public dispute over contract negotiations last year. In a recent interview with Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, Posdnuos hinted a reconciliation with their original label was possibly in the works, but he didn’t outline the details of what that means.
“(Tommy Boy) sort of came back to the table, we are looking to sort of get it going,” Pos said. “At the end of the day, of course, it’s money to be earned. We feel like we deserve [it], but for us it’s really about the fans. At the end of the day, no one wants bad blood between each other, we just want it to be fair and to get the music out to the people.”
Pos noted the sample clearing issues as well. Their seminal 1989 album, 3 Feet High and Rising, famously used multiple samples weaved together by beat maestro Prince Paul.
“There are also clearance issues for the samples De La Soul used, and there are a lot of them,” Pos added. “3 Feet High alone has over 60 samples, including some from the Commodores, Billy Joel, Otis Redding and Steely Dan.
“I would love it for the fans that stuck by us. We know how it is to be fans of music we love and we want that for our fans who stood by us for all these years.”
De La Soul Announce They're Getting Jerked By Tommy Boy's Streaming Contract
When reached for comment, Maseo told HipHopDX with a laugh, “The keywords: ‘Sort of came back.'”
The tension appeared to reach an all-time high in February 2019 when Dave, Pos and Maseo revealed they’d attempted to negotiate with Tommy Boy to release their first six albums on streaming platforms to no avail.
Subsequently, Questlove kicked off a #TommyBoycott. In an interview with DX last May, Maseo explained how it was completely organic.
“Let me tell you what’s crazy,” he explained. “We flirted with the idea of a boycott for a long time — for about a good month-and-a-half. It’s crazy Questlove came out of the blue with that. We honestly wanted to be really clear on it being a boycott. It just sat there on our tongue. We were like, ‘What the fuck do we do!?’
“We legally can’t fight and can’t afford to fight. We ended up refraining from that. Tom [Silverman] can legally do this. It’s pretty much turned into a protest to us and a boycott for the fans. The boycott manifested on its own. It had been up to this point just a protest.”
This means they realize that the small amount of money generated from THEIR streams, ass opposed to say Drake, who is proven to use click farms to generate numbers and buzz, is a drop in the bucket compared to what they will make in touring revenue and exposure from their catalogue being used in commercials etc. Since Jay Z wanted to help, why didn’t he just buy your catalogue and let you work it off? Here is the moral of the story kids… DON’T SELL A PINGING YOU MADE TGEN COMPLAIN 20+ years later that you got a bad deal. SMH. These guys look so lame and low for airing out their terrible sense of business to the world. Like Tommy Boy is just going to hand over all the music they invested in and made happen for FREE. BTW, why doesn’t De La PAY PRINCE PAUL and make another classic album?
not the appropriate forum but this must be said. Biffy Clyro and anything similar is the worst kind of music to ever be made
Tommy ain’t my motherfucking boy
Will always love De La for what they did in the late 80s/early 90s, but they have been steady dropping dog turds since parting ways with Price Paul.
Tommy Boy Records founder: Tom Silverman. I’m sure you smart people here can already figure out his ethnicity from his last name.
Give them what they deserve!! Until then..Fuck TOMMYBOY!!! De la Soul is one of the greatest hip hop groups ever. 30 plus years later,& still going. Thank God I have all their albums on CD & downloaded on my phone. Like the line in the classic De la classic…Longevity baby!!!!