In perhaps a case of art imitating life, De La Soul will star in a new episode of the Cartoon Network series Teen Titans Go!. The episode is cleverly titled “Don’t Press Play” and revolves around a music-stealing alien who animated versions of Posdnuos, Maseo and Dave must hunt down in order to get their catalog back.
The celebrated Hip Hop trio announced the episode with an Instagram post on Thursday (February 18). The clip features cartoon Pos facing the octopus-looking alien and screaming, “Yo! We can’t let them take our music! Dave, sonic blast now!” From there, Pos’ headphones turn into a weapon and Dave shouts, “YooooooooooOO” in an attempt to defeat the imposing monster.
The Teen Titans show up and are blown away by seeing De La Soul in person but as Plug One points out, he’s too busy being attacked to engage in any fandom. The alien manages to escape with all of their music, but the Teen Titans vow to help them get it back.
Th caption reads, “Make sure y’all check us out in #TeenTitansGO Saturday on #CartoonNetwork at 9am and on the CN App https://cartn.co/TTGxDeLaSoul #delasoul.”
Anyone familiar with De La’s ongoing streaming saga with their former label Tommy Boy Records will appreciate the deeper meaning of the episode. In February 2019, the group revealed they were frustrated with the imprint’s refusal to properly release their early catalog to streaming platforms.
“Dear fans…just got off the phone with Tommy Boy Records…negotiations (or lack there of) to release our catalog on all streaming platforms..uh oh,” they wrote at the time. “just got wind that Tommy Boy was not happy about our last post. Touché. We are not happy about releasing our catalog under such unbalanced, unfair terms. #respecttheartist.”
Maseo On De La Soul’s War With Tommy Boy: “There’s Been A Lot Of Pain & Suffering”
They later explained in a follow-up post just how much they were being jerked around and implored their fans not to stream their first six albums, which includes the 1989 classic 3 Feet High and Rising, 1991’s De La Soul Is Dead, 1993’s Buhloone Mindstate and 1996’s Stakes Is High.
“The music WILL be released digitally,” the post read. “After 30 long years of good music and paying their debt to Hip Hop, De La Soul unfortunately, will not taste the fruit of their labor. Your purchases will roughly go 90% Tommy Boy, 10% De La. Thank you. Sincerely Yours, #thephantom2milliondollardebt.”
They added in the caption, “Don’t feed the vultures, support and respect the culture #30years if you wanna support De La Soul, cop the #grindate and #anonymousnobody albums. Coming soon: #delasoul @realpeterock and @djpremier 2019!!!”
During an interview with HipHopDX Senior Writer Kyle Eustice in February 2019, Maseo explained they are acutely aware Tommy Boy founder Tom Silverman still owns their masters and can only do so much legally, but they just want a fair deal.
“This is exposing the truth of the situation at least,” Maseo said. “At the end of the day, we all take a hit whether we are the good guy or the bad guy in the situation. I was careful enough to say it’s not everybody. All we ask is to be fair. For what we’ve been able to sustain … look, Tom lost the catalog. And losing the catalog, I could have potentially lost my career. Between now and then, look what I’ve been able to sustain.”
Last March, Pos hinted they were close to a reconciliation during an interview with Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, saying, “(Tommy Boy) sort of came back to the table, we are looking to sort of get it going. 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.”
But judging by the concept of the Teen Titans Go! episode, it doesn’t look like they’ve reached an agreement — yet. The episode airs on Saturday (February 20) at 9 a.m. EST on the Cartoon Network.
The music BUSINESS!
By “battle” do they cry all over the alien after selling the music for pennies on the dollar because they sick at business? LOL. I bought a financed car a few years back. I ran op over 200,000 miles on it. I’m still making payments yet the car isn’t worth what I still owe. I should sue Honda because that isn’t fair. SMH. They never actually sued because that wouldn’t work, they know it. They sure do cry though. Now we can’t listen to their good classic shit with Prince Paul because of all of this. Tommy Boy should throw ALL of it on streaming and say fuck em. They made their deal. Gather up some
Money and buy your masters back. Stop crying. You’re all millionaires off of those shitty moves you made back in the day. You have to charge a bit less for your shows and make it work because the music you produce for yourselves is no where near the quality of when you worked with Paul.
Nah, you should have GAP insurance and accidentally crash the car. These dudes humble as hell and real as they come. The rap game was just blossoming back then. None of these cats were business savvy. When you coming fresh out the hood and got some big shot exec dangling stacks in your face, selling you a dream, and you ain’t have shit to show for your struggle to get that shot, youda signed too. Yeah, it’s their own fault. Still don’t make it right. It’s a form of entrapment.
That’s why they got 1-800-Lemon Law.
Same difference. Shit still goes on now with rappers and athletes every day gettin’ burned. Only thing is, now, they SHOULD be hip to the game, after years of watching and learning from the mistakes and stumbles the pioneers had to endure while layin’ the groundwork and foundation that made these lavish contracts even possible. This also gave artists the opportunity, ability and leverage to have total creative control over their music. Back in the day, you gotta give ’em a pass. Nowadays, there ain’t no excuse.
Exactly! They were teenagers.