The dispute over royalty and release rights between legendary hip-hop group De La Soul and their label Tommy Boy continues. Recently, the group revealed that their Tommy Boy catalog (six studio albums across thirty years) would finally be coming to streaming services, but De La Soul would only be receiving 10% of the royalties, with Tommy Boy taking the rest. They described the situation in their statement as follows, “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”. However, soon after they made this announcement, it was reported by Pitchfork that Tommy Boy postponed the release of the De La Soul catalog on streaming services since the two parties had not had the chance to negotiate with the group.
According to The Fader, these negotiations have stalled. In their statement on the matter, De La Soul says, “[W]e’ve been unable to reach an agreement and earn Tommy Boy’s respect for our music/legacy”, but there is still a chance that their releases may appear digitally and on streaming services without the group’s consent. De La Soul would not receive their fair share of royalties if this happens, and in the same statement on Instagram, encouraged their fans to avoid purchasing/streaming any of their Tommy Boy catalog.
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