Sample issues have prevented De La Soul's music from ever appearing on streaming services.
Until now.
But the classic trio is not happy with their label's decision to finally put their music on the Internet for two reasons, which they spelled out on Instagram:
“We are not happy about releasing our catalog under such unbalanced, unfair terms,” De La wrote on Instagram. “The music will be released digitally,” he continued. “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 purchase will roughly go 90% Tommy Boy, 10% De La.”
The band is also worried that Tommy Boy's reckless haste in putting their music out there may incur them legal liability.
“When confronted and questioned whether or not all samples had been cleared for our catalog’s streaming release, Tommy Boy felt that it would be better to move forward with the release and deal with all claims/lawsuits later on… really????” De La added. “That’s just not smart business. We don’t want to be sued.”