This past Friday, March 3rd, 2023, all of De La Soul’s catalog of music was finally made available on the DSP’s (aka daily streaming platforms). Their music was long (!!!) held up in record label purgatory due to disputes with their label Tommy Boy and sample clearance issues. You see, when De La Soul was on their rise in the late 80’s through the early 90’s, they sampled music from all eras and genres to create their music which at the time was totally normal in the hip hop scene. Producers like Prince Paul from De La Soul (and Stetsasonic) were true historians of music and were constantly digging in the crates to find clips of music that they could sample and loop to recreate magic with their records. That all changed in 1991, when De La Soul and Tommy Boy were sued for $2.5 million by The Turtles for Prince Paul’s sampling choice of their track “You Showed Me” from 1969.
Tommy Boy thought they had cleared all of the samples for De La’s 1989 album, 3 Feet High and Rising but apparently they did not. Prince Paul grabbed 12 seconds of The Turtles track and used it in the De La Soul skit, “Transmitting Live from Mars” which can be heard below. The Turtles band member Mark Volman even went on to say this about Prince Paul and De La Soul’s sampling of his record… “sampling is just a longer term for theft” and that “anybody who can honestly say sampling is some sort of creativity has never done anything creative”. Yikes… The Turtles settled for $1.7 million and hip hop sampling was forever changed after that copyright lawsuit.
I grew up a big fan of De La Soul through their affiliation with A Tribe Called Quest, their album 3 Feet High and Rising, and the first single I heard from them, “Me, Myself and I”. I came across the song while watching music videos on Yo! MTV Raps and they were honestly just a breath of fresh air to my eyes and ears. I was in the 2nd grade when “Me, Myself and I” came out and it changed my life forever. I just thought they were the coolest back then, and even all the way until now.
I went out and got my mom to buy the cassingle for me which was totally fine because there was no cussing in the song. I’m not even sure when I got to hear the whole 3 Feet album in its entirety because back then I only had my brother’s cassette collection to pillage through. Well, that, and the music collection I was starting to build which was only cassette singles and a few clean albums. To capture the time of when De La’s debut album dropped, check out this electronic press kit for 3 Feet High and Rising.
De La Soul made hip hop music that was fun and Prince Paul embodied that feeling with the skits and beats he made for Posdnous and Trugoy to rap over. Prince Paul produced De La’s first 3 albums, 3 Feet High and Rising, De La Soul is Dead, and Buhloone Mindstate. In the late 80’s and early 90’s, growing up in California, I was all in on the rise of gangsta rap with NWA and Eazy E. But while my Walkman was bumping NWA daily, I just seemed to gravitate more towards De La and Tribe. They carried a lot of the jazz elements that my dad liked so much and I just loved the energy they brought to their music. Tracks like “Buddy” just made me feel a certain way even if I didn’t really know what they were talking about.
De La showed me exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up. I didn’t want to be a rapper. I didn’t want to be a producer. But I just wanted to listen to music and have a good time. I’ve always loved the way that music made me feel and how it could pull people together and make everybody feel a certain way. Songs like “Eye Know” let me know what it is that brings a smile across my face. And if you like this music too then we are probably going to be friends because we are kindred spirits.
But it wasn’t just the audio and videos that we’re captivating me. It was the artwork they used on their albums that made me think as well. One of my favorite album covers of all time is De La Soul is Dead. Just something about that pot and the flowers knocked over always resonated with me. The cracks in the pot, the dirt coming out, the wilted flowers… There was just something beautiful about the artwork and it’s always been a piece that has just made me think. That’s what art is supposed to do and De La truly embodied what an artist was to me. They made me want to create. Shout out to “Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa” which is one of my favorite beats of all time. Prince Paul is a genius.
Throughout the years, De La Soul was just a group you could count on for some good consistent hip hop. It’s a damn shame that it’s taken so long for their whole catalog to make it up on all of the streaming platforms but I guess it is what it is. How many kids out there have never heard tracks like “Breakadawn” and “I Am I Be”? How many have never heard J Dilla’s production on “Stakes is High”? There are so many hidden gems on De La’s first 4 albums that youngsters have never heard. It’s now on us being the OG’s to help get this music heard by the masses.
For those who haven’t seen the documentary that Mass Appeal did on De La several years ago I recommend checking it out. Really good background on the group and its members. Still reeling over here from the passing of Trugoy aka Plug 2 but his lyrics will live with us forever. Just sad that he didn’t get to make it to see all of De La’s music become available to the world. De La is one of the most influential hip hop groups of all time and now we can all listen to their art anytime we want.
De La Soul and the Native Tongues in general hold a very special place in my heart. Hearing that all of De La’s albums were now available on Spotify made me want to go through all of their albums again and start watching some of their early videos. Below is the playlist of all of my favorite songs from De La Soul. I’ve also included some of the loosies from random compilations and soundtracks as well as some of their features from over the years. Give the playlist a spin and more importantly, give De La’s catalog some play to bring some happiness to your day.