De La Soul perform at the Governors Ball Music Festival. June 4, 2016.
BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP/Getty Images
De La Soul's first six albums – including the classics 3 Feet High and Rising, De La Soul Is Dead, and Buhloone Mindstate – are on their way to streaming services for the first time ever. However, on Wednesday the band voiced their displeasure with the terms of the agreement reached with former label Tommy Boy, which originally released all six projects.
"De La Soul, unfortunately, will not taste the fruit of their labor," they wrote on Instagram. "Your purchases will roughly go 90% Tommy Boy, 10% De La." Find their statement below via OkayPlayer:
The band went further in the post's caption, urging fans to boycott the soon-to-be-streamed albums. "Don’t feed the Vultures, support and respect the culture #30years If you wanna support De La Soul, cop the #grinddate and #anonymousnobody albums." De La Soul's The Grind Date was released in 2004, and was followed by and the Anonymous Nobody... in 2016.
De La's decision to release the music on streaming was a reversal from just hours before, when the band said they would not approve the deal to put the albums online. "We are not happy about releasing our catalog under such unbalanced, unfair terms," the band wrote, calling the situation "an ugly, greedy nightmare" in the caption.
Tommy Boy has not confirmed if the albums will be made available on streaming platforms, or how the royalties will be split between the artists and the label. On Tuesday, Tommy Boy's Instagram account reposted a post of De La Soul's stating that negotiations had begun.
De La Soul are currently working on a new album produced by Pete Rock and DJ Premier.
