De La Soul’s classic back catalogue finally made available for streaming for the first time
The classic back catalogue of pioneering hip-hop trio De La Soul is set to be made available for digital streaming for the first time.
“Alexa, what’s the magic number,” the group wrote in a post sharing the launch date of 3 March on Instagram, in reference to one of their biggest hits.
De La Soul released their critically acclaimed, platinum-selling debut album 3 Feet High And Rising in 1989, featuring songs including The Magic Number, Eye Know, Buddy, Potholes In My Lawn and Me, Myself And I.
The follow-up, De La Soul Is Dead, came in 1991, followed by four more albums with their original label, Tommy Boy, between 1993 and 2001.
Although their more recent records, The Grind Date (2004) and The Anonymous Nobody (2016), are available digitally, their first six have remained notably absent.
Complications around licensing due to the extensive amount of samples in their songs, as well as issues with their former label, are said to have kept De La Soul’s earlier music off streaming sites.
That is now set to change after the acquisition of Tommy Boy by Reservoir in 2021 – and they will digitally release their hit single The Magic Number on 13 January as a preview.
De La Soul shared the news with two posts on social media confirming their hits will be made available on Amazon and Spotify.
“We can’t believe this day is finally here, and we are excited to be able to share our music with fans, old and new,” the band said.
The group in 2019. Pic: AP
‘The first call we made was to De La Soul’
Faith Newman, Reservoir’s executive vice-president of A&R and catalogue development, said: “As someone who has devoted my life to hip-hop for over 30 years, my relationship with the guys in De La Soul dates back to my early days in the industry, and I can attest to how influential their catalogue is to the genre.
“When Reservoir acquired Tommy Boy, the first call we made was to De La Soul. We vowed to bring their music to streaming, and it means the world to our team to make good on that promise and expose a whole new generation of listeners to one of the most important catalogues in hip-hop history.”
Bucking hip-hop trends
Featuring Posdnuos (Kelvin Mercer), Trugoy (David Jude Jolicoeur), and Maseo (Vincent Lamont Mason Jr), De La Soul formed in high school in Long Island, New York, and caught the attention of producer Prince Paul.
3 Feet High And Rising is consistently placed on lists of the greatest albums of all time by critics and industry publications, while the band themselves are often hailed among the greatest hip-hop acts of all time.
The album was inducted into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry, a list of sound recordings deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant”, in 2011.
It was hailed for as an “upbeat and often humorous album” that bucked “hip-hop’s increasing turn toward stark urban naturalism in the late 1980s”.
The full De La Soul streaming launch on 3 March 2023 will mark the 34-year anniversary of the release of 3 Feet High And Rising.
Hip hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs has lost a bid to delay his upcoming sex-trafficking trial by two months.
US district judge Arun Subramanian said the 55-year-old rapper made his request too close to his trial, which is due to start next month.
Jury selection is currently scheduled for 5 May with opening statements set to be heard seven days later.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to five criminal counts including racketeering and sex trafficking.
Prosecutors with the Manhattan US attorney’s office accuse Combs of using his business empire to sexually abuse women between 2004 and 2024.
Combs’s lawyers say the sexual activity described by prosecutors was consensual.
In a court filing on Wednesday, Combs’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo asked Mr Subramanian to delay the trial because he needed more time to prepare his defence to two new charges which were brought on 4 April.
The charges were of sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Mr Agnifilo also said his team needs extra time to review emails it wants an alleged victim to turn over.
The new allegations brought the total number of criminal charges against the rap mogul to five – following the three original counts, which also included racketeering conspiracy, filed in September.
Federal prosecutors were opposed to any delay, writing in a Thursday court filing that the additional charges brought
earlier this month did not amount to substantially new conduct.
They also said Combs was not entitled to the alleged victim’s communications.
Read more: Everything you need to know about the Sean Combs trial
A sketch of Combs during one of his court appearances. Pic: Reuters
Meanwhile, Mr Subramanian is weighing other evidentiary issues, such as whether to allow alleged victims to testify under pseudonyms.
Also known during his career as Puff Daddy and P Diddy, Combs founded Bad Boy Records and is credited with helping turn rappers and R&B singers such as Notorious B.I.G, Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans and Usher into stars in the 1990s and 2000s.
But prosecutors have said his success concealed a dark side.
They say his alleged abuse included having women take part in recorded sexual performances called “freak-offs” with male sex workers, who were sometimes transported across state lines.
Combs has been in jail in Brooklyn since September, having been denied bail.
He also faces dozens of civil lawsuits by women and men who have accused him of sexual abuse.
Combs has strenuously denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
About 10,000 pages of records related to the assassination of Robert F Kennedy (RFK) nearly 60 years ago have been released publicly for the first time.
The senator, who was the brother of US president John F Kennedy (JFK), was shot dead at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on 6 June 1968, moments after giving his victory speech for winning California’s Democratic presidential primary.
His assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving life in prison.
RFK’s assassination, much like his brother’s in 1963, has been the subject of much speculation.
His son, Robert F Kennedy Jr, previously said he believed his father was killed by multiple gunmen, an assertion that contradicts official accounts.
After the documents were released on Friday, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said they would “shine a long-overdue light on the truth”.
Many files related to the senator’s assassination had already been released, but the ones posted to the US National Archives and Records Administration on Friday had not been digitised and sat for decades in storage facilities maintained by the federal government.
The move is a continuation of the release of historic withheld files ordered by US President Donald Trump, in an apparent bid to prove the transparency of his administration.
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Trump announcing release of JFK files in March
It started when he signed an executive order back in January for the release of thousands of files about JFK’s assassination, many of which were made public in March.
The files gave readers more details about the US’s covert operations during the Cold War-era, but did not lend legitimacy to any of the many conspiracy theories surrounding the former president’s death.
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RFK Jr, who is also Mr Trump’s health secretary, commended the president and Ms Gabbard for their “courage” and “dogged efforts” to release the files.
“Lifting the veil on the RFK papers is a necessary step toward restoring trust in American government,” he said in a statement.
In a statement, Ms Gabbard said: “Nearly 60 years after the tragic assassination of senator Robert F Kennedy, the American people will, for the first time, have the opportunity to review the federal government’s investigation thanks to the leadership of president Trump.”
Lawyers for RFK’s killer have been pushing for his release for decades, saying he is unlikely to reoffend or pose a danger to society.
A parole board deemed Sirhan suitable for release in 2022, but California governor Gavin Newsom rejected the decision in 2022, keeping him in state prison.
A different panel denied him release in 2023, saying he still lacked insight into what caused him to shoot RFK.
Donald Trump has said his second state visit to the UK could take place in September.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer handed over an invitation from the King when he visited Washington in February.
Trump teases return to UK – latest updates
Buckingham Palace previously only said the visit would happen “when diaries allow”, but Mr Trump told reporters on Thursday: “I think they are setting a date for September.”
“I don’t know how it can be bigger than the last one,” he said.
“The last one was incredible, but they say the next one will be even more important.”
Sir Keir Starmer handed Trump the invite earlier this year. Pic: PA
Mr Trump will become the only elected political leader in modern times to be invited to two state visits by a British monarch.
The president called the UK a “great country” in his comments at the White House on Thursday and said it was “an honour to be a friend of King Charles and the family, William”.
His first state visit was in 2019, when he was hosted by the late Queen.
Second-term US presidents who have already made a state visit usually get tea or lunch with the monarch at Windsor Castle, as was the case for George W Bush and Barack Obama.
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The president was hosted by the Queen in June 2019. Pic: Reuters
But Mr Trump is set to get all the pomp and ceremony laid on again in his honour – with another state banquet likely at Buckingham Palace.
The Royal Family‘s soft power diplomacy is viewed as a way of currying favour with the president, who’s known for his love of the monarchy and links to the UK through his mother, who was born on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland.
It comes as the government seeks an economic deal with the US, in the hope of potentially lessening the impact of the president’s tariffs.
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