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.
It’s easy to see why Anora, the film currently creating a lot of awards buzz, is being described as a modern day Pretty Woman.
It tells the story of a young woman, a sex worker, who ends up falling in love with a very rich man; this time round, he’s the son of a Russian oligarch.
But the similarities end there. More than 30 years on from Richard Gere and Julia Roberts’ famous Hollywood ending, Anora takes the sugar-coating away from the realities of sex work.
Mikey Madison stars as Anora. Pic: Neon/Augusta Quirk
It is one of those rare films that has already impressed critics – taking the biggest prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and now leading the nominations at the Gotham Awards – but will also appeal to a wider audience looking for something fun and smart, too.
It is the latest story from writer-director Sean Baker, a filmmaker who often focuses on marginalised people and has covered sex work in several of his previous works, from a retired porn star in Red Rocket to a transgender sex worker in Tangerine, and a character who solicits sex work online in The Florida Project.
Anora took home the biggest prize at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. Pic: Neon
The theme was never intentional, he tells Sky News, but after discovering more about the industry he realised he wanted to tell these stories.
“I never imagined me making five films in a row focused on sex work,” he says. “It just happened to be that when I started doing research on the first one, I met sex workers, became friends with sex workers, and discovered that there were a million stories to be told in that world. And each one can be individual and very different, being that there’s so many aspects of sex work, so one led to the next.
“I don’t know if it will continue, I’m not sure, it has to happen organically though – I’d never want it to be a shtick of mine, you know, I want it to be something I’m inspired to do and there has to be a reason behind it.”
Pic: Neon
‘The sex work community is amazing’
Mikey Madison, who plays the lead character Anora – or Ani for short – is now tipped for best actress nominations come awards season next year.
She says she immersed herself in the world of her character when preparing for the role.
“I think that I went into the research not with much knowledge about sex work, and so I was able to learn a lot and educate myself in a way that I don’t know I would have if it weren’t for this film,” she says. “I’m so grateful to have that experience because the sex work community is amazing and I’ve made so many incredible friends.”
But that wasn’t the only prep Madison had to do. She’s listed in the credits as helping to choreograph her character’s dances, and she also had to learn Russian – though admits she’s out of practise again now.
“My Duolingo app has been bothering me trying to get me back into it. I think I just haven’t had a chance to practise any of it, but on the last handful of days of shooting, I was able to listen to pretty full conversations and understand what they were talking about. And at this point, I think it’s gone, but maybe I’ll be able to redevelop it.”
Read more:
Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell on return of The Diplomat
Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s new Wrexham venture
When Anora competed at Cannes in May it won the Palme d’Or, the top prize for the best feature film.
Baker says the win was far more than just a tick off his bucket list.
“I think it was the bucket list! I mean, that was it,” he says. “It’s been incredible, it really has been, and I really didn’t expect it – we were just so happy to be in competition at Cannes, and next thing you know we’re at the awards ceremony, and next thing you know I’m up on stage and George Lucas is handing me the Palme d’Or.”
“So, yeah, it’s life changing.”
Anora is out in cinemas in the UK today
GB News has been fined £100,000 for breaking impartiality rules over a programme featuring Rishi Sunak, Ofcom has said.
It comes after the media watchdog announced in May that the show called People’s Forum: The Prime Minister had breached broadcasting guidelines.
The programme featured then prime minister Mr Sunak answering questions from a studio audience and a presenter.
GB News chief executive Angelos Frangopoulos said the fine was a “direct attack on free speech and journalism in the United Kingdom”.
“We believe these sanctions are unnecessary, unfair and unlawful,” he added.
The hour-long show, which aired on 12 February, prompted 547 complaints to Ofcom.
The regulator found earlier this year that while featuring Mr Sunak was fine in principle, “due weight” should have been given to an “appropriately wide range of significant views” other than the Conservatives.
Pic: PA
Ofcom said Mr Sunak “had a mostly uncontested platform to promote the policies and performance of his government in a period preceding a UK general election,” which it recorded as a breach of impartiality rules.
The watchdog said “given the seriousness and repeated nature of this breach,” it had imposed a £100,000 financial penalty.
Read more from Sky News:
CCTV shows car smash into PM’s Chequers estate
See if you are better or worse off using our budget calculator
GB News was also directed to “broadcast a statement of our findings against it, on a date and in a form determined by us”.
The TV channel is challenging the breach decision by judicial review and Ofcom will not enforce the sanction decision until those proceedings are concluded.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Mr Frangopoulos insisted the show featuring Mr Sunak “was an important piece of public interest programming”, and that “appropriate steps” were taken to ensure due impartiality.
He added: “It was designed to allow members of the public to put their own questions directly to leading politicians.
“GB News chooses to be regulated and we understand our obligations under the Code.
“But, equally, Ofcom is obliged by law to uphold freedom of expression and apply its rules fairly and lawfully.”
Ofcom previously found GB News violated due impartiality rules in March over five programmes that featured Tory MPs as presenters.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports7 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Environment1 year agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway