The Streaming Era Has Failed Hip-Hop’s Heritage
After decades of fighting for their seminal songwriting, vastly influential hip-hop figures De La Soul – Posdnuos, Dave and Maseo – announced that the group’s full catalogue will be available on all streaming platforms and digital retailers for the first time on March 3rd. To mark the occasion the group will also be issuing exclusive merchandise, vinyl, CDs, and cassettes via their label AOI and distributed by Chrysalis Records.
That’s right, believe it or not, as of 2023 De La Soul’s entire discography has yet to hit streaming services. “It’s been 20-plus years overdue, but finally, we are here,” DJ Maseo comments. But why is their streaming debut so important and what does it represent for the culture?
—
—
From Long Island, New York, De La Soul sprung forth in the late ‘80s and by the early ‘90s, the group had emerged as a unique collective. One of their most notable albums ‘3 Feet High and Rising’ broke ground in various ways; their use of skits, unconventional references, innovative rhyme flows and patterns, all infused with an eclectic mix of samples. The one-of-a-kind album was inducted into the National Recording Registry, a list of sound recordings deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress.
Complications around licensing, in large part due to their use of samples as well as issues with their former label, have prevented De La Soul’s music from being on streaming sites. Now they have officially retained control of the rights to the master recordings through their new relationship with Reservoir and Chrysalis Records.
The conversation around owning your masters is a hotly debated topic. For those that aren’t familiar with the details, owning your master recordings gives you control over what is done with a song or an album, it means you have the legal rights to freely appropriate and maximise your opportunities to profit from the music you create. The traditional music industry often structures deals so that the label owns the masters rather than the artist, this is in return for various forms of support in creating and distributing the recordings, including an advance and a royalty percentage from profits made. It might all sound well and good, however, this ownership of creative capital can take a distinctly unfortunate turn, particularly when considering the predetermined systems of control (including creative and financial) that have long been at play with regard to the Black community in America.
—
—
Rights and ownership over culturally important discographies in these situations are not only about an individual artist’s rights but also the potential disenfranchisement of creative capital sourced from marginalised communities. Especially in the case of De La Soul, where a whole generation of listeners could not freely access an essential component of hip-hop history on many of the main services used to stream music (for reference Dr. Dre’s ‘The Chronic’ isn’t available either). It begs the question, how many times has this happened to artists and groups that don’t have the same platform as some of the hip-hop greats?
With 2023 being the 50th Anniversary of hip-hop, it’s vital to recognise that it stands not only as a genre of music but as one of the most in-depth, ongoing creative commentaries in modern history. One that marks the pinnacles and excruciating truths of Black America. The list is endless, from the civil rights movement, impoverishment and resource access, to the culture around spiritual worship; influential hip-hop releases map, explain and critically evaluate almost every aspect of Black America post the Transatlantic slave trade.
In themselves, these expressions of creativity have undoubtedly shifted swathes of culture globally over the past 50 years, so fracturing the relationship between music, artist and culture by manipulating creative control can result in a repetition of disenfranchisement. With this progress from De La Soul, we can celebrate not only the iconic trio themselves but their place in the tapestry of hip-hop history.
—
—
Words: Naima Sutton