After years of delay, De La Soul will release their catalog on streaming services on March 3, 2023, the 34th anniversary of the release of 3 Feet High and Rising the Amityville groups’ debut release. The album, which went platinum, reached the top of the R&B chart, and even made it into the Top 40 of the pop music charts, including the single “The Magic Number.”
The influential Long Island group, including members Posdnuos, Trugoy the Dove and Pasemaster Mase found new life for “The Magic Number” after an appearance in the credits of Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021. The song would sample from the 1973 Bob Dorough song “3 is the Magic Number” – Somewhere in this hip-hop soul community / Was born three Mace, Dove, and Me / And that’s the magic number – as well as sampling James Brown, Johnny Cash and Eddie Murphy.
In addition to the digital reissue, “The Magic Number” has also been made available in a handful of physical formats, including a 7″ single and a cassette single.
The group revealed in 2019 that their six albums released while under contract with the Tommy Boy record label would be on streaming services soon. Disagreements with the label, as well as an exploitative contract that cut royalties for the group also made it difficult to clear samples used on the album. After Tommy Boy was acquired by Reservoir Media, a resolution was reached in 2021, leading to the six albums – 3 Feet High And Rising (1989), De La Soul Is Dead (1991), Buhloone Mindstate (1993), Stakes Is High (1996), Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump (2000) and AOI: Bionix (2001) – to appearing on streaming services, effective March 3, 2023.
De La Soul’s last album was 2016’s And The Anonymous Nobody…, featured Talking Heads’ David Byrne, Little Dragon, 2 Chainz, Snoop Dogg, Samon Albarn, Estelle, Usher and more and was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Rap Album category.
The band, in speaking with Apple Music, reflected on their catalog, with Trugory saying “3 Feet High and Rising was inspired, maybe just the state that we were in as kids, just not afraid to say, ‘This is me.’ At the same time, it also gave birth to an era, a sound, a style in Hip Hop.”
Posdnuos added: “Dealing with how the media was labeling us, purposely putting us as the champion of gangsta rap or… None of that really mattered to us. We’re part of something that’s truly bigger than us, so now it’s even another thing of having a responsibility to continue on just for, one, three being three Black men who stuck together; two, being a part of a culture that wasn’t supposed to happen.”
The hip-hop collective will be touring the UK in April, playing shows in London, Glasgow, Nottingham and Manchester.
