De La Soul's music is finally available to stream - listen to The Magic Number now
After years in the streaming wilderness the hip-hop legends are back.
One of the greatest hip-hop groups of all time, De La Soul, have finally found their way on to streaming services, with their 1989 hit The Magic Number available to listen to now.
De La Soul were the heart and soul of the 'Daisy Age' of hip-hop in the late '80s\'90s. Their debut album 3 Feet High And Rising is still one of the most original rap records ever made. Released back in 1989 it countered the harshness of Gangsta Rap, instead extolling the virtues of peace and love.
While their music got heavier from then on in, some of the greatest hip-hop tracks of all time belong to De La Soul (The Magic Number! Me Myself and I! Stay High!) and their collaboration with Gorillaz on Feel Good Inc is still awesome.
With all the love the group has, then, they have been sorely missing from the likes of Spotify, Apple Music and the other music streaming services.
There was a good reason, though. Protracted clearance issues with the samples they used on their music meant that it looked doubtful that we would ever see De La's music stream online. So much that the band actually gave away all of their records, digitally, in 2014.
On February 14th, 20014 (obviously they would choose Valentine's Day), they made their back catalog free to download for a limited time.
In a statement, the band said: “It’s about allowing our fans who have been looking and trying to get a hold of our music to have access to it. It's been too long where our fans haven’t had access to everything. This is our way of showing them how much we love them.”
Skip nearly a decade later and now De La Soul is back, with their first hit single The Magic Number the first thing available to stream.
You will have to wait until 3 March for the entire back catalog to hit streaming service - to coincide with the 34th anniversary of 3 Feet - but, for now, at least we have some classic De La Soul to add to our feel-good playlists.
If you love your physical media, then head to the official De La Soul site to get some vinyl, too. And there's a new video for The Magic Number, which you can watch below.
- 3 Feet High And Rising is on our best hip-hop albums of all time list.