
De La Soul’s Legacy Is Trapped in Digital Limbo - _9MOTHER9HORSE
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/08/14/arts/music/de-la-soul-digital-albums.html
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danbmil99
I worked on 3 feet high and rising as a sound engineer. They were a total
riot, I had absolutely no clue they would go on to such renown.

All the records they sampled had their labels blacked out with marker. I
freaked them out a bit by recognizing Hall and Oates and Steely Dan samples.

I don't know anything about the clearance problems, but it's true that this
was one of the first records that used samples so extensively as the core
basis of the tracks.

A bit later I worked on Queen Latifah's "All hail the Queen", which also used
samples liberally. I never heard of any problems with that record but perhaps
Tommy Boy were more careful with the clearance legalities by then.

~~~
agumonkey
Maybe you can shed some light on who plays (or what sample is) the sax "solo"
in "ring ring ring".. nothing on the web, nothing on the booklet; not the same
album, but maybe you heard things ...

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capsch
Fat Larry's Band - Act Like You Know

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agumonkey
Not the sax solo. It's listed somewhere but it's not right. Some people hinted
at some JB's live but I couldn't recognize after many hearings. Someone told
me it might be a cat from their neighborhood or some already famous player
that got called for a one shot take.

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elchief
If you haven't heard "3 Feet High and Rising", you're really missing out. It's
one of the best ever made. Was the first album I ever bought (on cassette!).

~~~
fiftyacorn
It was my second after Ton Loc's "Loc'ed after dark".

"3ft High and Rising" is timeless though and still sounds good today

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elchief
The Funky Cold Medina one? Olllllld school...

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fiftyacorn
yeah the funky cold medina one

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tjl
I downloaded their albums when they gave them away. Some of the tracks are
truly excellent.

~~~
simplexion
I loved how they were just zips of files downloaded from a torrent. They
didn't even rip them themselves!

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jasonkostempski
legal limbo maybe. the digits are just fine, out in the wild where they
happily roam free.

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acomjean
Funny how you never forget when a band blows you off. Even so many years ago.

I just started working with the Umass student group that put on concerts on
campus (UPC). I did stage crew and security. The 1991 spring concert was the
big one, an all day affair, with a purchased stage students put together.

Del La Soul didn't show.

Bob Dylan showed (Mr. Dylan as he liked to be called), had to go on early. He
was not to happy about it. Other bands in the 1990s that showed up to the
spring concert, phish, beastie boys, mighty mighty bostones, wailers (without
Marley obviously), voilent femmes....

Odd that these events were pulled together without cell-phones and the
internet. There is hardly any online info on those concerts. Life before
youtube..

The lineup 1991 lineup (thanks google): Chucklehead, Gene Loves Jezebel, The
Feelies, De La Soul, Bob Dylan.

~~~
PlugTunin
According to the below article, in the late 80s, De La opened for Bob Dylan in
Amherst, MA (Pretty sure the date is wrong and it's referring to the show you
speak of, as I have trouble believing DLS opened for Dylan as early as '89).
Anyway, the article suggests the reason they were a no show was because they
had some, ahem, car troubles along the way. It's possible this story isn't
true; if it was, I guess you would have known at the time:

[http://every-day-i-write-the-
blog.blogspot.com/2011/05/bob-d...](http://every-day-i-write-the-
blog.blogspot.com/2011/05/bob-dylan-lay-lady-lay.html)

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pavel_lishin
It sounds incredibly strange that you can license samples of your music to be
used in other artists' works - but only in specific media.

"Yeah, it's fine, you can use 5 seconds of my song, but only if you sell your
song on vinyl, CD or audiotape."

~~~
JustSomeNobody
Is it that or are they saying that because the original license was written
before this new form of distribution existed, you don't have a license for it?

Either way, the music industry needs to die and then be reborn in several
years when the existing players are all out of business.

~~~
jandrese
It's not like the copyright provisions would be any better if they were
written today. The only reason we have a public domain, time limited
copyright, or even public library system today is because they're
grandfathered in from a time before our current copyright maximalism.

You would kill off the current players only to find yourself trapped by an
even worse set of overlords.

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Intermernet
If you haven't heard much De La Soul, then you may be interested in the 20th
anniversary mix that Wax Poetics magazine and DJ Chris Read did recently for
the album "Stakes Is High"[1].

As far as I know it's legal, and it gives a great introduction to the group's
style (It's also my favorite De La album!).

[1]: [https://soundcloud.com/wax-poetics/de-la-soul-stakes-is-
high...](https://soundcloud.com/wax-poetics/de-la-soul-stakes-is-high-20th-
anniversary-mixtape-mixed-by-chris-read)

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empressplay
uh?
[https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22De+La+Soul...](https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22De+La+Soul%22)

~~~
bhrgunatha
There are 2 audio files in that list. Looks like the rest is artwork.

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WeaselNo7
Your username... inspired by the epic Reddit story adventure, or are you the
author?

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posterboy
They are still doing shows, the title is bullshit.

