Photo Credit: Amy Cinnamon Art
De La Soul Has Reconnected In the Studio With Prince Paul
Legendary producer Prince Paul recently posted an Instagram picture of himself in the studio with De La Soul, confirming new music.
Prince Paul and De La Soul are getting back to the basics. Last Tuesday (August 9), the legendary producer was photographed with De La Soul and fellow Native Tongues member Dres of Black Sheep and studio engineer Scotty Hard in a studio candid.
On Instagram, Paul also posted the picture captioned with "And then this happened.” Although the 3 Feet High and Rising trio didn't explicitly say that they're releasing new music with their one-time producer, on Friday (August 12), the group posted a cartoon of themselves alongside Paul with the caption "Magic is happening."
\u201cTonight:\nPlotting to take over the world\u2026 one rhyme at a time!!\u201d— Dres (@Dres) 1660098999
Paul produced three of De La Soul's albums, including their 1989 debut 3 Feet High and Rising, 1991’s De La Soul Is Dead and 1993’s Buhloone Mindstate. Instead of reconnecting with Paul for their 1996 album Stakes Is High, De La Soul opted to self-produce with additional production from J Dilla, Spearhead X and Skeff Anslem.
The group comprised of Posdnuos, Dave “Trugoy the Dove” Jolicoeur, and Maseo will appear as animated versions of themselves on Cartoon Network series Teen Titans Go! this year, last guest-starring on season six episode "Don't Press Play." In 2021, independent music company Reservoir Media acquired the group’s former label Tommy Boy Records for $100 million, providing De La Soul with masters to their catalog.
“We’re thrilled” said Trugoy about the catalog purchase in a statement last year. “We have come to a deal between ourselves and Reservoir to release our music in 2021 — our catalog will be released this year, we are working diligently with the good folks at Reservoir, and we sat down with them and got it done pretty quickly actually. Our music will be released in 2021 on all streaming platforms — we’re trying to get the whole catalog out there. It’ll take a minute… a little minute… November.”
While we wait for the full De La Soul catalog on streaming platforms, the group’s 2004 album The Grind Date and 2016’s and the Anonymous Nobody… are available on streaming platforms.