3/10/2024 0 Comments Best forgotten soul albums![]() Given how long it's taken for this music to arrive, we thought it necessary to revisit this storied catalog and its restored legacy, to help new fans familiarize themselves with the memorable (and singular) arc of their career and give veteran listeners a reintroduction to their most influential work.ĭespite these grumblings, 3 Feet High still brimmed in mirth, including on the musical side, overseen by Prince Paul and including contributions by the entire group. The group's most important recordings are now legally available on the internet. It's not just the artist who loses out we, as listeners, are left poorer too.Īll this has finally been rectified. Much like the proverbial tree falling in the woods without a witness, if an artist has recorded the greatest album of all time, does it really matter if no one has the means to hear it? De La may have sold millions of physical cassettes, CDs and vinyl records in the past but how many households have the means to play any of those formats? De La's absence from streaming sites has effectively erased their presence from the contemporary musical landscape and threatens to minimize their historical import. Our social awareness of music has always been tied to how songs and albums are distributed. None of these are just business concerns. As they told Rolling Stone at the time, "We've been blessed to be in the Library of Congress, but we can't even have our music on iTunes." Likewise, there was an attempt in 2019 by Tommy Boy Records, which owns the rights to De La's music, to put them on streaming but the terms of that deal were so unfavorable to the group that public outrage forced Tommy Boy to abandon their plans. It got so bad that in 2014, the group put their entire catalog on their website to download for free for a day. What kept De La's tunes out of rotation was a frustrating morass of outdated contracts and record label parsimony. We now take for granted that our favorite artists have their catalogs readily available to us yet when in a time of grief over Trugoy's death, new and old fans were met with a deafening silence of options to revisit his musical legacy. When founding member Trugoy the Dove unexpectedly passed away last month, anyone seeking to revisit most of De La Soul's best known works would have been left empty-handed and confused. Despite this, almost all of their most important albums have been missing from (legal) streaming services. One of the giants of hip-hop's "golden era" of the late '80s through mid '90s, De La's penchant for playful creativity would go on to influence everyone from the Pharcyde to OutKast, Kanye West to Childish Gambino. For hip-hop fans, few omissions have been more grievous than the missing catalog of De La Soul. Streaming platforms were initially sold as an all-encompassing music library - every song at one's fingertips! - yet there are inevitable gaps within their discographies. Now legally available on the internet for the first time, we revisit the classic catalog and its restored legacy. There's way more to explore and enjoy once you digest the classics below, but these are the ones whose impact and legacy still resonate decades after their release.De La's absence from streaming sites has effectively erased their presence from the contemporary musical landscape and threatened to minimize their historical import. The unrest of the times better lent itself to these often-singular artistic statements.Īny of the records on the list of the Top 25 Soul Albums of the '70s rank right up there with the very best the decade had to offer, regardless of genre. ![]() There's also a reason why the majority of these albums come from the first part of the decade. There's a reason for that: They were the ones who took control of their careers and no longer relied on managers and record-company execs to call their shots. Many of the same names appear again and again on the below list of the Top 25 Soul Albums of the '70s. ![]() Even James Brown, who was responsible for some of the best singles of the '60s, began making albums that were great – and carried a common theme – from start to finish. But then, right at the turn of the decade, something happened with Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. R&B and soul music, for one, was still pretty much a singles game as the '60s turned into the '70s. ![]()
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