With 1989’s “Three Feet High and Rising,” the Long Island rap trio De La Soul created one of the truly groundbreaking albums in hip-hop history, bringing a happy, psychedelic, flower-bedecked vibe — dubbed “the D.A.I.S.Y. Age” — to a genre that had largely been musically and lyrically aggressive and/or self-aggrandizing up to that point. With songs like “Me Myself and I,” “Say No Go,” “The Magic Number” and the earlier single “Plug Tunin’,” the album was certified platinum, reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop chart (and No. 24 on the Billboard 200 albums chart) and is universally recognized as one of the best and most influential albums in hip-hop history.

But the album and the group’s other early recordings for decades have been mired in legal issues with its label, Tommy Boy Records, stemming both from the extensive use of uncleared samples — a field that was an unexplored Wild West at the time — and the group’s contract with the company, which the members signed when they were teenagers. Consequently, De La Soul’s classic early recordings are not available on streaming services; the group’s members claimed in 2019 that per their contract, they would receive just 10% of streaming revenue and declined to sign off. Along with much of late R&B singer Aaliyah’s catalog, it remains one of the few remaining major-artist holdouts from streaming services.

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