De La Soul announce pay-what-you-want gig in New York

De La Soul have announced a pay-what-you-want concert at New York City’s Lincoln Center in January.

The band’s hometown show will mark their first in the city for 16 months and will take place on January 17th, 2025 at the Wu Tsai Theater in David Geffen Hall, the home of the New York Philharmonic. The on-sale date has yet to be announced, but tickets will be available here.

An event page has listed a suggested payment of $35, however, the minimum ticket price for other events in Lincoln Center’s Choose-What-You-Pay series is $5.

NME caught De La Soul’s show at London’s Royal Albert Hall last year, calling it “an emotional, ecstatic love letter to De La Soul,” in a four-star review. “It’s chaotic, free-spirited and most importantly, constantly exciting,” Ali Shutler wrote.

The performance came after the tragic death of David “Trugoy The Dove” Jolicoeur. Jolicoeur died in 2023 at the age of 54.

Last year, the band’s back catalogue finally became available on streaming platforms.

De La Soul’s classic albums weren’t released on streaming initially due to a dispute with their label, Warner Records, who were allegedly reluctant to clear samples for digital release. Apparently the samples used across those early records were only cleared for physical media distribution.

De La Soul’s catalogue was then purchased in 2017 by Tommy Boy Records and in 2019, the group announced that their music would be coming to streaming services soon. However a royalties dispute delayed this release until 2021, when Tommy Boy was acquired by Reservoir Media in a deal thought to be worth $100million (£80million).

A few months later, rapper Talib Kweli announced via Instagram that De La Soul now owns the rights to their own masters “after years of being taken advantage of by the recording industry in the worst possible ways”.