De La Soul exploring legal options following unauthorised book release
Legendary rap group De La Soul has revealed they are now pursuing legal options following the release of an unauthorised biography of the band.
The book High & Rising has been penned by Marcus J Moore and was released worldwide on November 19th. While biographies of anyone in the public sphere can be released without permission from the subject nevertheless, De La Soul have taken umbrage with Moore’s project.
Furthermore, High & Rising is also a tale of Moore’s life rather than exclusively telling the story of De La Soul. According to the synopsis, the book is “a deeply personal coming-of-age story about his journey through life with De La as a backdrop.”
It adds: “The first book about De La Soul, High and Rising shows that De La Soul is Black history, American history, world history, our history. This is a tale about staying the course, and how holding true to your virtue can lead to dynamic results.”
Rather than celebrate their story being told by Moore, De La Soul have instead condemned High & Rising. In an Instagram post, they wrote: “Friends and De La Family. We’ve been receiving congratulatory messages about a book titled High & Rising. However, we want to make it absolutely clear: this is an unauthorized book, and we are not connected to it in any way.”
They continued: “For years, you’ve stood with us in our fight for ownership of our catalog and the right to benefit from the music we created. That same dedication to protecting what’s ours extends to being the ones who tell OUR story—something deeply personal and ‘De La’ to the core.”
Additionally, the hip-hop giants promised they would tell their tale later, stating, “Our story will be told in our words, in our way, with the style you’ve come to know and love. Until then, we encourage you to indulge in the authentic DA.I.S.Y. Age by supporting projects backed by us.”
They continued: “If you choose to support this book, that’s your right. We just want it to be clear that we do not and we are exploring all of our legal options. Even within this book’s title, the ‘3’ Is missing which shows how inauthentic it is because for us, ‘3’ will always be the magic number.”
De La Soul concluded the post by writing: “We’re cooking up something special for Spring 2025—so the wait won’t be long for more of that authentic De La.”
Moore is yet to comment on De La Soul’s condemnation of his book.