De La Soul have always been romantics at heart. Ever since the ‘D.A.I.S.Y. Age’ mantra of their 1989 debut LP 3 Feet High And Rising, the trio have always been about spreading positive vibes of love and unity through hip hop.
Now they’re showing true love for their fans, giving away their entire discography away for free on Valentine’s Day.
De La Soul’s whole catalog will be available to download for nothing at the group’s official website, at wearedelasoul.com, for a limited 25-hour window starting from 11am EST (that’s 3am Aussie time, so stay up late romantics) and ending Saturday at 12 midday.
The reasoning behind the influential hip hop group giving away their career’s work for nada is twofold, as De La Soul explains to Rolling Stone.
Firstly, it’s anticipation of their landmark 1989 album 3 Feet High And Rising celebrating its 25th Anniversary on 3rd March, and secondly, because De La Soul’s tunes haven’t been readily available in the digital realm. Go search for the group’s music on iTunes or Spotify, and you’ll see what we mean.
“It’s about allowing our fans who have been looking and trying to get a hold of our music to have access to it,” De La Soul MC Posdnous tells Rolling Stone about the Valentine’s download giveaway. “It’s been too long where our fans haven’t had access to everything. This is our way of showing them how much we love them.” “It’s been too long where our fans haven’t had access to everything. This is our way of showing them how much we love them.”
While De La Soul’s cultural stake and influence is unquestionable, their recorded output is densely-layered with samples, many of which have been difficult to legally clear for digital sale, due to multiple record label shuffles and loose contracts in their early deals, all which has “been a trying journey” in the words of Posdnous.
“We’ve been blessed to be in the Library of Congress, but we can’t even have our music on iTunes,” says the rapper. “We’ve been working very hard to get that solved.”
As if getting a 25-year-rich catalogue for free wasn’t generous enough, the mass giveaway is the first step towards a spate of new De La Soul projects. Including new material to be posted on the group’s site ahead of dropping their much-delayed album You’re Welcome – De La’s first in a decade – later this year.
First up is Preemium Soul On The Rocks, a new six-track EP (that features beats from genre legends DJ premier and Pete Rock), a planned trip to Detroit to work on an rare, unreleased beat from the late, great J Dilla (“The Tupac of producers,” says Posdnous of the beatmaker, who passed away in 2006).
All which will pave the way for Your’re Welcome, De La Soul’s first proper full-length album since 2004’s The Grind Date. “[It’s] coming along amazingly,” reveals Posdnous of the new record, “…we’ve sat a long time without releasing an album. It’s high time we start releasing a bunch of stuff because it’s there.”
He went on: “We have tons of music, but we’re our own worst critics… Certain groups have too many ‘yes men.’ In our group, we have too many ‘no men.’ When we look back on some of the stuff we have, we’re like, ‘Yo, we need to just put this out.’ The album is still called You’re Welcome, but we also have this whole other album that we’re working on that… Wooo, I wish I could talk about it.”
What better way to prepare for new De La Soul than to familiarise yourself with old De La Soul – like all of it.
So check back at http://www.wearedelasoul.com/ over the weekend (after 3am GMT tonight) for your Valentine’s freebies.
