De La Soul have made their entire catalogue of music available for free download from their website (www.wearedelasoul.com) in celebration of the 25th anniversary of their landmark debut album 3 Feet High And Rising.
The hip-hop masterpiece will be available alongside other classic De La Soul works such as De La Soul Is Dead (1991) and Bulhoone Mindstate (1993), but only until tomorrow noon, meaning you should act fast in order to procure these musical gems. The band announced this download party yesterday, scheduled to last for 25 hours having begun at 11am this morning.
The reasoning behind the band's unique offer is the trouble that fans have accessing De La Soul's music through iTunes and similar music players online due to the band's repeated problems with sampling clearances, an ironic problem considering the group's mastery of sample usage in their production is the very reason for their legacy and influence today.
Band memeber Posdnuos admits that there have been long delays in sorting out their discography, saying that the band is ''working very hard to get that solved'' and pointing to contractual issues to highlight the niggling issues that have thus far led to frustration for De La Soul fans.
Today you can get it all for free though, and Posdnuos wanted to explain why: "It's about allowing our fans who have been looking and trying to get a hold of our music to have access to it. 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."
There you have it folks- sweet, free, legal music right at your doorstep. Go get some.
Words: Andrew Lambert