The entire catalog is now available on their website. Remember: it’s only available ’til tomorrow (February 15th) at noon.
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Jason Newman from Rolling Stone reports:
In honor of next month’s 25th anniversary of their debut album 3 Feet High and Rising, De La Soul are making their entire catalog available for free download for 25 hours on the group’s website. The download bonanza will begin on Friday, February 14th at 11 a.m. EST until Saturday at noon.
“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 member Posdnuous tells Rolling Stone. “Its been too long where our fans haven’t had access to everything. This is our way of showing them how much we love them.”
The same things that made 3 Feet High and other De La albums so influential — its creative, if not fully licensed, use of a myriad of samples — has also prevented the group’s work from appearing on many digital platforms. “It’s been a trying journey,” admits Posdnuous. “We’ve been blessed to be in the Library of Congress, but we can’t even have our music on iTunes. We’ve been working very hard to get that solved.” The rapper points to frequent changes at record labels and hazy language in early contracts that have led to long delays in properly clearing the group’s catalog.
