UPDATE:De La Soul reached out to fans today after a frenzy of funky filesharing on Valentine's Day overloaded servers and caused some delays to the legions of De La soldiers who jumped on the bandwagon to download the group's entire catalog for free (scroll down for the full story). Dove AKA Plug Two speaks for the group when he says thanks to the fans for their tremendous love and promising that anyone who experienced a lag will still get their free music. Daisy Age sentiments indeed. Read the full text of the open audio letter immediately below or listen via soundcloud to hear it read by Dove over a soulful beat (which judging from the vocal sample, may be a glimpse at the material the Plugs are working on for their long-awaited comeback album You're Welcome.
To: Our friends and fansWe want to thank you all for making our Valentine's Day extra special this year! The love was tremendous. The kind words made sharing feel worth it, (more than ever) thank you! For any difficulty or delay in the process, we send our sincere apology. Damn! It was crazy, but nonetheless, a success. You guys showed up, and even with the minor delays you were patient and handled it like champs. Your support definitely helped turn the volume up... "This is still the Daisy Age"
If you signed up and have not yet received your links, don’t worry you WILL get them. Our team is working hard to make sure that no one is left out. You're Welcome.
Much love y'all,
Pos, Dave & Mase
Legalize The Daisy Age!
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De La Soul is giving away their entire catalog for free tomorrow, February 14th in anticipation of the 25th anniversary of their game-changing debut 3 Feet High & Rising next month. The music will be downloadable at the group's official site wearedelasoul.com for a brief 25-hour window starting at 11am EST tomorrow (and ending Saturday at 12 noon). In an interview with Rolling Stone, Posdnuos revealed:
"It's about allowing our fans who have been looking and trying to get a hold of our music to have access to it. 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."
Pos is referring of course to the fact that the group's densely-layered, 'sampladelic' sound has prevented it from being easily accessible in the digital age.
"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."
Pos also revealed some details of the group's upcoming releases, including a six-song EP titled Preemium Soul on the Rocks (with three beats each from DJ Premier and Pete Rock); a visit to Detroit to work on an unreleased beat from J Dilla; and-eventually--the long-overdue full length album You're Welcome:
"[It's] coming along amazingly. 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."
Us, too. Us, too!
