De La Soul’s Entire Discography Available for Free (for a Limited Time)
De La member, Posdnuos (PeekYou profile here), explained to Rolling Stone, “It’s about allowing our fans who have been looking and trying to get a hold of our music to have access to it. This is our way of showing them how much we love them.”
De La’s early records predated the days of hip hop productions being required to clear, and pay for, all samples used. As such, they are jam-packed with sounds not cleared with the appropriate copyright holders (in fact, De La’s records were among those that first pioneered a particularly dense, sample-heavy production style; an exciting musical innovation which later turned into a legal nightmare for many acts). Because of this, and the assorted labyrinthine complexities of music licensing that this invites to all related negotiations, many of their early records are still not available for digital purchase.
While they are working to make their catalog available via iTunes, and the like, in the meantime this giveaway will at least get their old music into the hands of many of those who want it.
You can grab the De La catalog for the brief time its available by visiting their website, linked to above. And you can learn more about De La Soul — via websites, videos, social pages, articles, and more — by visiting its individual members’ PeekYou profiles from the links below:
Posdnuos
Trugoy the Dove
P.A. Pasemaster Mase