De La Soul to Release Entire Catalog for Free (But Only for 25 Hours)

It’s Christmas on Valentine’s Day for hip-hop fans. The legendary hip-hop group De La Soul will reportedly make its entire catalog available to download for free at 11 a.m. EST on Feb. 14. to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising.

“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 Posdnuos told Rolling Stone. “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.”

That’s a whole lot of love for De La Soul, which first got together in 1987, to show to supporters. The group’s music has been notoriously difficult to acquire (legally, anyhow) on the Internet, thanks in large part to the heavy use of copyrighted samples on its tracks. Posdnuos also pointed to the revolving door of executives at the group’s record labels and murky contract language to explain why De La Soul music is largely unavailable at iTunes and other online vendors, even though the venerable group has “been blessed to be in the Library of Congress.” (3 Feet High and Rising was added to the National Recording Registry in 2010.)

De La Soul, which won its first, long-overdue Grammy Award in 2006 for the group’s collaboration with Gorillaz on “Feel Good Inc.,” is also moving forward with plans for You’re Welcome, its first studio album since 2004’s woefully underappreciated The Grind Date.

The music will reportedly be available for download for just 25 hours on the group’s website: wearedelasoul.com.

[via Rolling Stone]