De La Soul’s seminal debut, the witty and weird and wonderful 3 Feet High and Rising, was released 25 years ago. In honor of that quarter-century mark, De La Soul’s offering a free download of its entire catalog for 25 hours on the group’s website. The download bonanza will begin on Friday, Feb. 14 at 11 a.m. EST, and it’ll run through until Saturday at noon. (But what if I’m only halfway through downloading The Grind Date at noon on Saturday? What then, De La Soul? WHAT THEN?!)
De La Soul’s music hasn’t been offered on many free streaming sites and services due to licensing issues. Prince Paul likes buddy … but he likes sampling, too, and many of De La’s early work is built on samples that weren’t fully licensed.
“It’s about allowing our fans who have been looking and trying to get a hold of our music to have access to it,” Posdnuos tells Rolling Stone about releasing De La’s catalog. “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 one hell of a V-Day gift, Plug One. Way better than a toaster. Way to make a girl feel special.