After dropping a short EP and a new single in recent weeks, De La Soul is celebrating the legacy of one of their most highly-revered records.
For the 25-year anniversary of the album De La Soul Is Dead on Friday, May 13, the legendary trio from Long Island dropped an unreleased song and launched an online guest book where “mourners” can sign to send their well wishes.
The song, “Sho Nuff,” is produced by Posdnous and was recorded during the De La Soul Is Dead sessions.
There are also two memorials set up around New York City, at places that were special for the creation of the album: the building of the old Rush Management office, where they created the concept of the album, and Colliope Recording Studio, where they recorded the songs. Rush Management is located at 289 Elizabeth Street, and Colliope is at 8th Ave and W 37th St., both in Manhattan.
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The guestbook, new song and information about the memorials are all available at www.delasoulisdead.com.
HipHopDX recently interviewed De La Soul about the 25th anniversary of the album, which was a complete turnaround from their classic 1988 debut 3 Feet High and Rising.
“We actually got people to understand what the DAISY age actually meant,” Maseo explained. “By breaking the stereotype and the stigmatism that was put on us with the hippy concept when D.A.I.S.Y. just was an acronym for Da Inna Sound. I think we’re past that point now.”
The guest book and the song release are the latest in De La Soul’s crafty uses of the Internet. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of 3 Feet High in 2014, they gave away all of their albums to date for free. And in in 2015, they raised more than $600,000 on Kickstarter to fund a new album.
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The Kickstarter-funded album, titled And The Anonymous Nobody, hasn’t been released yet, but De La has updated donors and put out new music in the meantime. This year, they have released “All Of Us” featuring Nas, “The People” featuring Chuck D, and a surprise EP called For Your Pain & Suffering. They also released “Trainwreck,” the first single for And The Anonymous Nobody.
