De La Soul: “The idea for the song came from a couple of samples, and the track’s vibe is earnest and has a pressing tone to it. The lyrics are commentaries of our struggles and successes, our weaknesses and strengths… the experiences… and trials and tribulations we have faced as human beings, a race, and as individuals. Lyrically Chuck brings a sense of authority and urgency. The power in his voice demands your attention. With Chuck on the track this is a dream come true for us.

Originally “The People” was suppose to drop in June around the same time the Chuck D/Hot 97/Peter Rosenberg situation took place. We chose to hold off and not add fuel to any fires. Our next aim was for a Black Friday release. Coincidentally the Ferguson tragedy took place, and more recently the non-indictment verdict. Somehow this song was destined to be a part of something more than just dropping a joint. We hope it will lend itself to something positive in these difficult times.

We created some merchandise for this song that is for sale (The People T-Shirt & Sweatshirt). Proceeds from the merch will be donated to two organizations: All Star Code and I Love Ferguson.

All Star Code is an organization that helps under served youth make their way into the tech industry. We’ve been building, strategizing, and working with developers for the past year, and we understand the importance of education in tech. We have a music tech company that we’ll be launching soon called Daisy (daisycollective.com/). It’s important that we have more people from our community and our culture involved in this space. We just want to do our part in making that happen and ultimately help build the future of music.

I Love Ferguson is a organization that’s helping to rebuild the town of Ferguson, MO. We feel strong about helping and supporting the small businesses that have been affected in that area.”

Stat’s #WhatGoesAround hits August 19th.

Questlove presents De La Soul as Webby Artist of the Year at the 18th Annual Webby Awards. Awesome speech.

Cons lends his own verses to De La Soul and J Dilla’s “Vocabulary Spills” from the Smell The Da.I.S.Y.

“We are happy to announce the release of the limited edition vinyl of “Smell The Da.I.S.Y.” in-stores 4/18. The vinyl will be a all instrumental version of the “Smell The Da.I.S.Y.” project. It contains 12 tracks that include all 11 of the “Smell The Da.I.S.Y.” instrumentals plus one exclusive never heard before J Dilla beat.

We decided to release a all instrumental version of “Smell The Da.I.S.Y.” to give people the experience of a J Dilla beat tape that we were so lucky to receive. These beat tapes were the springboard that generated creation and generated inspiration for us.

The vinyl release is very, very limited, only 100 copies will be released to stores, to resemble the limited amount of beat tapes that Dilla would send out to artists like Tribe Called Quest, The Roots, Talib Kweli, Common, Mos Def, Busta, and De La.

Dilla was a heavy crate digger that scoured the earth digging for exclusive vinyl to sample, and if you want this vinyl project you’ll have to dig the same. We are not releasing the record store information so if you would like to find a copy go to http://www.wearedelasoul.comc for clues and also our Twitter, Instagram and Facebook pages for the vinyl whereabouts. Happy digging!”

In preparation for their upcoming album, You’re Welcome, De La Soul released the first of two mixtapes leading up its release. Today we have the Smell The Da.I.S.Y. (Da Inner Soul Of Yancey) mixtape, which puts De La Soul over J. Dilla beats. Next up will be the De La Soul / Pete Rock / DJ Premier 6-song EP, Premiem Soul on the Rocks.

1. Let The King Ascend
2. Who (feat. Redman)
3. Dilla Plugged In
4. Goes With The Word
5. Vocabulary Spills
6. The Pitch
7. Taking The Train
8. Leave Your Cares Behind
9. O’Shut Up
10. No More No Less
11. Marvin Jaye
12. Smell The D.A.I.S.Y. Letter
13. Still Shining documentary
14. J Dilla art/wallpaper

DOWNLOAD: De La Soul + J Dilla – “Smell The Da.I.S.Y.” (Mixtape) / Backup Link

Another one from De La’s upcoming Dilla produced mixtape, Smell The DA.I.S.Y., due March 26th.

De La tells us:

“It’s been 25 Years since our “Three Feet High” release. We have a lot great memories and an incredible journey. Amazingly enough, our fans stuck around, supported and still want more. Ok, but before you get that, here’s a little De La over Dilla Beats. Enjoy and look out for the new mixtape “Smell The DA.I.S.Y.” all beats by J Dilla. Peace… and in advance, You’re Welcome. Legalize The Daisy Age!” – Pos Dave & Mase

Upcoming Projects:
“Smell The DA.I.S.Y.” produced by J Dilla (Mixtape),
“Premiem Soul On The Rocks” produced by DJ Premier & Pete Rock (Mixtape)
“You’re Welcome” (Album)

Audio letter read by Dave.

To: Our friends and fans

We 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!

De La Soul’s classic catalog is one of the last remaining omissions from the digital retail sites like iTunes and Amazon, due to legal nonsense and sample clearance issues. However, today the group has made the catalog available for free download, which includes 3 Feet High & Rising, De La Soul Is Dead, Buhloone Mindstate, Stakes Is High, AOI: Mosaic Thump, AOI: Bionix, and Remixes Instrumentals and Rarities. The offer is up for 24 hours, until noon tomorrow, over at WeAreDeLaSoul.Com.

This move comes in preparation for their new album, You’re Welcome, fittingly, the title of which was first revealed here in our 2012 interview with Pos, which you can watch below. Also on deck is the Preemium Soul on the Rocks EP, due next month, with Pete Rock.

Directed by Lenny Bass and Kris Merc. The album is called You’re Welcome, as Posdonous revealed to us exclusively back in our Jan. 2012 interview.

The Roots & De La Soul peform a few classics on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.

Pos writes:

“I’ve always loved the ‘Intro’ on Disc Two of Wu-Tang Forever – this erie sample with no beat, that they only talked over,” De La Soul’s Posdnuos tells Rolling Stone. “I stumbled on the original sample while crate digging one day, took it straight to the lab and added drums. The feel is definitely gritty, hard and sounds like a Wu record, so out of inspirational respect, we included featuring ‘The Spirit of the Wu’ in the song title.”

Part 3 of our interview with De La starts with Pos sharing that he first wanted to be a DJ before an MC because back then the DJ was the life of the party and the MC was just doing echoes. As the interview goes on, Dave says that he enjoys some Gangsta Rap like NWA but that when Gangsta Rap started talking over Hip Hop culture De La never felt pressured to follow in the footsteps. Pos continued saying that De La always fit in to a few different facets of the culture and that they could tour with LL Cool J and RunDMC and then go do a Fine Young Cannibals tour. Dave goes on to say that some of their most memorable song experiences were corroborating with different artists from the Beastie Boys, The Gorillaz, Chaka Khan to Teenage Fan Club to so many others. Before we let De La go we asked them that having seen what Tribe Called Quest went through with their documentary, would De La be open to doing a documentary themselves. You are going to have to watch the interview to hear what they had to say on this topic.

In part 1, De la reminisces about the making of their track “Buddy” and shares that the amazing moments that were captured in videos like Buddy happened because they were not thinking about how much money they were going to make, instead they were enjoying the people around them, making music and having a good time. “The fun comes in when you forget about this being a career and what we are earning. The dollar is evil! -Dave aka Trugoy the Dov. As the interview progresses De La Soul talks about up coming tour with LL Cool J, Ice Cube and Public Enemy called The Kings Of The Mic and how they are looking forward to the competition on stage. Pos goes on to explain that friendly competition is good for keeping everyone on there toes when performing. Pos tells the story of how when Big Daddy Kane performed before LL Cool J he would want to “Crush this shit” even though Kane was cool with LL. LL would be under pressure when he came to perform because Kane had just ripped the crowd. Same with De La when they opened for Tribe Called Quest and Tribe had a hot record out. The competition was always friendly because at the end of the day they all had respect for each other. De la thinks that now days popularity is championed over good music and artists approach performing from a mindset of self gratification instead of challenging each other to see who can get the crowd the liveliest. De la also brings up the point that they hear a lot of hits these days but not too many classics that people are going to be listening 10 years from now.

Part 2 starts with De La sharing their thoughts on what has kept them together as a group after all these years. As the conversation progress De La speaks on the new generation of MC’s. Pos points out that although he likes certain songs from Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Joey Badass, etc and he appreciates bits and pieces from them but he doesn’t think that there is one album that is setting the bar. Maseo points out that Hip Hop just turned 39 years old. When it first started most people outside the culture thought it was a fad and wouldn’t be around for too long. “We are in our episode of the 80′s with disco and r&b…but we are coming out of that.” “It became big business.” Dave adds that its about having a balance. We need more platforms like Paid Dues that allow artists like Jean Grae, Tech Nine, Scarface, etc a chance to be seen more than just whats on MTV, Billboard Charts or who is number one on Itunes. “Never forget that there is another side to what is going on than up there on the charts.”