De La Soul Change the Game with a Crowd-Funded Album

Hip hop trio De La Soul has smashed its Kickstarter goal to fund the group’s first album in 11 years.

Image Credit: ​David Corio/Michael Ochs Archives

The untitled LP’s campaign for $110,000 was launched on Monday, and by Tuesday afternoon nearly double that figure had been pledged, according to the group’s Kickstarter page. Instead of sampling from other artists’ work—and getting in trouble with the “sample police,” as De La Soul says—the trio has created over 200 hours of original sounds and vibes.

“We actually don’t call it crowd-funding,” Jolicoeur tells BGR. “We call it fan-funding. From people who believe in what we’re doing.

“Kickstarter is one of those platforms that gives you space to work with people who know you, love you and support you. And lo and behold, look what happened.”

Work on the project has been ongoing over the last three years, as the group hired top L.A. studio musicians and recorded them playing in unrehearsed jam sessions. Most of that recording was done at the Vox studio in L.A., with the group saying they preferred it for the resulting “creamy, analog, warm mixing board sound that the old records our parents once played had.”

The group’s members knew, for example, they wanted to bring in an eclectic set of guests artists like rapper 2 Chainz and David Byrne of the Talking Heads. They wanted the music to turn heads and make a statement. Even more important – they wanted to go the crowd-funding route, to side-step the complications and interference of teaming up with a label, says the group’s Dave Jolicoeur.

The album is expected to ship this September.

Christine O'Connor

@christineeeeO