De La Soul Will Sample Themselves For Their First Album In Over A Decade

Seminal hip-hop act De La Soul haven’t released an album since 2004’s The Grind Date, but that’s hopefully about to change, with the help of a new Kickstarter campaign.

The trailblazing rap trio have already rallied an impressive list of collaborators behind the new disc, including Damon Albarn (Blur/Gorillaz), David Byrne (Talking Heads), 2 Chainz and Little Dragon, with more to be revealed as the campaign unfolds.

“True to our Hip-Hop roots, we make music without limits,” the Soul men explain on their official Kickstarter page. “This new album will incorporate elements of Jazz, Funk, Rock, Country Western and anything else we’re feeling in the moment.

“To us, music is the influence of sounds, sounds in all vibrations and sizes, telling a story or pointing a direction. Some of these sounds we call samples, samples we use to make songs.”

And the new disc will also play on the band’s complicated history with sampling. “Sampling… is how De La has always made music,” the fellas explain. “The sampler is our instrument, but people who copy, and in this case ‘sample,’ have also been considered thieves and unoriginal. So, unfortunately a huge part of our career has also been spent fighting off the ‘sample police’.”

In one of the earliest sampling court cases ever, the group was sued by the Turtles in 1991 over a sample used on their album, 3 Feet High and Rising. But, this time around, De La will boldly go where no hip-hop act has ever gone before, by sampling themselves.

For the new record, De La Soul and the Rhythm Roots All-Stars, some “16, 17″ musicians in total, recorded about 200 hours worth of jam session tape, with the beats for the final product to be made by sampling the improvised music.

The crowdfunding effort is shooting for a $110,000 target, and at the time of writing is closing in fast, racking up $90,280 from 1,227 backers so far.

Some of the perks on offer include one of Dave’s old-school boom boxes, a functioning, autographed MPC from Pos’ collection, a VIP lament valid for 10 shows “whenever/wherever”, thumb drives shaped like the band members’ heads, and a chance to feature in a skit for the album.

Aussie fans can also get their hands on some of the incentives by throwing their weight behind the crowdfunding effort, now.

Watch: De La Soul – Me, Myself And I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJEzEDMqXQQ