Free is the Magic Number: Download De La Soul's entire back catalogue

Later on today, legendary Long Island hip-hop group De La Soul will celebrate the 25th anniversary of their classic debut album 3 Feet High and Rising with a 25-hour giveaway on their website – fans will be able to download the band's entire back catalogue for free. The giveaway begins at 4pm today (GMT), and the music will be available in digital format from the band's website.

The 25th anniversary of their first album's release happens next month – the band are currently working on their first full studio release since 2004's The Grind Date, currently titled You're Welcome. Speaking to Rolling Stone, De La's Posdnous commented on the band's epic giveaway: "It's about allowing our fans who have been looking and trying to get a hold of our music to have access to it. 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." He also discusses how issues with sample clearance have kept the band from big music platforms: "We've been blessed to be in the Library of Congress, but we can't even have our music on iTunes," he laments. "We've been working very hard to get that solved."

Speaking about the long gestation period for the new album, Posdnous says: "We have tons of music, but we're our own worst critics. Certain groups have too many 'yes men.' In our group, we have too many 'no men.' When we look back on some of the stuff we have, we're like, 'Yo, we need to just put this out.' The album is still called You're Welcome, but we also have this whole other album that we're working on that… Wooo, I wish I could talk about it." It seems that fans can look forward to more free music from De La Soul in the future, too – Posdnous signed off his chat with Rolling Stone by saying: "We're just getting in the mode of constantly giving people new music... we've sat a long time without releasing an album. It's high time we start releasing a bunch of stuff because it's there."

As well as the classic Three Feet High and Rising, De La Soul have released 5 official albums since 1989 – they were De La Soul Is Dead (1991), Buhloone Mindtsate (1993), Stakes Is High (1996), Art Official Intelligence (2001) and The Grind Date (2004). All six albums will be available for free download.