DE LA SOUL'S MUSIC GIVEAWAY BONANZA

Hip-hop legends De La Soul are giving away all their back catalogue for free today — for 25 hours only. The generous gesture to their fans is to mark the 25^th anniversary of their groundbreaking album '3 Feet High & Rising'.

From 4pm UK time, 11am EST in the US, De La are giving away all their recorded music from the last quarter of a century for free via their website.

“It's about allowing our fans who have been looking and trying to get a hold of our music to have access to it,” De La Soul's Posdnuos told Rolling Stone magazine. "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."

De La's breakthrough album '3 Feet High & Rising' was dubbed “the 'Sgt Pepper' of hip-hop” on release in 1989. Featuring numerous samples, it ushered in daisy age hip-hop after the militancy of Public Enemy and NWA had risen to the fore in the late eighties.

Tracks like 'Me Myself & I' and 'The Magic Number' helped garner the album widespread acclaim, not just from hip-hop and dance music fans but pretty much across the board.

A lot of De La's music hasn't made it onto digital platforms due to disputes about the samples used on some of the tracks. “We've been working very hard to get that solved,” said Posdnuos.

This Valentine's Day giveaway precedes the release of new album 'You're Welcome', their first since 2004's 'The Grind Date', that's expected to be released before the summer. De La have also been working with Pete Rock and DJ Premier, and are also thought to be working on a tribute to acclaimed beatsmith J Dilla in Detroit anytime soon.

Visit the De La Soul website here and grab their whole back cat for free after 4pm UK time.