De La Soul debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Rap Albums chart

Legendary Hip Hop trio De La Soul debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Rap Albums chart with the release of critically acclaimed and the Anonymous Nobody via AOI Records/Kobalt Label Services. and the Anonymous Nobody is the group’s first studio album release in twelve years. The album also charted No. 2 on the Independent Albums Chart and Vinyl LP, No. 7 on Current Albums chart, and No.12 on Billboard ‘s Top 200 Chart, their highest charting debut since 2000’s Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump.

The creation of and the Anonymous Nobody has been several years in the making. De La Soul wanted to make another sample-based album in the vein of 3 Feet High and Rising spending a few years recording more than 300 hours of live music, converging everything from bossa nova, soul and hip-hop to funk, disco and reggae. They essentially created the instrumental albums from which they would dig and sample. The features-based record was mixed by Bob Power, Morgan Garcia and De La Soul, and was produced by De La Soul and Dave West. The body of work is a concept and continuous story, even down to the transitions of songs with sound effects and instrumentals and features a diverse range of artists including David Byrne, Usher, Snoop Dogg, Little Dragon, and Estelle. The group’s Kickstarter campaign, which ran for 33 days in May 2015, garnered more than 11K backers and an impressive $600K in funding, making it the second most successful in the platform’s history.

De La Soul formed as a trio almost 30 years ago on Long Island, New York. Known for their experimentation and collaboration of various sounds from traditional hip-hop to and jazz-rap, they released their first album in 1989 entitled, 3 Feet High and Rising and it was a critical hit in the hip-hop industry. They won tremendous respect within their genre and across the music industry at large. Their famous track, “Me, Myself and I” landed a spot on the Top 40 U.S. hits, was number one on the R&B charts and the album went gold. Since the early days, the band has produced several albums such as De La Soul Is Dead and Art Official Intelligence and collaborated with cross-genre groups like Gorillaz and Yo La Tengo. The band continues to play a large role in contemporary music and culture. The past year has certainly shown that De La Soul’s fans are engaged and wanting more, while new discovery for the group should also be ripe, considering the revival of 90s era hip-hop in recent years.

And The Anonymous Nobody is available everywhere now. https://delasoul.lnk.to/andtheanonymousnobody

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