Skip to main content

De La Soul to drop new album in April with guests David Byrne, Usher, and more

de la souls and the anonymous nobody will be out in april soul
Facebook
The first album in over a decade from legendary ’90s hip-hop outfit De La Soul will feature a star-studded list of guest stars, including David Byrne, Jill Scott, Pete Rock, Damon Albarn, Usher, and Snoop Dogg, according to a recent interview with Rolling Stone.

Called And the Anonymous Nobody, the new record was completely financed through a Kickstarter campaign, with the idea that the group would be able to do just about anything they want.

One of the most-anticipated albums of the year, the new record from Long Island rappers Posdnuos, Dave, and Maseo, who are all now in their 40s, will be an eclectic mix of songs that the trio say breaks all the rules.

“We couldn’t do that on a regular label,” Posdnous says about a particularly out-there track on the new record. ” How you gonna present them with a song like this? They may think it’s beautiful but then it’s like, ‘Okay, so, there’s no chorus. For maybe the first three minutes of the record, you’re nowhere to be found.’”

The album will be one of the first crowd-funded releases ever from a major hip-hop artist. When the trio launched their Kickstarted campaign last March, the original goal of $110,000 was met within ten hours, and ended with a total of $600,000 in contributions. That extra dough likely went to help fund the appearances of so many special guests.

Known for their out-there take on what is thought by many to be a somewhat basic genre, the group even relied on some famous outside ears to help mix the album.

“We even at one point let Nas hear a bunch of tracks,” Posdnous says, “And it was just dope how he was like, ‘Yo man, this is like some avant-garde shit.'”

De La Soul’s first record since 2004, And the Anonymous Nobody will be released this coming April.

Parker Hall
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Parker Hall is a writer and musician from Portland, OR. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin…
What is hi-res audio, and how can you experience it right now?
Dlyan Wireless Headphones

High-resolution audio, hi-res audio, or even HD audio -- whatever you decide to call it (for the record, the industry prefers "hi-res audio"), it's a catch-all term that describes digital audio that goes above and beyond the level of sound quality you can expect from a garden-variety MP3 file and even CDs. It was once strictly the domain of audiophiles, but now that major streaming music services like Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer, and Qobuz have embraced it, almost everyone can take advantage of what hi-res has to offer.

But what exactly is hi-res audio? What equipment do you need to listen to it? Where can you download or stream it? And does it actually sound better? We've got the answers.
What does the term 'hi-res audio' mean?

Read more
How to download music from Spotify for offline listening
How to download music and podcasts from Spotify: The downloads folder.

If you're a Spotify Premium user paying that premium Spotify fee, chances are you've taken at least some time curating playlists, liking songs, and using the platform's easy-to-use (and recently revamped) user interface to discover new and old music.

But sometimes all that music or your favorite podcasts aren't available if you find yourself without an internet connection to stream them from — like on a long plane ride or weekend camping trip in the sticks. That's where Spotify's offline listening feature comes in handy, allowing you to download playlists, albums, and podcasts through its desktop and mobile apps so you can still rock out while you're off the grid.

Read more
How to switch from Spotify to Apple Music
Spotify and Apple Music transfer on a smartphone.

Spotify is the world's most popular music streaming service for a reason. It has a massive catalog of music and podcasts, is full of cool music discovery and sharing features, and is really easy to use.
However, with its recent price increase and the fact that it still hasn't joined most of its peers in offering a hi-res audio quality option, you may be considering jumping ship for its closest competitor, Apple Music, which counts lossless hi-res tracks, mind-bending spatial audio, Dolby Atmos Music tracks, and a catalog that rivals Spotify's among the many attractive reasons to switch.

But there's one problem: you’ve spent a lot of time creating playlists and marking songs and albums as your favorites in Spotify. Is it worth the switch? Will all that hard work be lost in translation?

Read more