text: Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Blossom Ball 
   
   At 11 a.m. ET today the beloved hip-hop group De La Soul will make its entire catalog available for free download on its website for a 25-hour window, to close at noon Saturday.* For Pos, Dave, and Maseo this giveaway celebrates the upcoming 25th anniversary of their legendary 1989 debut, 3 Feet High and Rising; for the rest of us it’s just the best Valentine’s gift we’ll probably ever receive. In commemoration of this event here are 10 holiday-appropriate (and chronologically-ordered) De La tracks to bump this V-Day, be it on your own, with the one you love, or just the one you’re with. 
   
   “Eye Know” (1989) 
   
   Advertisement 
   
   
   
   In matters of the heart it’s sometimes best to lay your cards on the table: “Eye Know” is one of the best love songs ever written, period, and I almost feel guilty for putting nine songs after it. Steely Dan has never sounded so warm, and neither has rap. 
   
   “Talkin’ Bout Hey Love” (1991) 
   
   De La followed up 3 Feet High with the pitch-dark, controversial, and totally brilliant De La Soul Is Dead. This he-said-she-said exchange over a knockout Stevie Wonder sample is a sneakily affecting rumination on maturity, commitment, and the pros and (mostly) cons of both. 
   
   “I Am I Be” (1993) 
   
   Most connoisseurs hold 1993’s Buhloone Mindstate to be De La Soul’s finest album through-and-through, a serious, fully adult and staggeringly complex collection of music. “I Am I Be” is a masterpiece of existential melancholy, and for many on this holiday there’s no more appropriate emotion. 
   
   “Breakadawn” (1993) 
   
   Not a love song in any conventional sense, but the dazzling wordplay and sample of Michael Jackson’s “I Can’t Help It” carry their own breathless romance. Plus, you’ll probably need this pick-me-up in between “I Am I Be” and what comes next. 
   
   “Fallin’” (with Teenage Fanclub, 1993) 
   
   The best track on the cultish footnote that was the Judgment Night soundtrack, an album-length pairing of rock bands with rap groups with mostly forgotten results. But “Fallin’” has endured as a gorgeous, impossibly sad and ferociously adored gem of De La’s catalog. To paraphrase Smokey Robinson, you gotta slow-dance to keep from crying. 
   
   “Betta Listen” (1996) 
   
   The level of consistency that De La maintained from 3 Feet High through 1996’s Stakes Is High was so insanely lofty that its majesty only became apparent in looking back—at the time it just seemed like the normal way of things. This sexed-up ode to cat-and-mouse games is as buzzed and funky as an impromptu dance-floor hookup. 
   
   “More Than U Know” (Prince Paul ft. De La Soul, 1999) 
   
   A highlight of Prince Paul’s generally fantastic A Prince Among Thieves, “More Than U Know” found De La reuniting with the producer of their youth for what’s either a strikingly elaborate metaphor for dependency (chemical, romantic, otherwise) or a strikingly unelaborate excuse to complain about airline travel (n.b.: real talk). In 1999 this beat sounded throwback; in 2014 it just sounds timeless. 
   
   “Oooh.” (ft. Redman, 2000) 
   
   Happy Valentine’s Day to me, because I’ve been head-over-heels in love with this song for fourteen years. Not particularly mushy, though Redman’s incredible choruses have a certain rough chivalry to them. 
   
   “If It Wasn’t For You” (Handsome Boy Modeling School ft. De La Soul, 2004) 
   
   The de facto opener on Prince Paul and Dan the Automator’s sophomore effort White People, “If It Wasn’t For You” pays homage to love in all its forms, some expected and others less so. A devilishly clever and oddly heartwarming piece of music. 
   
   “Pushin’ Aside, Pushin’ Along” (First Serve, 2012) 
   
   In the spring of 2012 Pos and Dave re-emerged alongside French production team 2 & 4 with De La Soul’s Plug 1 & Plug 2 Present First Serve, a mischievously opaque concept album (as if these dudes made other kinds) about a pair of kids with eyes on the rap game. “Pushin’ Aside” was the album’s standout, a hooky and bone-rattling Valentine to hip-hop itself. As a quarter-century of De La Soul has reminded us time and again, there are few things more worthy of our unconditional love. ||||| In honor of next month's 25th anniversary of their debut album 3 Feet High and Rising, De La Soul are making their entire catalog available for free download for 25 hours on the group's website. The download bonanza will begin on Friday, February 14th at 11 a.m. EST until Saturday at noon. 
   
   Check out 10 Unseen Photos Included in De La Soul's Album Downloads 
   
   "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 member Posdnuos tells Rolling Stone. "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." 
   
   The same things that made 3 Feet High and other De La albums so influential — its creative, if not fully licensed, use of a myriad of samples — has also prevented the group's work from appearing on many digital platforms. "It's been a trying journey," admits Posdnuos. "We've been blessed to be in the Library of Congress, but we can't even have our music on iTunes. We've been working very hard to get that solved." The rapper points to frequent personnel changes at record labels and hazy language in early contracts that have led to long delays in properly clearing the group's catalog. 
   
   The release of the group's catalog is the first of numerous upcoming projects. In a few weeks, they'll post new songs to their site, with You're Welcome, their first album since 2004's The Grind Date, expected to be released before summer. Next month will also see the release of Preemium Soul on the Rocks, a six-song EP with three beats each from DJ Premier and Pete Rock. The group is also planning a visit to Detroit to work on an unreleased beat from J Dilla, the prolific producer who passed away in 2006. "Dilla was the Tupac of producers," says Posdnuos. "He has so many unreleased things that no one has heard. His family knows how vital and important an ingredient his music was to our work." 
   
   Where does 3 Feet High and Rising rank on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time? 
   
   Asked about the status of You're Welcome, an album originally scheduled for release last year, Posdnuos says that it's "coming along amazingly," but points to self-criticism in its delay. "We have tons of music, but we're our own worst critics," admits the rapper. "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." 
   
   Twenty-five years into their career, the group is ready, if somewhat cautiously, to adopt the more-is-more release schedule of its younger peers. "We're just getting in the mode of constantly giving people new music," says Posdnuos. "I'll be the first to say that not everyone can do it. You can put out a new mixtape every week, but it can dilute what you're putting out because you haven't had enough time to see what's going on with your life to write something from a different angle. With us, 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."
target: – De La Soul has found a pretty cool way to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its first hip-hop album, 3 Feet High and Rising: The group is making its entire catalog free for download for 25 hours, reports Rolling Stone. Fans can get to it through the group's website until 11am EST tomorrow. "It's about allowing our fans who have been looking and trying to get a hold of our music to have access to it," says one of the trio, Posdnuos. That hasn't always been easy because the band's heavy use of samples has led to copyright headaches, explains Rolling Stone. Slate, meanwhile, picks out 10 De La Soul songs perfect for Valentine's Day.