Having fans is great, but as De La Soul recently found out, having fans with deep pockets is even better.
The group’s quietly acclaimed 2016 album, “And the Anonymous Nobody,” reminded hip-hop lovers that the veteran rappers’ best days are not behind them. It turned out to be a shock inclusion in the Best Rap Album category when the Grammy nominations were announced in December. But if not for the generosity of their longtime followers, it may never have happened.
Back in 2015, the Long Island group asked fans to help fund what would be their first album in more than a decade. A Kickstarter campaign was set up to help the trio raise $110,000.
“What some people don’t realize is that we’d already spent our own money on doing the album,” De La Soul member Posdnuos tells The Post. “We thought it was a modest amount to help get it finished.”
They had a month to reach their goal. Astonishingly, they surpassed the target in less than 10 hours and ended up raising more than $600,000. It proved the enduring love fans have for the group, whose sample-based 1989 debut, “3 Feet High and Rising,” remains one of the genre’s essential albums.
The money allowed the trio (completed by Maseo and Trugoy the Dove) to enrich the album’s sound by using more musicians and reach out to a host of star guests. David Byrne, Usher, Snoop Dogg and many more contributed vocals, but the group’s collaboration wish list went as far as Willie Nelson, Tom Waits and even Guns n’ Roses frontman Axl Rose.
“We didn’t get a ‘no’ from him; we just couldn’t find him,” says Posdnuos, laughing.
The vocalist admits that when he played the album for friends, the response was immediate.
“I remember after the funeral for Phife Dawg [from A Tribe Called Quest, who died in March 2016], we were at Q-Tip’s crib in New Jersey. I played him a couple of tracks, and he loved them. So many people told me, ‘Yo, get your suit ready, because you’re going to the Grammys!’ I was like, ‘Nah, really?’ ”
The group first went to the Grammys 27 years ago when they were up for Best Rap Performance for their minor hit “Me, Myself and I” (and lost out to Young MC’s “Bust a Move”). They finally won in 2005, when “Feel Good Inc.” — a track featuring cartoon-group Gorillaz — was awarded Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals.
This nomination sees them squaring up with modern heavyweights of the genre. Other albums vying for the win are Kanye West’s “The Life of Pablo,” Drake’s “Views,” Chance the Rapper’s “Coloring Book,” DJ Khaled’s “Major Key” and ScHoolboy Q’s “Blank Face LP.”
But Posdnuos insists their recognition isn’t just a token nod of respect to rap’s elder statesmen. The ambitious and stylistically wide-ranging “And the Anonymous Nobody” proves they’ve earned their nomination on merit.
“I don’t think it’s a case of anyone saying, ‘Let’s just let these old dudes feel good again before they croak,’ ” he says with a laugh. “I just think people were just really impressed with what we did.”
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