De La Soul’s Maseo said that De La Soul’s third
installment of the Artificial Intelligence series will be released independently,
through his Bear Mountain Entertainment label.
After splitting with Tommy Boy when the label
folded, it was reported that the group had inked a four album deal with Elektra.
"The group is not signed to Elektra,"
Bear Mountain president Jason Alexander told AllHipHop.com. "The album
will come out independently. We are still negotiating a distribution situation."
Last year, Pos told AllHipHop.com that label
had inked a four album deal with Elektra and said that AOI 3 may see the light
of day via the internet, but that the group was working on different album for
Elektra.
In a recent interview with the Miami Herald,
Maseo, who lives and works out of Boca Raton, Florida, said that he was looking
forward to the challenge of being independent.
”It’s the best feeling in the world,” Maseo
said. "With the turn of the industry and the Internet absorbing a lot of
the record sales, it’s the best thing that could have happened in my career."
"It was great to wear the Tommy Boy jersey,
but now we’re playing for our own," he continued. "From the business
perspective, we get to see more of a return on our music.”
