(AllHipHop News) When music legend Prince wrote the word “slave” on his face to protest what he saw as exploitation at the hands of Warner Brother Records, some people called him crazy. Fast forward to 2015, and now many artists have come to the conclusion being signed to a label is counterproductive artistically and financially.

De La Soul seems to be among the performers that is done with the traditional concept of working with major labels. The New York based group is releasing their next album independently thanks to funding from a Kickstarter campaign. Posdnuos, Dave, and Maseo have raised over $500,000 to date. The original goal was $110,000.

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The members spoke with VladTV about their fan crowd-funding project. They also discussed how being on a music label equates to slavery.

“We’re not gonna be on [an independent label like] Koch or a major. We don’t want to do that anymore. That’s slavery.” said Dave. “So in order to get this completed – partly we funded ourselves, and we have a team, a group of people, a following, and a fan base who believe in what we do. And don’t want nothing in return except the music.”