It's been 15 years since the inaugural Red Bull Music Academy was held in Berlin, and to mark this milestone, 2013 will see several shows, big and small, club nights and info sessions across Australia under the RBMA banner. New York City will be the host city for RBMA in 2013, but Sydney will be the host of the first 15th anniversary gig on Australian soil when hip hop legends De La Soul take the stage of The Standard on Saturday 5 January.

Formed in Long Island, NYC in 1987, De La Soul are leaders of the alternative hip hop movement that rose as the flip side to the gangster rap sound rising from the West Coast in the late 1980s. Their early albums were instant classics, with 1989's 3 Feet High And Rising and its 1991 follow-up De La Soul Is Dead earning the group critical praise and commercial success with their irreverent lyrics, social commentary, and production sampling liberally from not just funk and soul, but also pop, reggae, and psychedelia. The trio of Kelvin Mercer (aka Posdnous), David Jolicoeur (Trugoy the Dove), and Vincent Mason (Maseo) have consistently released albums ever since, with their eighth long-player - the First Serve project which saw Mercer and Joliceur take on the persona of a fledgling hip hop act - surfacing at the start of 2012.

Support duties on the night go to RBMA Sao Paolo 2002 participant, and Red Bull Thre3style 2012 finalist, Typhonic, with Brisbane drums and decks duo Rhythm & Cutloose and local hip hop DJ - Raine Supreme rounding out the bill. It's just the sort of diverse line-up that has been a hallmark of RBMA ever since that first lucky group of participants was invited to Berlin in 1998, with the initial focus on DJ culture expanding to include singers, producers, multi-instrumentalists, sound artists, and more as the format has evolved over the years. And getting on the floor with De La Soul is just the start of the 15th anniversary celebrations.

 First Release $40+BF and Second Release $50+BF