Back in November, the esteemed journalist and critic Marcus J. Moore published High And Rising, a book that tells the story of legendary hip-hop innovators De La Soul while weaving in bits of personal memoir. De La Soul responded to this loving tribute in extremely disappointing and ignorant fashion, instructing their fans not to read the book and threatening legal action against Moore for allegedly attempting to profit off their image. It was understandable that De La Soul would be paranoid after all the shady business dealings that have hindered their career — their catalog wasn’t available on streaming services until two years ago, for one thing — but in throwing Moore under the bus, they showed a complete misunderstanding of how publishing works and betrayed one of their most zealous advocates.

Now Moore has responded to the controversy. As Brooklyn Vegan points out, the author gave his first public comments on De La Soul’s disavowal on the new episode of the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast. “It was disappointing, because they were quite literally judging a book by its cover, without having read the book,” Moore said. At first he felt “betrayed by the culture,” but then the groundswell of support from his peers and fellow De La Soul fans helped him realize he would not be the victim of a pile-on: “I wanted to say something publicly, but then I realized, oh, I don’t have to say anything because my name is out here doing all the work.”

Moore said he attempted to contact De La Soul about the book for four years and has the “receipts.” When group member Maseo did finally reach out, it was to inquire about De La Soul receiving compensation for the book, which is not how biographies work. Moore said he understands why the group reacted so poorly: “When you’ve been fighting against an industry for 35 years, then naturally, yes, anybody coming along that you feel is trying to take from your legacy or whatever, you’re naturally gonna make them the enemy.”

Moore is widely respected among his peers and music fans. He’s been published in the New York Times, Pitchfork, NPR, The Nation, Bandcamp, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, and elsewhere, and previously authored the book The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited The Soul Of Black America. De La Soul should not have done him dirty like that. Hear his appearance on the Rolling Stone podcast here.