Ready for De La Soul’s version of an egg hunt? Just in time for Easter, the trio has placed 100 vinyl copies of instrumental mixes from its recent mixtape Smell the Da.I.S.Y. in record stores around the U.S., U.K. and Canada.
According to Rolling Stone, the record is a tribute to producer J Dilla, who died in 2006 of a rare blood disease and complications from lupus. The records, find De La Soul rapping over previously unreleased Dilla production, hit stores TODAY (April 18th), the day before both Record Store Day (April 19th) and Easter Sunday.
“The reason we choose to release an all-instrumental version of Smell The Da.I.S.Y. is to give people the experience of a J Dilla beat tape that we were so lucky to receive,” De La Soul’s Dave Jolicoeur said in a statement. “These beat tapes were the springboard that generated creation and inspiration for us.”
The trio originally distributed the mixtape through BitTorrent, and emailed hints to fans to raise awareness for the J Dilla Foundation, which funds inner-city music programs and provides scholarships to students attending schools with “progressive music curricula.”
The vinyl is designed to resemble the tapes that Dilla would send to A Tribe Called Quest, the Roots, Talib Kweli, Mos Def and, of course, De La Soul, among others.
Ready for the kicker? De la Soul’s marketing director, Brandon Hixon, enjoys this scavenger hunt for fans. He said, “The best part about this release is that nobody will know exactly where it is.”
Good Luck scavengers!
If you find the limited-edition vinyl, Tweet us a picture @InFlexWeTrust or show us on Instagram using the #inflexwetrust.
[RS]
