De La Soul Tomorrow (Saturday 19th April) is officially Record Store Day worldwide, celebrating and promoting independent record shops who still believe in and sell vinyl to die-hard fans who refuse to see it die a death, inspite of the digital revolution. Without doubt, vinyl was a major component in the early development of hip hop, and in keeping with the spirit of those origins, rap group De La Soul, whose hippy type 'Daisy Age', conscious laden songs actually help change the course of the music back in the 90's, have decided to get involved in the festivities honouring the 'wax' in their typical fun-filled way.
Back on 26th March De La Soul dropped a mixtape (free to download from their website) called 'Smell The DA.I.S.Y. (Da Inner Soul of Yancy)' as a tribute to the renowned hip hop producer J. Dilla, who unfortunately died in 2006 due to rare blood disease. This master beatmaker made his name not only working with De La Soul, but many other hot artists which included A Tribe Called Quest, Busta Rhymes, Erykah Badu and Common. The mixtape consists of the band rapping over unreleased Dilla beats and has already created a buzz of anticipation for their first new album in 10 years, 'You're Welcome', due this summer. Especially for the occasion of Record Store Day, De La Soul have pressed up 100 vinyl copies of the instrumental version of 'Smell The DA.I.S.Y.', which they intend to sneak into certain record shops across America, Canada and the UK. 5 copies will go up on eBay, which I suppose will give fans outside of the those countries a chance to get one. Clues as to where these very limited edition records can be found are on the group's website, along with a link to several vinyl stores in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Speaking of which, my own gut feeling for the LA location is Amoeba Music on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, without doubt the number spot for vinyl in Southern California.
Back on 26th March De La Soul dropped a mixtape (free to download from their website) called 'Smell The DA.I.S.Y. (Da Inner Soul of Yancy)' as a tribute to the renowned hip hop producer J. Dilla, who unfortunately died in 2006 due to rare blood disease. This master beatmaker made his name not only working with De La Soul, but many other hot artists which included A Tribe Called Quest, Busta Rhymes, Erykah Badu and Common. The mixtape consists of the band rapping over unreleased Dilla beats and has already created a buzz of anticipation for their first new album in 10 years, 'You're Welcome', due this summer. Especially for the occasion of Record Store Day, De La Soul have pressed up 100 vinyl copies of the instrumental version of 'Smell The DA.I.S.Y.', which they intend to sneak into certain record shops across America, Canada and the UK. 5 copies will go up on eBay, which I suppose will give fans outside of the those countries a chance to get one. Clues as to where these very limited edition records can be found are on the group's website, along with a link to several vinyl stores in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Speaking of which, my own gut feeling for the LA location is Amoeba Music on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, without doubt the number spot for vinyl in Southern California.
James Dewitt Yancey a.k.a. J. Dilla The idea of hip hop fans searching through stacks of vinyl appealed to De La Soul, who felt it not only keep that 'old school' spirit of hunting down that elusive track, but was also a nod to the super-producer J. Dilla. In a recent statement they said, "Dilla was a heavy crate digger who scoured the earth digging for exclusive vinyl to sample, and if you want this vinyl project you'll have to dig the same." Their reason for pressing up an instrumental version of the mixtape was explained thus, "We decided to release an all instrumental version of 'Smell The DA.I.S.Y.' to give people the experience of a J. Dilla beat that we were so lucky to receive. These beat tapes were the springboard that generated creation and generated inspiration for us." All I can really add is all you vinyl junkies out there planning to find this very special De La Soul record.....good luck!!
From the 'Smell The DA.I.S.Y.' mixtape - this is De La Soul + J. Dilla 'Marvin Jaye':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThFD7qEYTo0
From the 'Smell The DA.I.S.Y.' mixtape - this is De La Soul + J. Dilla 'Marvin Jaye':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThFD7qEYTo0
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