De La Soul RSD special

VINYL EASTER EGG HUNT: One of the most intriguing of the approximately 450 special releases created for tomorrow’s Record Store Day is from seminal hip-hop trio De La Soul, who have pressed 100 vinyl copies of an instrumental version of their Smell the Da.I.S.Y mixtape and hidden them in indie record stores around the country. Smell the Da.I.S.Y, which is available as a free download from De La Soul’s website, was released on 3/26 in tribute to their late producer J Dilla. In a statement on their site De La Soul explain, “Dilla was a heavy crate digger that scoured the earth digging for exclusive vinyl to sample, and if you want this vinyl project you’ll have to dig the same." Clues have been left on their site, including a link to a list of vinyl record stores in New York, Chicago and LA. Additionally, the group has put five copies up on eBay. Clever. (4/18a)