De La Soul are to release their first new music in five years, but it's not for chilling out or getting down – it's for joggers. The 45-minute track was made for Nike, as part of their Nike+ series of music to run to.
"Let's not call it a track, let's call it a journey," Vincent Mason, also known as Mase, told BBC 6 Music. But this isn't a sprawling DJ set – it's eight or nine original songs, recorded by De La Soul and then brought to producers Flosstradamus to "mix it all together".
"We'd worked with Nike before, designing kicks and playing some of their marathons," Kelvin Mercer, aka Posdnuos, explained to Billboard. "We were excited when they approached us because we're the first actual band to do one of these tracks."
Previous Nike+ releases, all in partnership with Apple's iPod, included those from LCD Soundsystem, Simian Mobile Disco and Aesop Rock.
It is almost 20 years since the release of 3 Feet High and Rising, the group's groundbreaking first album. Although some fans have questioned De La's corporate tie-in with Nike, members of the band deny that they have lost track of their Amityville, NY origins.
"I'll work with anyone," Trugoy, aka David Jude Jolicoeur, said. "When you're compromising yourself, that's the problem. I don't want to go on KFC doing popcorn chicken commercials, and I'm in a popcorn chicken outfit. But if you're talking about KFC having this new free range poultry, or it's something new to talk about healthy eating, why not?"
Some of De La's members even took up jogging to try out the music. "I've dabbled in running before, but I got back in to it and would run to test it out," Posdnuos said. "Nike also has a team of runners on staff who listen to it and give us their opinion."
Clearly the album couldn't have come at a better time. Asked if De La Soul have changed since 1989, Posdnuos quips, "[We] just got fatter".
De La Soul's Nike+ track is released today through iTunes Music Store.
