Every morning my mom laces up her Nikes and goes for a 45-minute jog. She is determined, and to her, running is one step below religious. Every morning, my mom also logs onto Tiny Mix Tapes to check out the latest music news. So, between trips in the minivan to this practice or that and preparing microwavable lasagna, she usually can be heard cranking out the latest Yellow Swans release or Pavement re-release.
Friday nights find her wearing Kangol hatwear and Timberlands on her feet. She claims driving an MVP is okay because the Wu-Tang rap about them. She has exhausted my whole collection of backpacker hip-hop and New York noise albums on her morning runs, so I wasn’t at all surprised to find her downloading The Crystal Method and LCD Soundsystem’s exclusive mixes for the Nike+iPod mix series. After a week, though, she came to me. “Peter, I need more. I want something with balls. Whatever can I do?” Luckily for her, Nike has just released a new 45-minute cut from everyone’s favorite white rapper, Aesop Rock. The third in the “Nike+Original Run” series is available exclusively at the Nike Sports Music Store and the iTunes Store.
When asked why A-Rock decided to sell-out, he said, “I wanted to create something that evolved enough that the sound was constantly fresh and attractive, as if the runner were moving through a set of differing cities or landscapes.” And whatever this means: “There had to be a new element every 30 seconds or so [a new riff, a new layer, a new drum pattern] as other elements faded into the distance. Basically, I had to keep the scenery shifting while maintaining the 'push.' Setting this as my goal allowed me to dabble in some sounds that I had never tried before."
