US hip-hop and electro producer A-Trak is the latest artist to furnish Nike+ with a 45-minute piece of specially written workout music. The Montreal-hailing, New York-based A-Trak, best known for his collaborations with Kanye West, Kid Sister and Jay-Z, had this to say:
"I've been producing mostly uptempo electro tracks as of late, but my background is hip-hop and I think you can hear it in my choice of sounds. I wanted this record to showcase my current style, but I also didn't want to stray away from hip-hop completely. That's why you find guest rap verses in the mix, plenty of chopped & screwed vocals, and a hefty dose of drums breaks that are surely more block party than Ibiza."
The Montreal native produced this 45-minute composition specifically for runners, gradually building from a warm-up period, incorporating an extended middle section that finds a pavement-pounding groove, and ending with a downtempo closure for cooling down. A highlight from the beginning segment, "Say Whoa," will serve as A-Trak's inaugural artist single, offered exclusively by Nike Sport Music. The mix also features a show-stopping appearance by recently hyped Fool's Gold signee Kid Cudi.
It bodes well for A-Trak's new Nike+ Original Run album, titled Running Man, that this three-minute sampler is good enough to get us doing generally calisthenicky things that we would usually avoid unless coerced by guns or money. In fact, we're going to use this to build up our endurance for the full 45-minute mix coming out on June 24th only at Nike Sport Music on iTunes so that we may run like gazelles with the hipsters of New York. And may we say it's just in time because LCD Soundsystem's excellent and initially inspiring 45:33 Nike jawn has become our soundtrack not for running but watching our asses expand. We need change, and Running Man sounds like it.
It also appears that A-Trak will not pull an LCD and use this music for a separate album, as his first solo single, "Say Whoa" (from the mix), will be released exclusively by Nike. AND ALSO, if that's not enough Running Man leads into Nike+ Human Race on August 31st when "an expected one million runners in 25 cities across the globe will partake in a 10k that combines the power of running and music through sport and also gives participants the chance to run for a cause and support charities who have a positive impact on the world." We would guess more than a million people are running across the globe at any given moment, so it seems like a good idea to make them race. Check back soon for more.
A-Trak - Running Man Nike + Original Run (Full Mix)
A Trak - Say Whoa - Running Man Nike + Original Run.mp3
A Trak -Nature (edit) - Running Man Nike + Original Run.mp3
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