First Look: Get On Down Revives Raekwon's Infamous Purple Tape

[Jammin]

http://www.complex.com/art-design/20...us-purple-tape















On August 1, 1995, RCA Records dropped Raekwon's now classic Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. The first 10,000 cassette copies (according to legend), were cased in a brilliant purple. An instant collectors item, and impetus for a nickname, the tape remains one of most creative packaging choices in hip-hop history.

Get On Down celebrates creativity. The small brand, established in 2010 by record industry veterans Matt Welch and Joe Mansfield, is giving hip-hop fans reason to celebrate legendary records and forgotten classics. Majors hadn't been pushing rap beyond regular reissues and, as Mansfield says, Get On Down was formed as a way of "presenting releases in a really fresh way, as far as innovative packaging and cool bonus material."

They started with Common's Resurrection and then blew the doors open with a brilliant idea for ODB's Return to the 36 Chambers, recreating the food stamp card on the the original cover, reminding of the power of music and its associated objects to entice us beyond disposable download culture. "That one to me had so many different parts from different manufacturers, and when it came together it was really exciting," says Matt Welch, "It made people take notice of what we were doing."

Since ODB, they've reworked GZA's Liquid Swords with a chess set and now adds to the Get On Down Master Series with the "Purple Tape Cassette Box."

The full-length audio from the original is set in actual Purple Tape and housed in a "piano lacquer" display case with gold-color hardware and embossed white-on-black Raekwon logo. In addition to the tape, the box set includes a 32-page, hard-cover liner notes book with text by Brian Coleman and reprinted graphics from the original Loud/RCA promotional singles.

The cassette-only Only Built 4 Cuban Linx "Purple Tape Cassette Box" reissue is limited to 1,000 copies available exclusively from today at Getondown.com for $44.95.

[THE W]

nice deal with the purple tape but,

when i first bought this on CD back in the day it had a purple jewel case for the CD. its not included in this set. looks like its only a sleeve.

deal breaker.

[Damon]

This is a very impressive display piece which is an instant conversation starter for my home.

I bought one a couple hours ago.

[Makadocious]

Damn! that shit would look fucking dope in my room kid, any info on how much this shit will cost?

[Sky Blue Bally Kid]

Not sure about this, thought the Liquid Swords reissue was ill but this looks kinda tacky imo...

[SKELETOR]

looks great

[Decka]

Just bought it, the guys over at www.strictlycassette.com are running a competition with four of these up for grabs. I'm sure someone on wu corp could win one

[venomsnake21]

I ordered my box set an hr ago

[Galvatron97]

This is a great conversation piece......good stuff

[OPTIMUS]

$45 on the get on down site

[rgu2002]

Just bought one! Its gonna be piece of history... Also going to buy OB2CL re-issue on purple vinyl ...

[theheavens]

oh shit I didn't see you already made this thread. but yeah, this looks interesting. but how the hell am I gonna listen to a cassette?

[food for thought]

^lmao its a collectors item you retard

you want to play the cassette? lmfao

[theheavens]

I'd only get it if it came with a cd and/or vinyl. but the booklet and poster is temping

and don't be fag like usual. it's getting old

[']

haha that lock box is too much to comprehend

That's treading on weirdo





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