Last week, Boston, Massachussets-based Get On Down Records revealed that their next project is gold edition box set of Nas’ 1994 debut album, Illmatic. Officially available now, the CD portion (limited to a production run of 2,000) of the boxset will feature a completely remastered 24K Audiophile Gold disc CD of Illmatic housed in a Cherrywood Trophy Box. Additional materials in the set will include a 48 page hard cover book of Nas’ lyrics, liner notes and other materials from the album, a reproduction of the album’s press release, promo photos and a poster.
The vinyl LP version of the boxset will feature all of the aforementioned items in the CD release, but with a vinyl record. Bundles are also available. HipHopDX is proud to host the only official contest for these highly-coveted Illmatic tribute pieces, with 5 available to North American readers.
HipHopDX continued our conversation with Get On Down’s Matt Welch, after speaking with him in the fall during Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Purple Tape Box Set.
HipHopDX: I see that the Nas is the “Gold Edition” which is the first time you guys have introduced that. What does that mean, what’s different and unique about the Gold Edition series? I assume you have others planned for 2013?
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Matt Welch: The Gold Edition series uses gold CDs: Gold Quality discs that are audiophile quality CDs, usually used for Classical music. (All of the albums we have on deck in this series were certified at least gold by the RIAA but that’s not why it’s called Gold Edition). Leave it to us to take records that were intentionally recorded to sound raw and present them as an audiophile quality release. It is just another example of how we view Hip Hop in the same way other companies view Classic Rock or Classical. These releases are all masterful in their own right and deserve the overdue credit to be respected next to a [Bob] Dylan or a [Bruce] Springsteen. The next in the series will be Ghostface Killah’sIronman and we will be revealing more details about that soon.
DX: You had a private sale of the Nas that ran Friday through Sunday this past weekend, how did that go? As well or better
than expected? How do people sign up for that early access for future Get on Down private early sales?
Matt Welch: The early “members only” sale is still going strong and we are very happy with the numbers. Let’s just say that there will be some left when the general public gets to order on Monday (December 10), but that could change quickly once we word gets out there.
I would suggest anyone that is interested in what we are doing sign up to become a Get On Down user, or member: the process takes a few seconds and you only give your email and select a password. We view the site as a big fan club or fan-zine so we want to strengthen our connection with fellow fans, so we can have a dialog with the heads out there. We know folks will give us honest feedback so we can make sure we are delivering the most quality of projects and avoid complacency. You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, but the early notices only go out via email to our Get on Down members, anywhere from a couple days to a couple weeks before the public knows about our limited-edition items. And we do occasional flash sales with members via email, as we did with a couple extra Raekwon boxes that we had left. You can [click here] to sign up anytime.
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Purchase Illmatic CD & LP Deluxe Bundle ($49.94)
Purchase Illmatic CD-only Deluxe Package ($34.94)
