Today De La Soul releases it first music project in over five years.  But this is unlike any of its preceding releases the new project titled “Are You In? Nike + Original Run,” is a continuous 45 minute exercise album crafted specifically for runners as part of a partnership with the Nike+ campaign.  De La of course previously worked with Nike on their uniquely designed signature Dunks.

The new album commissioned by Nike marks the fifth such release in the Nike+ Original Run series and is described as a “continuous full-length body of music that reflects the arc a runner experiences during a run.”  Starting today, interested fans can download the project via Apple’s iTunes music store (tunes.com/nikedelasoul.) for $9.99.  Maybe Suzzanne Malveaux could have used it during her half marathon Twitter odyssey. 

“We’d worked with Nike before, designing kicks and playing some of their marathons,” Kelvin Mercer, aka Posdnuos, tells Billboard. “We were excited when they approached us because we’re the first actual band to do one of these tracks.”

“The set we did is an actual album, with eight or nine songs, not one long DJ set,” says Mercer. “We recorded the songs and took them to Nike for feedback, and then brought in Flostradamous to mix it all together.”

When asked about how the project has impacted the group’s personal fitness, Mercer said “I’ve dabbled in running before, but I got back in to it and would run to test it out…Nike also has a team of runners on staff who listen to it and give us their opinion.”

He also says the group which is planning to tour Australia and Europe in celebration of their twentieth anniversary is also in the process of working on another full length album.