Mos Def Becomes First Artist To Take Dumb "Music Tee" Idea Seriously

"Yo kids, this is Mos Def. Please buy my $39 album art t-shirt. In LA and NY, where the people who dreamed this up live, it's not a totally stupid idea to charge $60 for a t-shirt. Maybe where you live it isn't either."

When I first got a press release about The Original Music Tee (not to be confused with The Original Music Shirt), a shirt that has a record's album art on the front, track list on the back, and comes with a code for downloading the album, I thought, "What a weird idea, I wonder if any reputable artist will ever sign off on that?"

Mos Def came through: His new record, The Ecstatic, will be available in this gimmicky "format" later this summer. As Idolator points out, the first one in the series sells for $60, though this one is a more modest $39. Oof. Who says record companies "don't get it."

The album art, below, seems pretty lame for a t-shirt, any way you slice it. Oh, and here's a little taste of what the record will sound like.