A limited number of Raekwon’s new album will come with vibration backpacks

Rapper and Wu-Tang vet Raekwon has a new album coming out this week, and a few fans will get a chance to “feel” the music through a pretty strange marketing stunt. Raekwon’s label is supposedly sending a small vibration backpack to 15 fans, though there’s basically no information about how they’re choosing them. The backpack is the SubPac M2, which I actually tried out in late 2015:

It’s about as niche a device as you’ll find, but it worked well and was fun to use. It created diverse and even subtle vibrations — it wasn’t just some plastic rattling around on my back. I still think it makes more sense as a VR or gaming accessory, even if it was made with music in mind. (But if I was going to use it for music, Raekwon’s bass-heavy hip-hop would be a good place to start.) It’s also not nearly as cumbersome or unusual as some other vibration backpacks, suits, and wearables that we’ve seen and tried.

With services like Spotify and Apple Music making new music so accessible, it’s not surprising to see musicians and record labels come up with strange promotions to move copies of the physical version of an album. Just be thankful that this time it wasn’t a creepy Korn ornament.