Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, Kid Koala, and Dan The Automator pool their skills for this dawn of the 2000s sci-fi hip hop classic – the masterful Deltron 3030! The guest list is almost too long to get into, but Money Mark, Prince Paul, PB Wolf and Mr. Lif are all here, along with many others. One of the benchmark albums in the leftfield underground hip hop canon – and a hugely influential set that burst the doors wide open for the more creative spirits in the hip hop and even experimental pop. Tracks include "State Of The Nation", "3030", "The Fantabulous Rap Extravaganza", "Things You Can Do", "Positive Contact", "St Catherine St.", "Virus", "Mastermind", "National Movie Review", "Time Keeps On Slipping", "Turbulence (remix)", "Battlesong", "Memory Loss" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

A 90s hip hop masterpiece from Diamond D – and like some of the rest of the best of the decade, a set that was slightly slept-on at the time, but which has gone to have massive impact over the decades – still sounding completely fresh in comparison to bigger hits of the time! Diamond D comes from the same DITC underground as Showbiz & AG, Big L, and Lord Finesse – and like those others, when he got his time in the spotlight, he really took off – with beats that had an influence on so much more to come – and a very collaborative spirit that opens the door for contributions from Fat Joe, Mark The 45 King, Brand Nubian, Lakim Shabazz, and some of his old partners in DITC. Titles include the classic "Best Kept Secret" – with its fantastic Kool & The Gang sample – plus "Sally Got A One Track Mind", "I'm Outta Here," "Check One Two", "Freestyle", "Stunts Blunts & Hip Hop", "Pass Dat S**t", "What You Seek", "Confused", "A Day In The Life", "Step To Me", and "Shut The *!*! Up". LP, Vinyl record album

With Fabolous on "Automatic" and Petey Pablo, Lil Jon & The Eastside Boyz, 8-Ball, and Bun B on "Rep Yo City". 12-inch, Vinyl record

A relatively short album, at least in terms of hip hop records that can span multiple discs and dozens of tracks – but that also marks the sharp focus that's made Freddie Gibbs such a powerful force in the music – an MC who gets right to the point, and never needs to hide his ideas behind intros and skits! Production here is by a variety of talents – Badbadnotgood, Teddy Walton, Speakerbomb, and others – shifting from track to track, in a nicely varied way – all unified through the subtle majesty of Gibbs! Titles include "Phone Lit", "Homesick", "Alexys", "Amnesia", "Dear Maria", "Crushed Glass", and "20 Karat Jesus". LP, Vinyl record album

J Dilla at his grittiest, most rugged & raw – in both the production and rhyme realm – with all beats and rhymes by the Dilla himself! This set originally opened our ears to a different side of Dilla, a harder hitting aesthetic, with beats and grooves from out of leftfield that draw you in and hypnotize. Ruff Draft was originally released as a vinyl only EP for the European market, and it was tough to get ahold of from the get go – so hats off to Stones Throw for giving it the reverent re-release it deserves – fleshed out with bonus tracks! Titles include "Let's Take It Back", "Reckless Driving", "Nothing Like This", "The $", "Make'Em NV", "Crushin'", "Wild" (a previously unreleased track that's nothing short of mindblowing – a minimalist masterpiece), "Take Notice" and more. 10 tracks. LP, Vinyl record album

The second album from Kendrick Lamar, and the one that really helped bring his talents to the rest of the world – and maybe mark a whole new generation of hip hop in the process! At some level, Lamar is in the same territory as many of the south Cali rappers before him – with tales of rough life on the mean streets – but his approach here is very different, both in terms of the personal quality in the lyrics and the subtle drama in his presentation – and the lean production, which seems to strip things bare, and avoid the thuggish cliches that might celebrate such a background. Even the title alone hints at the tension that's made the record so durable over the years – and titles include "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe", "The Art Of Peer Pressure", "Money Trees", "Poetic Justice", "MAAD City", "Singing About Me I'm Dying Of Thirst", "Real", and "Compton". LP, Vinyl record album

The never-issued second album from Main Source – and a set that's a very worthy successor to their classic Breaking Atoms! As with that record, the production here is superb – Large Professor at his best, with all the right sort of early 90s jazz influence in the samples, balanced with the group's trademark bite and wit in the lyrics – all at a level that makes for a record that shoulda been a classic back in the day! The set's got a fair bit of interludes, maybe to space out the vocal tracks for the full length release – but given the production, and great ear for found spoken bits, they seem to further the delightful quality of the record, as on an early De La set. Titles include an uncut version of "Looking At The Front Door", an unreleased version of "Fakin The Funk", and the tracks "Hellavision", "How My Man Went Down In The Game", "Time (part 2)", "Raise Up", and "Bootlegging". LP, Vinyl record album

Mos Def's landmark late 90s solo debut – a rock solid classic that stands up today as one of the best hip hop albums of its decade – and for all the dizzying creative highs and lows of his career to follow, it stands strongly among his best work ever. His preceding duo work with Talib Kweli as Black Star set a pretty high bar creatively, and stunningly, Mos manages to clear it. It's all the more impressive given the stylistic diversity, ranging from bed rock boom bap, to leftfield funk, to Bad Brains-inspired punk. Incredible stuff. Tracks include "Ms Fat Booty", "Hip Hop", "Know That" featuring Talib Kweli, "Mr Ni**a" featuring Q-Tip, "Mathematics", "Brooklyn", "Umi Says", "Do It Now" featuring Busta Rhymes, "Fear Not Of Man", "Habitat", and more. LP, Vinyl record album

... 12-inch, Vinyl record

The only LP from this First Priority family member who released a couple of nice tracks as singles on the label, especially his duets with MC Lyte. This major label album somehow managed to get lost, though it's one of our favorites from the early 90s, with stripped down funky beats and a tight flow and intelligent rhyme style that won't leave you scratching your head. 16 tracks in all, counting the shorter intros and interludes, including "Pass The Mic", "One 2 The Head", "How The F*ck Would You Know", "Carhoppers", "A Flower Grows In Brooklyn", "Nightshift", "I Got A Man", "Ain't No Crime" and "It's All Over". LP, Vinyl record album

A huge array of photographs from the golden years of 90s hip hop – all captured within a few short years by Peter Spirer, at a time when he was diving deep into the scene to really document the sort of energy that's made this stretch such a legendary one for the music! These photos are way more than standard portraits or stage shots, as Peter managed to really penetrate the everyday lives of the artists, to a point where you'll find some very surprising, and very striking images of figures who aren't always captured without striking a pose. The book features over 130 photographs, with subjects who include Dr Dre, Das Efx, Biz Markie, Busta Rhymes, Notorious BIG, Method Man, Nas, Q-Tip, Tupac, Guru, KRS-One, and dozens of others – and the heavy hardcover book is 240 pages in length – with added text from Soren Baker, and an introduction from Ice T. (Books, Hip Hop) Book