Clean edited freestyles over "Looking At The Front Door", "Who Got Da Props", "Warm It Up Kane", and "Children's Story" – essentially remakes of the original tracks from Black Rob's perspective! 12-inch, Vinyl record

... 12-inch, Vinyl record

Off the Slam soundtrack. 12-inch, Vinyl record

... 12-inch, Vinyl record

This might not be the most important or vital album in the history of hip hop – but it's got some unstoppable party jams that can't be denied! "It Takes Two" will always be guaranteed to rock any party – and if Rob Base on the mic isn't anything to write home about, at the time Profile dropped this album, even the Jimmy Castor, ESG and James Brown samples weren't totally played out – and still sound great today. 10 tracks in all, also includes the hit "Joy & Pain", plus "Make It Hot", "Check This Out" and "Get On The Dance Floor". CD

Featuring Joe Hooker and Puff Daddy. 12-inch, Vinyl record

Mostly instrumental tracks from hip hop djs and producers including Rob Swift, Prince Paul, DXT, Invisible Scratch Pickles, Q-Bert, DJ Krush, New Kingdom, all overseen by Bill Laswell. Much better than your average Axiom stuff. Cover art by Rammellzee. 14 tracks in all, including "Reanimation" by Rob Swift, "ShinKi Row" by DJ Krush, "If 9 Was 6" by Prince Paul, "Invasion Of The Octopus People" by the Invisible Scratch Pickles and "Embryo" by DXT (formerly know as D. St). CD

Tracks include "They Heard I Got Life", "Watch Your Movements", "Star In Da Hood", "She's A Pro", "Ready", "BLACK", "When You Come Home", "You Know What" feat louis Farrakhan, "Ya'll Know Who Killed Him" feat Notorious BIG, "Warrior", "Team", "Help Me Out", and "The Verdict". LP, Vinyl record album

Featuring "Outstanding", "Turn It Out", "Hype it Up", "Get Up & Have A Good Time", "War", and "Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the first hip hop singles that really made the crossover to dancefloor play. By this point, everyone's heard the sample three million times, but it's still holds up better than most of the uptempo cuts from that era. 12-inch, Vinyl record

... 12-inch, Vinyl record

With Black Rob and Jim Jones. (Soul, Hip Hop) 12-inch, Vinyl record

With Black Rob. 12-inch, Vinyl record

Tracks include "Dangerous MC's" featuring Snoop Dogg & Busta Rhymes, "I Really Want To Show You" featuring Nas with K-Ci & Jo-Jo, "Rap Phenomenon" featuring Redman & Method Man, "Tonight" featuring Mobb Deep, "Let Me Get Down" featuring Missy Elliott, Craig Mack, & G-Dep, "Come On" featuring Sadat X, "Big Booty Hoes" featuring Too $hort, "Dead Wrong" featuring Eminem, "Notorious B.I.G." and "Would You Die For Me" featuring Lil Kim & the artist formerly known as Puff Daddy, "Biggie" featuring Junior M.A.F.I.A., "Can I Get Witcha" featuring Lil Cease, "Who Shot Ya", and "If I Should Die Before I Wake" featuring Ice Cube, Beanie Sigel, & Black Rob. LP, Vinyl record album

An East Bay classic from Spice 1 – and a great little record from that time before the west coast became a bit too much West Coast! There's a thuggish, early gangsta vibe that runs through the whole set – but as with some of the more enduring Cali hip hop of the time, the set's got a stripped-down vibe that is maybe more down to earth – a focus on core elements that help shape each track in a slightly different way, in a set that's very song-focused, and doesn't lose its way too much in a mix of shouts, skits, and samples. Production help comes from Ant Banks, Too $hort, and others – and there's some nice guitar in the mix from Rob Bacon too. Titles include "Dumpin Em In Ditches", "187 He Wrote", "Don't Ring The Alarm (The Heist)", "Smoke Em Like A Blunt", "I'm The Murderer", "The Murda Show", "RIP", "Clip & The Trigga", and "Trigga Gots No Heart". LP, Vinyl record album

Answer record 50 Cent's "How To Rob" by the former Onyx MC, done in full beat jacking mode. 12-inch, Vinyl record

CD version of the 2 LP companion to Ego Trip's Book of Rap Lists. They did a good job of including a lot of amazing old school tracks (1983-1989) that maybe not everyone knows about – but should, including some that are nearly impossible to find on 12". Every track here is worth it, and most haven't been on other compilations. Tracks include "Holy War (Live)" by Divine Force, "My Mic Is On Fire" by Lord Shafiyq, "Marly Marl Scratch" by Marly Marl featuring MC Shan, "Get Retarded" by MC EZ & Troup , "Get Down Grandmaster" by Grandmaster Caz, "Step Up Front" by Positive K, "This Cut's Got Flavor" by Latee, "Droppin' It" by Bizzie Boyz, "I'm Not Playing" by Ultimate Force,"Do It! Do It!" by Alliance, "Brooklyn Blew Up The Bridge" by MC Mitchski, and "Beat Bop" (full 10-minute version) by Rammelzee vs. K-Rob. CD

Tracks from Sugarhill Gang, Run DMC, Salt-N-Pepa, Digital Underground, Coolio, House Of Pain, Rob Base And DJ E-Z Rock, The Fat Boys, MC Lyte, Kurtis Blow, and more. CD

Abstract Orchestra have already given us two great albums worth of funk remakes of cuts originally created by the Madvillain team of MF Doom and Madlib – and here, Rob Mitchell of the orchestra follows into the production talents of the latter, by serving up remixes of cuts from the previous two album projects! Rob's style is different than that used by Madlib – maybe more hip hop into club, but in a way that still lives up to all the great spirit of the Abstract Orchestra originals – as he serves up Ghost Life remixes of "Curls", "Bistro", "Eye", "Fancy Clown", "Accordion", "Fire In The Hole", "Borrowed Time", and "Fluid". (Deep Funk, Hip Hop) LP, Vinyl record album

With "Just Another Case" with Slick Rick, "Nuthin' But" and "Wreckgonize" with Black Rob, "The Ebonic Plague" with Ras Kass, "Live At The Tunnel" with The Lox, and more. LP, Vinyl record album

Nice updates of a classic electro/hip hop/breaking track! You can see just how forward looking Herbie was by how great this sounds today, just as fresh as it was back in '83. "Rockit 2.002" features DJ Babu, DJ Q-Bert, DXT, Faust & Shortee, Mix Master Mike, and Rob Swift. (New Grooves, Hip Hop) 12-inch, Vinyl record

With Notorious BIG, Mase, Dave Grohl, Rob Zombie, and Tommy Stinson! 12-inch, Vinyl record

Tracks include "Dangerous MC's" featuring Snoop Dogg & Busta Rhymes, "I Really Want To Show You" featuring Nas with K-Ci & Jo-Jo, "Rap Phenomenon" featuring Redman & Method Man, "Tonight" featuring Mobb Deep, "Let Me Get Down" featuring Missy Elliott, Craig Mack, & G-Dep, "Come On" featuring Sadat X, "Big Booty Hoes" featuring Too $hort, "Dead Wrong" featuring Eminem, "Notorious B.I.G." and "Would You Die For Me" featuring Lil Kim & the artist formerly known as Puff Daddy, "Biggie" featuring Junior M.A.F.I.A., "Can I Get Witcha" featuring Lil Cease, "Who Shot Ya", and "If I Should Die Before I Wake" featuring Ice Cube, Beanie Sigel, & Black Rob. LP, Vinyl record album

The highly anticipated solo album from Def Jux CEO and Company Flow vet El-Producto is all that and a bucket of black hole warp speed 9 intensity. Excellent, dark, space age, new millennial hip hop.. This album flows from many songs without breaks between them, with jagged, scattered beats and lush synth-scapes. At points it sounds very cinematic, yet very grounded in thick, pounding break beats. The whole thing is produced by El-P himself, with Rhyme Sayer Entertainment's DJ Abilities on all the scratching, with many Def Jux guests like Aesop, Lif, CamuTao, and Vast. Ill Bill, C Rayz Walz, Rob Sonic, and Cage also make appearances. Songs include "Deep Space 9mm" with the raw Rawkus dis, "Tuned Mass Damper" with awesome scream samples, "Dead Disnee", "Delorean", the biting "Stepfather Factory", "Lazerfaces' Warning", "Constellation Funk" and more! 3LPs! LP, Vinyl record album

With cuts by Rasco & Kut Masta Kurt, Izm Da Mad Soul, Live Human, Sacred Hoop, Rob Swift, Roc Raida, Mr Dibbs, and others. LP, Vinyl record album

... 12-inch, Vinyl record

That's quite an image on the cover, and Curly Castro follows through strongly with all the Afro-Futurist expectations it might trigger – not just in his words, but in the way the album comes together – as some sort of a moody, unified document – powerful words in the frontline, but all this sort of darkly shimmering static at the back! The intensity of the record never lets up, and contributions from Billy Woods, Mr Lif, Margel The Sophant, and Breeze Brewin only seem to add fuel to the fire – on tracks that include "Kill Her Priest", "Freehuey Fitteds", "Killmonger Was Right", "Khujo Taught Me", "Bleek Shadows", "F Stands For Hampton", "Black August", "Weapon 13X", and "Raynathan & Romello". LP, Vinyl record album

Anderson.Paak heads to Ventura for this one – and something about that sunny coastal city brings out his soul influences after the primarily hip hop-leaning Oxnard! Paak leads on his raspy sung style for this one, an easygoing hip hop soul sound that's built to last, and again bringing in a heavy hitting of roster guests – including Andre 3000, Nate Dogg, Lalah Hathaway, Brandy and even Smokey Robinson – on tracks including "Come Home", "Make It Better" with Smokey Robinson, "Reachin' 2 Much", "King James", "Goodheels" with Jazmine Sullivan, "Yada Yada", "Jet Black" with Brandy, "Twilight" and "Chosen One" with Sonyae Elise and more. (Neo Soul, Hip Hop) LP, Vinyl record album

The return of CL Smooth – and a nice surprise! We don't know why we should be surprised by CL's still sharp skills circa '05, given the pedigree. That's our problem – but these 2 tracks are problem free, contempory work from a true mic master! "Warm Outside" produced by Heatmakerz. "I Can't Help It" produced by Mike Lowe. 12-inch, Vinyl record

The long-gestated follow up to the breakout Lord Willin' record by Clipse! Hell Hath No Fury may have been on ice for years, but it appeared as an instant classic, WAY up at the top of the list of greatest hip hop LPs of the mid 00s. The Neptunes beats are very spare and chilly, despite the fiery title – while the Pusha T & Malice style of precise storytelling and detached deliveries probably make them one of the most natural duos in the game. A gritty rap masterpiece. Tracks include "We Got It For Cheap", "Momma I'm So Sorry", the masterful "Mr Me Too" feat Pharrell, "Wamp Wamp (What It Do)" feat Slim Thug, "Dirty Money", "Ride Around Shining" feat the Re-Up Gang, "Key's Open Doors", "Chinese New Year" feat Rosco P Coldchain, "Nightmares" feat Pharrell & Bilal and more. LP, Vinyl record album

A rock-solid effort from De La Soul at the start of the 21st Century – a record that really has the group coming back into their own! On previous records, it had been a little difficult to tell if De La Soul has been trying harder to please their critics, or simply finally being true to themselves by expelling all traces of the perceived hippy-isms of their earlier work – and the answer is probably somewhere in between, but leaning towards their autonomy. They've been a new group all together since Stakes Is High, and Bionix is certainly their best work since – with the Wu Tang-like piano driven beat of the title track, the catchy soul of "Baby Phat" and "Simply", both of which should be nice club hits, and more than a few subtle nods to the Prince Paul years, especially on the "Simply Havin" interlude. "What We Do (For Love)" makes great use of a Slick Rick guest spot – complete with the horny fanfare. Cee-Lo shows up on "Held Down", and B-Real appears on "Peer Pressure" – both of which suggest that De La spent a little time in Stankonia last year. Other tracks include "Watch Out", "Special", "The Sauce", "Pawn Star", "It's American", and "Trying People". LP, Vinyl record album

Streetwise raps from Freddie Gibbs, backed by inventive production from Madlib – here on one of the best records yet on 'Lib's own Madlib Invazion imprint! If you'll forgive us a little bit of repetition – because we KNOW we've written this before – there's just something extra riveting about Madlib's production work for straight shooting, street lingo slinging, no nonsense MCs. The freewheeling inspiration and bottomless depth of unpredictable sample funk is there, as always. It's leaner, tighter and with a thicker backdrop of beats. Gibbs is sharply on point throughout here, and if it seems like an oddball pairing at first glance, rest assured, these guys work GREAT together. Guests include Danny Brown – who drops some top shelf wordplay of his own on "High" – plus the Wu legend Raekwon on "Bomb", Domo Genius & Earl Sweatshirt on "Robes", Domo Genius, G-Whiz, Mac Miller and more on the title cut, and more. Other titles include "Supplier", "Scarface", "Deeper", "Harold's", "Thuggin'", "Real" and "Uno". LP, Vinyl record album

"This here is the victory lap," raps Hov midway through The Black Album, his supposed career-capper (for this stage, anyway), and if nothing here immediately dazzles us to the core the way the best of his past singles have done, overall this is probably the most consistent front-to-back listen of all his albums. One of the nicest things about the Black Album is the brevity. As tight as the best of his recent output has been over the last couple of years – from singles, to album tracks, to guest spots – Jay-Z's simply been TOO productive, which has diluted the overall power of his presence. That issue is addressed right off the bat here – with a very manageable 14 tracks, no guest rhymers, and a consistent overall sound and mood thanks in part to strong production by Kanye West, 9th Wonder, Neptunes, Timbaland, Eminem (who's baroque synth productions are getting dangerously close to going stale, but it fits Jay-Z's dramatic finale theme very well), Rick Rubin and DJ Quik. It's a wildly disparate cast behind the boards, but this thing flows incredibly well thanks to Jay-Z's predetermined mission to make a great album, not just a hot record. We may still have to lean towards Blueprint as his late masterpiece, but this is way up there. "December 4th", "What More Can I Say?", "Encore", "Change Clothes", "Dirt Off Your Shoulder", "Threat", "Moment Of Clarity", "99 Problems", "Justify My Thug", "Lucifer", "Allure", "My First Song", and a couple of brief interludes. LP, Vinyl record album

"This here is the victory lap," raps Hov midway through The Black Album, probably the most consistent front-to-back listen of all his albums. One of the nicest things about the Black Album is the brevity – with a very manageable 14 tracks, no guest rhymers, and a consistent overall sound and mood thanks in part to strong production by Kanye West, 9th Wonder, Neptunes, Timbaland, Eminem, Rick Rubin and DJ Quik. It's a wildly disparate cast behind the boards, but this thing flows incredibly well thanks to Jay-Z's predetermined mission to make a great album, not just a hot record. We may still have to lean towards Blueprint as his late masterpiece, but this is way up there. "December 4th", "What More Can I Say?", "Encore", "Change Clothes", "Dirt Off Your Shoulder", "Threat", "Moment Of Clarity", "99 Problems", "Justify My Thug", "Lucifer", "Allure", "My First Song", and a couple of brief interludes. LP, Vinyl record album

The restlessly inventive Madlib beats and production for Pinata, the excellent duo project with MC Freddie Gibbs! If you'll forgive us a little bit of repetition – because we KNOW we've written this before – there's just something extra riveting about Madlib's production work for straight-shooting, street lingo-slinging, no nonsense MCs. The freewheeling inspiration and bottomless depth of unpredictable sample funk is there, as always. It's just leaner, tighter and with a thicker backdrop of beats than on some the more freeform Madlib projects. We wouldn't dream of fronting on Freddie Gibbs' impeccable rhymes on the vocal version, but these moody instros are incredible, on par with Madlib's best work. Titles include "High", "Bomb", "Robes", "Scarface", "Deeper", "Harold's", "Thuggin'", "Real", "Uno", "Pinata" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

The second album from Biggie, and a set that was instantly poised to catapult him to superstardom – even before his tragic death ended up doing that before the release of the record! And yes, the title's a bit cryptic – and given the fact that the material came out after BIG was shot, it might seem like a cash-in collection of left-behind tracks – yet it's not that at all. The long path to the album's creation represents a step forward to almost build a bridge between underground hip hop and mainstream soul – maybe in a way that would have calmed some of the coastal beefs that were taking place at the time – as the late, great one works here with an array of guests from both the worlds of hip hop and R&B – 112, Jay-Z, R Kelly, Puff Daddy, Lil Kim, Too Short, and others – in a classic set of tracks that includes "Hypnotize", "Kick In the Door", "Mo Money Mo Problems", "Notorious Thugs", "Going Back To Cali", "Sky's The Limit", "Miss U", "Ten Crack Commandments", 'What's Beef", and "Nasty Boy". LP, Vinyl record album

Not much of a title, but a vinyl-only collection that brings together 10 of Biggie's classics from back in the day – tracks that include "Going Back To Cali", "Notorious Thugs", "Big Poppa", "Warning", "One More Chance/Stay With Me (rmx)", "Juicy", "Who Shot Ya", "Hypnotize", "Sky's The Limit", and "Mo Money Mo Problems", with features by Mase and Puff Daddy! LP, Vinyl record album

An incredible pairing of talents – and a record that proves once again that the vibes of Roy Ayers are maybe one of the most powerfully soulful forces in the universe! It's no surprise that Roy's old records have formed the building blocks of key hip hop tracks over the years – and year, Ayers serves up vibes alongside fresh production from Oh No – in a set of all instrumental tracks that are overflowing with sweet vibes from the master, plus a blinding array of beats, samples, and other great production elements! Tracks are short and to the point, yet still deliver plenty – and titles include "Another Two 4", "Ice Cold Coolers", "Penthouse Elevators", "Intended Mayhem", "Short Tempers", "Dead Ringers", "Unbeautiful", "Leeches" and "Problems & Solvers". CD

An incredible pairing of talents – and a record that proves once again that the vibes of Roy Ayers are maybe one of the most powerfully soulful forces in the universe! It's no surprise that Roy's old records have formed the building blocks of key hip hop tracks over the years – and year, Ayers serves up vibes alongside fresh production from Oh No – in a set of all instrumental tracks that are overflowing with sweet vibes from the master, plus a blinding array of beats, samples, and other great production elements! Tracks are short and to the point, yet still deliver plenty – and titles include "Another Two 4", "Ice Cold Coolers", "Penthouse Elevators", "Intended Mayhem", "Short Tempers", "Dead Ringers", "Unbeautiful", "Leeches" and "Problems & Solvers". LP, Vinyl record album

Probably the most hyped hip hop album by rock critics of the last decade – but don't hold that against Stankonia, because these ghetto grooves from planet P-Funk were exactly what world needed in 2000! The millenium blowout party jam feel throughout is surely a nice change of pace from all the doom and gloom out there, but they still manage to spit out enough reality to keep things feeling true – particularly in the playful battle of the sexes showdowns. Dre, Big Boi and Organized Noize continue to innovate, even if they are at the top of the charts – and we can't wait to see where they take it all next! Tracks include "Gasoline Dreams", "So Fresh, So Clean", "Ms. Jackson", "Spaghetti Junction", "I'll Call Before I Come" featuring Gangsta Boo & Eco, "B.O.B.", "Xplosion" featuring B-Real, "We Luv Deez Hoez", "Humble Mumble" featuring Erykah Badu, "Red Velvet", "Gangsta Sh*t", "Toilet Tisha" "Slum Beautiful", and "Stankonia (Stanklove)". CD