Hip Hop — Recently Added

Pharrell's first solo album – finally issued after months of anticipation between the release of the first single and a oft-delayed street date, time enough to wonder which Pharrell would take the lead – the electro-thumping, hip hop revisionist producer with the laidback rhymes, or the ... LP, Vinyl record album

Too Short still going strong in the early 90s! This one holds up better than we gave it credit for back in the day, with Too Short showing love for Blaxploitation era pimp flick lore, as paired with his already legendary underground rap style of purposefully profane lyrics and distinctive approach ... LP, Vinyl record album

A collaborative effort from Madlib and Freddie Gibbs – the union of one the most prolific producers in abstract hip hop and a hugely talented rhymer! We've said it before and we imagine we'll say it many more times, but Madlib really delivers when he's paired with straight forward MCs – ... 12-inch, Vinyl record

A milestone effort from Bay Area veteran Lyrics Born – who has been delivering rock solid funky soul-steeped hip hop solo, with his Latyrx duo, and as a producer for well over 20 years by this point – and still delivering the goods after all these years! He's been leaning more on gritty ... CD

A fantastic debut from Yogisoul – a great producer with an ear for just the right sort of sounds to match the evocative title and cover of the record! The whole thing's nicely chilled out, but never sleepy – warm keyboards illuminating the corners of the beat architecture in this ... 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 ... LP, Vinyl record album

A Stones Throw sci-fi masterpiece – one that was destined for greatness from conception, but we're still pretty well blown away by the final product! MC Doom and beatmaster Madlib couldn't be better suited for a collaboration. As much as we've dug the best of Doom's material of the last ... CD

A great little anthology of Atmosphere's seasonal Sad Clown Bad EP series from 2007-2008 – Summer, Fall, Winter & Spring – in a 2LP set! Slug & Ant were at peak creativity and peak activity at that point, especially considering how strong this stuff is and howwell it holds up ... LP, Vinyl record album

A peak era single by Notorious BIG! On "Juicy" Puffy does a nice job producing this signature 'reminiscing-now-that-I-made-it' hit, and the remix by Pete Rock is even better. "Unbelievable" is Biggie with amazing prodution, as always, by Premier. 12-inch, Vinyl record

All the samples used in DJ Woody's Flexicuts 3 and 4 – served up here on a special album of skip-proof scratch phrases! The whole thing takes us back to the sorts of DJ tools albums that emerged at the end of the 90s – lots of short vocal bits and sound snippets, all waiting to be ... LP, Vinyl record album

Hazy beatcraft steeped in Indian soundtrack style funk, strings and percussion from the indefatigable Madlib – Volume 3 in the increasingly adventurous and conceptual outings of the Beat Konducta! This time out Madlib, er, Beat Konducta is conducting beats, strings & things from India ... LP, Vinyl record album

A tight little EP by LA beatcraft maestro Knxwledge – showing some impressive stylistic range! The vocal track "Relapse" features Traffic on the rhymes, Knxwledge's production bringing in a laidback funky electro soul vibe for Traffic's gritty, though introspective LA streets-schoole ... 7-inch, Vinyl record

DJ Spinna's third and maybe best beat tape yet for the Redefinition label! It's head nodding beatcraft with raw soul power, but going deeper than that with some seriously deft use of samples and layered atmospheric elements. The beats clap and the bass bounces, keeping it in straight forward boom ... LP, Vinyl record album

The debut of Seattle indie hop hop luminaries Shabazz Palaces – one of the cooler hip hop albums of the late 00s/early teens for sure – and one of the least predictable creative comebacks of the era, too – being the contemporary vessel from Ishmael Butler, aka Butterfly from ... LP, Vinyl record album

A 4 X 7" testament to the longevity and timeless craft of 3 hip hop legends – MC Edo G and masterful producers DJ Premier & Pete Rock! It's a great little round up of old school style rap singles in a single package, pairing vocal versions with instrumentals, with 4 rock solid tracks ... 7-inch, Vinyl record

The essential early 90s classic by The Pharcyde, the group's high water mark, and one of the greatest hip hop albums of the era! Along with Del and the Souls Of Mischief, the Pharcyde were one of the few West Coast units to achieve any kind of widespread popularity using the uniquely loopy, ... LP, Vinyl record album

Untitled Unmastered, though masterful material from Kendrick Lamar – another great stride in his astonishing mid teens creative win streak– a low key and low stakes release compared to the huge platform for To Pimp A Butterfly, but damn, it sure does resonate with a similar haze of ... LP, Vinyl record album

The third album from Eric B & Rakim – absolute classic MC/DJ duo hip hop and maybe their most solid from beginning end, as impossible as that should've been after high bars they set with Paid In Full & Follow The Leader! By this point, Rakim was firmly established as one of hip hop's ... LP, Vinyl record album

The game changing Def Jam classic – and possibly the greatest album by the Beastie Boys – even though they'd grow up a whole lot after this! Profane party anthems galore, and the Beasties would distance themselves from much of the attitude of this album, making their career arc from ... LP, Vinyl record album

An impressive blend of jazz and hazy hip hop beatcraft from Kiefer – his best yet! We dug Kiefer's earlier Kickinit Alone a lot, too, but Happysad feels like a next level effort. Jazz piano really stands out as the leading light in the sound here – it's the real thing, too – ... LP, Vinyl record album

Pop culture baggage aside, this is some pretty mesmerizing stuff from Kanye West! Ye the album, if his persona hasn't turned you off by now, is a compelling effort from what we'll dub Kanye's "puzzle period" – this strange era of his recorded output that's a long time since his ... LP, Vinyl record album

A 7 inch edit of of the modern classic underground Detroit hip hop chronicle The Unseen – A Detroit Beat Tape – the documentary feature and stellar soundtrack featuring the work of Amp Fiddler, Waajeed, House Shoes, Big Tone, J Dilla and many more! Unseen Breaks takes beats from the doc ... 7-inch, Vinyl record

Slum Village's legendary Fantastic Vol 1 – one of the most sought-after hip hop albums of the era – with the most rugged-and-raw Jay Dee production on record! Honestly, we're left pretty close to speechless by how tightly these tracks hold up. This is indeed the template for so many ... LP, Vinyl record album

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. ... LP, Vinyl record album

Soul searching & personal storytelling from Dem Atlas, with resonating and relatable rhymes and big sounding boombap with funk, soul and rock accents – all prime aspects of Rhymesayers hip hop, but Dem Atlas brings a unique voice into the trademark style! Dem Atlas can sing and rhyme, ... LP, Vinyl record album

An excellent reissue of the Wild Style soundtrack that exactly reproduces the original single LP format! The album's nice and lean, with 12 great tracks – including "Wild Style Theme Rap 1" by Grandmaster Caz & Chris Stein, "Basketball Throwdown" by Cold Crush Bros ... LP, Vinyl record album

Kendrick Lamar takes wider creative left turns than ever before on To Pimp A Butterfly – with a funk steeped production style that filters tried-and-true P Funk influences through leftfield modern beatcraft styles, inspired by cats like Madlib to Thundercat, the latter of whom is an official ... LP, Vinyl record album

The oft-overlooked full length debut of Mobb Deep – a raw formative effort cut for 4th & Broadway that deserved better both then and now! As the title promises, this is a younger, but already streets-hardened Havoc & Prodigy – spitting unapologetically raw lyrics over benchmark ... LP, Vinyl record album

The classic debut album by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five – one of the pioneering groups in hip hop -history- not that we didn't need to tell you that! With prototypical party jams and the original conscious rap landmark "The Message", all over old school grooves laid ... LP, Vinyl record album

If Paul's Boutique was the Beasties' psychedelic hip hop Sgt Peppers, then Check Your Head is their White Album – a raw, stylistically sprawling, yet always connected batch of live instrumentation – backing rhymes that range from stream of consciousness to expertly written. Check Your ... LP, Vinyl record album