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Formed by Toronto DJ/ producers K.Cut, Sir Scratch, and Brooklyn MC/producer Large Professor, Main Source was one of the seminal groups of the East Coast’s hip-hop scene in 90’s. The original trio’s first and only album Breaking Atoms, was released in 1991 to critical and commercial acclaim, before Large Professor left the group. They recorded a second album, The Science, and even ran ads for it in The Source, before the group’s breakup led to its indefinite shelving. Until now! P-vine Records is proud to announce that we’re giving The Science its long deserved official release, almost three decades after it was initially set for release. This gem among gems of 90’s hip-hop, which had never seen so much as a bootleg release, is going to be released on CD, Analog vinyl (1xLP and 1xLP+7 Inch), and cassette tape. With tracks such as “Bootleg”, “Raise Up, “Time (Alternate Mix)”, and “Hella Vision”, taken from master tapes owned by the three original members, as well as well-loved classics like “Fakin’ The Funk” and “How My Man Went Down In The Game”, this record is sure to be killer. Large Professor’s flows are as smooth and lyrical as ever, and the sample-heavy beats that the producers lay down are supreme. Trust me when I say, that this is one record you’re not going to want to miss.

Deca’s streak of entrancing releases continues with Smoking Gun, an album that deftly blends psychedelic, raw production with sharp insights and clever lyricism. But it’s also much more than that. Smoking Gun is a sonic representation of an artist grappling with living in America, a country with a network of broken systems that leaves Deca questioning when and if it may turn around. To say this all makes for a compelling listen would be a vast understatement, because the New York City-based rapper/producer knows the key to presenting this material. He does it in a way that’s both refreshing and new, but never isolating or simply too oddball. There’s a left-field quality to his work, but Deca knows exactly what he’s doing. To prove that point, he enlisted fellow outside-the-box thinkers like Blu and Homeboy Sandman to appear on some of the album’s standout cuts. “Shelter,” which features Blu, is a jazzy, dusty piece of thoughtful hip-hop with crazy flows and lyrics to match. It’s so good you’ll wish these two would record an entire project together, and the same goes for Boy Sand’s appearance on “Dawn Wind.” Backed by Deca’s own low-key funky production, both he and Homeboy Sandman go verse for verse, each offering their own take on how to liberate yourself from the machine that aims to surveil and control both our outer world and inner peace. Other tracks embody a similar energy, including the justifiably cynical “St. America (feat. DJ Stan Solo)” and stunning “Tuning.” The latter track may just be the most impressive piece on Smoking Gun, thanks in part to the mind-melting beat-switch. It’s a thrilling musical journey that furthers Deca’s narrative about mankind’s ethical plight, and the problems we collectively face.

Elcamino Links With Dutch Producer Oh Jay To Cook Up Some Potent Product
2019 has been a banner year for Griselda Records. From recording their highly anticipated record for Eminem’s Shady
Records to Benny The Butcher signing a management deal with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, they have made some major moves.
However, the young shooter of the crew, Elcamino, has been largely ignored by the press and masses alike.
After dropping his self-titled debut at the top of last year, Camino appeared on almost every track on Benny’s A Friend of Ours
EP. He then followed that up with a strong sophomore effort titled Walking On Water. This year the baby-faced Buffalo rapper
has already dropped his third LP, Don’t Eat The Fruit, as well as the well-received Lot and Abraham EP, and he is mere weeks
away from unleashing Elcamino 2 on the world.
You would think that is enough to start getting on the media’s radar, but as to not leave anything to chance, he is dropping
yet another project on September 27, Where’s My Pyrex? This offering is entirely produced by Dutch beat architect Oh Jay.
While the name may not be instantly recognizable to North American fans, Oh Jay is well known in The Netherlands and
throughout Europe. The veteran DJ and producer has been a part of a number of Hip-Hop acts since as early as 1990. In
fact, he received a Gold record for his contributions to the Brainpower album Verschil Moet Er Zijn. Much more recently he
handled production duties on Milano Constantine’s criminally slept-on Attache Case full-length.
Let’s just say that what Elcamino and Oh Jay put together for Where’s My Pyrex? is about to have Griselda fiends
falling out worldwide.

Formed by Toronto DJ/ producers K.Cut, Sir Scratch, and Brooklyn MC/producer Large Professor, Main Source was one of the seminal groups of the East Coast’s hip-hop scene in 90’s. The original trio’s first and only album Breaking Atoms, was released in 1991 to critical and commercial acclaim, before Large Professor left the group. They recorded a second album, The Science, and even ran ads for it in The Source, before the group’s breakup led to its indefinite shelving. Until now! P-vine Records is proud to announce that we’re giving The Science its long deserved official release, almost three decades after it was initially set for release. This gem among gems of 90’s hip-hop, which had never seen so much as a bootleg release, is going to be released on CD, Analog vinyl (1xLP and 1xLP+7 Inch), and cassette tape. With tracks such as “Bootleg”, “Raise Up, “Time (Alternate Mix)”, and “Hella Vision”, taken from master tapes owned by the three original members, as well as well-loved classics like “Fakin’ The Funk” and “How My Man Went Down In The Game”, this record is sure to be killer. Large Professor’s flows are as smooth and lyrical as ever, and the sample-heavy beats that the producers lay down are supreme. Trust me when I say, that this is one record you’re not going to want to miss.

SWE in collaboration with Dust & Dope are excited to announce the release of legendary Nola rapper/producer Ice Mike's debut "True 2 Da Game!" originally released back in 1992 on cassette only. For the first time ever on CD and limited to only 300 copies.



The tracklist has been re-arranged and improved. An extra track has been added and the last 2 tracks of the original tracklist have been replaced. The love song "Good 2 U" and the shoutout outro "Atdasamtyme!" have been cut. Here's what Ice Mike had to say about "Good 2 U": "We were experimenting. I was the wrong artist to record it. Good song but, at the time I was recording all my ideas and back then i was trying to fill up the tape minutes as much as possible for the people with music in their mitsubishi trucks and somehow chose that one."



We have now included the hard hitting "Still A WestBank Thang" Introducing the Disturbed Young Hustlaz who later on in 1998 released the classic "Homiez N My Head". This track received radio play back in the days and was used at live shows but never actually made it to an album due to street beef.



"I Got Game" which originally was the B-Side of the "Doin' My Thang" 12" was added as well and then we have another previously unreleased gem called "Bad Attitude" which will surely please everyone. All tracks were taken from the OG Dats to give you top notch quality.



The vinyl headz will be taken care of as well of course, and the record will become available in early 2022 with pre-orders coming later on.

Born in Ukraine and raised in Brooklyn, Your Old Droog has become a key figure in the modern hip hop landscape. Fresh off a series of acclaimed projects, the master author is back with the new album "Space Bar".

Evoking a tavern located deep within the realms of a top secret galaxy, the collection features appearances by Lil Ugly Mane, billy woods, Tha God Fahim, and Nickelus F. Despite Droog's prolific output, each of his releases are meticulously crafted, and "Space Bar" is no exception.

"This album was conceptualized around the same time as 'It Wasn’t Even Close'," YOD explains. "Throughout the years, it has evolved and taken on many different forms and shapes." With beats by 88 Keys, Nicholas Craven, SadhuGold, and Elaquent, "Space Bar" finds Your Old Droog serving up intoxicating lyricism over spaced-out production, exploring unseen terrains.

The new album from Burgundy Blood including bonus joints and interludes! Herring and Burgundy Blood go back like prehistoric cave paintings and garden loungers, but this is the now people and what we have for you is the album of our times. It’s the shiznizzle, the goose that laid the golden egg, the spatchcock chicken, the wind beneath Everyone’s wings AND the cure for our current predicament. Not the Robert Smith, goth-pop Cure, stoopid, but the medicine we all Need to make us feel human again. These are unprecedented times my friends, but ‘The Fall of Man’ will guide you towards the light, then deviate past the light, back into the darkness, then perform an immaculate 3 point turn, eye up the target and foot down, as we proceed, and continue, to rock the mic….

On the really really reel, myself and the man like Matthew have been working together since the early 90’s. I used to spin for Nanosphere Complex, which comprised of Ash-Trai & Z-9, in the mid 90’s; I used to spin and jointly manage their group The Idiots in the late 90’s; the first release on Herring featured Rod Hotley/ly on the cult classic ‘Out To Lunch’ in 2001 and Herring released Burgundy Blood’s debut album ‘Suede Comet’ in 2014 and their debut EP ‘Cordial Stance’ in 2013. So without any cynicism or hi jinx of any kind, I can honestly say, this rare musibiz collaboration which has lasted a few years shy of 30 years, has been the most fulfilling I’ve had in the game [wipes tear from eye, then wipes ass, as writing this on the bog]. Ladies and germs, I give you, the very lovely, the extremely fluffy, the Benedict Cumbabubbly, Burgundy Blood and their brand new planet-saving album ‘The Fall Of Man’.

What happens when an American musician gets stuck in Munich during a worldwide pandemic? A specially concocted audible brew of Crow Bref is stewed to perfection: a collaboration between NorthernDraw & LeoLex, So fresh! You'll say, as it blends together a medley of diverse genres and guest features reaching from London, Berlin, Munich, Oakland and of course special spices from the Rose City.

Crow Bref Is a collaborative album between Portland native NorthernDraw & Munich rapper LeoLex that was recorded in München, Germany from 2020-2022, featuring a kaleidoscope of lo-fi beats and international boom bap rap.

When you hear the phrase, “everything’s fine,” we immediately understand it as emotional shorthand. In daily life, we depend on those perfunctory clichés (hope all is well, good to hear from you, etc.) to spare ourselves from the psychological unpacking that the truth requires. For that, there’s art. For that, there’s Everything’s Fine from Jean Grae and Quelle Chris, a jagged, acerbic odyssey that brilliantly riffs on this dystopian zeitgeist.
The thing is, anyone without a lobotomy and a toxic red hat understands that things are definitely not fine. The crush of modern anxiety, the late capitalist scramble to survive, and the brain warp rot of social media has left most of us half crazy.
“We have a dickhead for a president, and before our eyes, racial, religious, and sexual identity rights are moving backwards,” says New York’s (by way of Detroit) Quelle Chris. “Money is still a thing (I’m waiting for Star Trek life to start). There’s war, your kids may be sick, but if someone randomly asks ""how's it going?"" most people will say ""fine.""
Released on Mello Music Group, this album replaces that reflexive cliché with honest and eloquent tangents. It’s specific and subtle in its execution, achieving equilibrium between lackadaisical detours to smell the flowers and the frantic acknowledgement that there’s an inferno raging outside.
If the great political albums are often grim polemics, Everything’s Fine achieves its goals partially through withering satire. See the opening skit, a Prince Paul-style game show in which three contestants (including a futuristic robot) numbly croak that everyone’s fine despite flying high on every imaginable drug, crying themselves to sleep at night and being unemployed for a decade and a half despite having a Master’s in Fine Arts. I promise it’s much funnier than it reads off a screen.
“We’re both perfectionists in different ways,” Jean Grae describes their working relationship. “We both see huge pictures and concepts. So while listening, pay attention to the subtleties, the nuances, the dissonance and the harmony. The conversations and pieces of ourselves in the words, the flows, the beats. All of the open spaces. .Be uncomfortable and be okay with that. Be layered and be okay with that. Be angry and be okay.”
It’s rare to find a record where two rappers are so seamlessly intertwined. Yes, that’s partially a by-product of the teamwork that goes into being in any normal relationship where you wake, sleep, and dream together. But the album also bears the hallmarks of two singular creative geniuses trading bars, collaborating on beats, and combining fun with internal therapy and external observations. It features indelible cameos from Denmark Vessey, Grammy Award winner Anna Wise, Your Old Droog and Big Tone, as well as comics Ashok “Dap” Kondabolu, Michael Che, Nick Offerman, and Hannibal Burress.
In the streaming era, we tend to naturally overlook albums that require multiple listens. This is a record that will grab you on first listen, but it’s greatness only reveals itself through its careful construction, slick wordplay, and esoteric allusions.
On “Zero,” Jean artfully references Rachmaninoff and The Donner Party in the first two bars. With “Scoop A Dirt,” she name-drops the Babadook alongside the truth bomb that Friends was little more than a whitewashed rip off off Living Single. Meanwhile, Quelle balances boasts about bags of cash the size of Chris Christie with poignant existential laments. Somewhere in between, Jean will stealthily slip in jewels like, “it took me until my 30s just to put my finger on it, once you accept the knowledge/solace doesn’t follow/honest.”
It’s a record with only a couple antecedents: De La Soul is Dead, Organized Konfusion’s Stress: The Extinction Agenda, Blackstar, and maybe Cannibal Ox’s Cold Vein. Yet it doesn't sound remotely like any of them. It’s spontaneous and free, yet refined and meticulous. Even if everything is abject, it’s a reminder that music can transcend.
“This album is full of our minds. Our hearts. Our love for production, and words. flow and a lot of musicality,” Jeans says. “We don’t approach topics, issues, writing, or making beats in the same way. I’m harsh, blunt, quick, technical, I arrange classically and play more than I sample. I make joints with 80 tracks. I’m layers upon layers upon layers. Quelle is patient, he’s kinder. More loose and minimalistic. He makes sounds work together that shouldn’t fucking work. How? I have no idea. These are dreams within dreams.”

Limited to 500 copies worldwide The Good People, consisting of producer Saint and lyricist Emskee, hail from Brooklyn, New York. The dynamic duo brings a fresh take on the nostalgic elements of East Coast hip-hop. The Good People are coming off of two acclaimed albums, each showcasing their soulful instrumentals and flawless lyricism. In 2019, the duo dropped Good For Nuthin’ featuring Large Professor, Lilí Fame, Sadat X, Napoleon Da Legend, Cella Dwellas, G-Roc and Red Alert. They followed up with The Greater Good in 2021 featuring Lords of the Underground, Shabaam Sahdeeq, Craig G, Rasheed Chappell, DJ C-Reality, DJ Ace, Tone Spliff, Mikey D, Skanks the Rap Martyr, John Jigg$, DJ Eclipse, Rockwelz, Mouf and Nam Nitty. Now, The Good People bring you the new limited edition run of A Good Year. In 2022 they dropped a new single digitally every month which would become the tracklist for the new album. The new 12-track album features Dinco D, Charlie Brown, Makeba Mooncycle, John Jigg$ and Bobby J From Rockaway and is the perfect addition to their growing catalog.

Decay, the new album from New Jersey rapper Fatboi Sharif and producer Steel Tipped Dove, is an anomaly. In an era of microwave projects and email collaborations, the duo spent more than a year writing, recording and mixing Decay together in Dove’s Brooklyn studio. At a moment when many independent hip-hop projects are sonically predictable, easily categorized, and derivative, Decay is unapologetically experimental. Love it or hate it, it doesn’t sound like any other record out. Add to all that the fact that, bucking the trend of feature-laden rap records, there isn’t a single guest appearance on Decay. This album is a one-of-one, handcrafted from the ground up by two of the genre’s most esoteric artists, under the umbrella of indie rap’s preeminent record label.

In October 2020 Dove got in touch with Sharif after hearing Gandhi Loves Children, Sharif’s project with Roper Williams.

“I really liked the experimental writing he was doing. The whole vibe was different from the beat choices, the visuals, the lyrics — all unique,” Dove explains. The two of them linked up and hit it off immediately.

“In the first session we had made two songs that ended up being some of the best work on the album,” Sharif says, “and as we worked on it we knew we had something special that we weren't hearing anywhere else and we kept building on that”

Sharif found himself digging deeply in order to write, which he credits to Dove’s attention to detail and ability to push the boundaries sonically. “Dove’s production kept me in the zone to touch on stories that I never touched on in my past work, from personal situations tucked away that I thought I wasn't ready to unveil yet, to convos we just would have regarding the state of everything going on in the world and beyond”

For his part, Dove was consistently impressed by the young artists’ dedication, as well as his ear for the unusual. “It was almost like a challenge to him, if I had a beat that no one had chosen, or that had kinda strange timing, he would almost always choose that one”

This is Koyaanisqatsi via Rahway, New Jersey. A winding nighttime drive along the narrow, rutted paths of a damaged psyche, dead deer watching from the roadside. Decay is a candlelit spades game in the parlor of a dilapidated mansion, eviction papers pasted atop one another on the front door. A black Woodstock in the wetlands, blotter acid in the headband, as ELUCID might say. Together, Sharif and Dove just flipped on the power to a carousel in the middle of an abandoned amusement park, and every horse has a rider, spinning and spinning in the dark

“Sometimes in life, we feel held down, tested and sought after by an unseen force that we can’t fully explain,” Sharif muses, “this album is a trip into the foundation of the dysfunction that surrounds us all in one way or another”

Acclaimed producer, songwriter, and vocalist Shafiq Husayn has been a vital force on the Los Angeles music scene for decades. A member of trendsetting trio Sa-Ra Creative Partners, Shafiq has produced tracks for a staggering spectrum of talent, including Erykah Badu, Ty Dolla $ign, Pharoahe Monch, Robert Glasper, Ice T, Bilal, Jurassic 5, and many more. Over the last few years, the Grammy winner has also become the leader of The Dove Society, an expansive L.A. musical collective. Now, Shafiq Husayn and The Dove Society are debuting the new album So Gold, an eclectic masterpiece emerging from sessions Shafiq describes as “pure love, magic, inspiration!” A worthy follow-up to Shafiq’s acclaimed 2018 opus The Loop, the album features contributions from Anderson .Paak, Syd (of The Internet), Peyton, Thurz, Jimetta Rose, Speed Walton, and many more. Bursting with the kinetic energy of vibrant creative collaboration, the album synthesizes disparate styles into a cohesive tapestry of lush cosmic soul. “It’s new age everything and above,” Shafiq explains. “Focused and direct in the songwriting and production, but still adventurous and refreshing.”

Formed by Toronto DJ/ producers K.Cut, Sir Scratch, and Brooklyn MC/producer Large Professor, Main Source was one of the seminal groups of the East Coast’s hip-hop scene in 90’s. The original trio’s first and only album Breaking Atoms, was released in 1991 to critical and commercial acclaim, before Large Professor left the group. They recorded a second album, The Science, and even ran ads for it in The Source, before the group’s breakup led to its indefinite shelving. Until now! P-vine Records is proud to announce that we’re giving The Science its long deserved official release, almost three decades after it was initially set for release. This gem among gems of 90’s hip-hop, which had never seen so much as a bootleg release, is going to be released on CD, Analog vinyl (1xLP and 1xLP+7 Inch), and cassette tape. With tracks such as “Bootleg”, “Raise Up, “Time (Alternate Mix)”, and “Hella Vision”, taken from master tapes owned by the three original members, as well as well-loved classics like “Fakin’ The Funk” and “How My Man Went Down In The Game”, this record is sure to be killer. Large Professor’s flows are as smooth and lyrical as ever, and the sample-heavy beats that the producers lay down are supreme. Trust me when I say, that this is one record you’re not going to want to miss.

Strictly limited edition of 100 copies on green coloured cassette.

Originally released in 1996 on Lethal Records, the entire album "Sex, Props, Cream ... And The Drama In Between" by Long Island's Punk Barbarians finally gets a proper re-release on 2LP and cassette. The original 1LP missed a few tracks off the album, so this is actually the very first time you can hear the full release on your turntable.

In November 1996, The Source gave 3 and a half mic's and here's what Miles Marshall Lewis wrote about the Punk Barbarians debut album: "It seems like recently in rap, everybody's album is based on one of these three concepts, but they're not dealing with the reality of the drama in between," says Doozer mid album, discussing Sex, Props, Cream & The Drama In Between title of his Punk Barbairan crew's debut album. The PBs - Sunny Cheeba, Bam Bam, Doozer and Renegade (aka Shine On) - arrive to a ravaged hip-hop landscape with high aspirations: detailing the drama in between libido, recognition and economics could fill 14 albums, much less the 14 tracks on Sex, Prop, Cream - in essence merely struggle - is, after all, the basis of life itself.
With their work cut out for them, the Punk Barbarians still manage to leave a strong mark. Their lively interplay - with an engaging reminiscent of an Onyx or Lost Boyz - sounds honest, like a crew that's been together since the sandboxes of their native Long Island. The fousome bounce off each other like perfectly arranged quadraphonic accoustics, particularly with thepulsing "Blast Off" and the Spanish-guitar textured "Sweets". Jazzy production includes snippets of vibe and harp that echo masters like Lionel Hampton and Alice Coltrane, while simultaneously evoking the aesthetic feel of The Low End Theory. Some tracks - "The Struggle" (which features Donald Byrd) and "You Don't Know" - ride the line between simple influence and imitation of Tribe's jazz-rap masterpice, but with an intuitive understanding rather than mere bastardization.
"Hooptie Car" shins as a diamond in the rough, dreamily escapist like the Pharcyde's "Passing Me By". As Sunny and Doozer reference Grce Jones and Donna Summer - "Pull up to my bumper," "Toot toot, ah, beep beep" - in mid-rhyme, the irony of this track's dopeness sets in. Because while the Punk Barbarians allude to "Malcolm, Martin and Marcus and W.E.B." on "Rest In Peace" and speak of how their rhymes are "killing you like daily intakes of swine," on "Magic," their real flavor is best presented on frivolous cut like "Hooptie Car."
Sex, Props, Cream & The Drama In Between remains an excellent starting point for the PB quartet, and unless their name erects an Alkaholis-like stumbling block, they should have time to display an interesting evolution.

SOURCED FROM THE ORIGINAL MASTER TAPES AND PRESSED ON MOFI SUPERVINYL
1/2" / 30 IPS analogue master to DSD 256 to analogue console to lathe



Run-D.M.C.'s Raising Hell remains the turning point at which hip-hop crashed through mainstream barriers and never left. Anchored by the crossover smash "Walk This Way," the 1986 blockbuster still sounds like a revolution unfolding in real time. It has everything – hard-rock riffs, turntable scratching, itchy rhythms, hit singles – not the least of which are the trio's invigorating raps and inseparable chemistry. And now it's the first rap record afforded audiophile treatment, courtesy of Mobile Fidelity.

Sourced from the original master tapes and pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl, the reissue label's numbered-edition 180g 33RPM SuperVinyl LP elevates Raising Hell to sonic heights on par with its musical and cultural significance. Ranked the 123rd Greatest Album of All Time by Rolling Stone, 43rd on Pitchfork's Greatest Albums of the 1980s, one of the Top 100 Albums of All Time by TIME – and included on "Best of" lists by Spin, Paste, XXL, Entertainment Weekly, and basically every other significant media outlet – the triple-platinum effort rocks the house.

Benefitting from the ultra-low noise floor and groove definition of SuperVinyl, Raising Hell unleashes a torrent of massive dynamics and tsunami of frequency-plumbing details underlined by Rick Rubin's taut, crisp, albeit raw and streetwise production. Just as the Queens-based group both defined what hip-hop could represent – and displayed just how big it could get – Rubin's work melded ear-worm hooks, savvy drum loops, metal-leaning guitars, and, of course, Run and D.M.C.'s cross-fire lyrical interplay into watertight frameworks bursting with ideas, tones, samples, and beats. Heard anew on Mobile Fidelity vinyl, Raising Hell is in every regard the aural equivalent of a direct-to-console 1970s classic. And it sounds as fresh as hell.

As for the music, it ranks among the most influential, inventive, and invigorating ever released – rap or otherwise. Vanguard artists such as Ice-T, Eminem, Jay-Z, and Public Enemy's Chuck D – who declared it his all-time favorite and "the first record that made me realize this was an album-oriented genre" – have testified on behalf of its brilliance. And never mind the presence of the Top 5 single "Walk This Way," whose power helped make Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry relevant for the first time in nearly a decade – and literally put Run-D.M.C. in bedrooms ranging from the Bronx to Bartlett to Bad Axe.

Look instead to the rest of the entirely filler-free set, be it the corkscrew turns, slippery wordplay, and "My Sharona"-meets-"Mickey" mixology of the boisterous "It's Tricky," the fat-but-minimized bass grooves and warped turntable wobble of the hysterical "You Be Illin'," chimes-accented inertia and boombox-on- shoulder thunder of the now-iconic "Peter Piper," or voice-as-percussion attack of the funky "Is It Live." With Raising Hell, the answer to the question is always affirmative – a sensation bolstered by the fact the group always had something to say.

The definition of Golden Age Hip-Hop in every way, Run-D.M.C. avoids the negativity and misogyny that later plagued the style, spinning assertive tales about identity (the biographical and culture-changing "My Adidas"), work ethics ("Perfection"), and, most notably, pride (the Harriet Tubman- and Malcom X.-referencing "Proud to Be Black"). Pavement-packed inner cities, tree-lined suburbs, and cornfield-rimmed rural areas would never again be the same. And rocking a rhyme that's right on time would become trickier than ever.

Decay, the new album from New Jersey rapper Fatboi Sharif and producer Steel Tipped Dove, is an anomaly. In an era of microwave projects and email collaborations, the duo spent more than a year writing, recording and mixing Decay together in Dove’s Brooklyn studio. At a moment when many independent hip-hop projects are sonically predictable, easily categorized, and derivative, Decay is unapologetically experimental. Love it or hate it, it doesn’t sound like any other record out. Add to all that the fact that, bucking the trend of feature-laden rap records, there isn’t a single guest appearance on Decay. This album is a one-of-one, handcrafted from the ground up by two of the genre’s most esoteric artists, under the umbrella of indie rap’s preeminent record label.

In October 2020 Dove got in touch with Sharif after hearing Gandhi Loves Children, Sharif’s project with Roper Williams.

“I really liked the experimental writing he was doing. The whole vibe was different from the beat choices, the visuals, the lyrics — all unique,” Dove explains. The two of them linked up and hit it off immediately.

“In the first session we had made two songs that ended up being some of the best work on the album,” Sharif says, “and as we worked on it we knew we had something special that we weren't hearing anywhere else and we kept building on that”

Sharif found himself digging deeply in order to write, which he credits to Dove’s attention to detail and ability to push the boundaries sonically. “Dove’s production kept me in the zone to touch on stories that I never touched on in my past work, from personal situations tucked away that I thought I wasn't ready to unveil yet, to convos we just would have regarding the state of everything going on in the world and beyond”

For his part, Dove was consistently impressed by the young artists’ dedication, as well as his ear for the unusual. “It was almost like a challenge to him, if I had a beat that no one had chosen, or that had kinda strange timing, he would almost always choose that one”

This is Koyaanisqatsi via Rahway, New Jersey. A winding nighttime drive along the narrow, rutted paths of a damaged psyche, dead deer watching from the roadside. Decay is a candlelit spades game in the parlor of a dilapidated mansion, eviction papers pasted atop one another on the front door. A black Woodstock in the wetlands, blotter acid in the headband, as ELUCID might say. Together, Sharif and Dove just flipped on the power to a carousel in the middle of an abandoned amusement park, and every horse has a rider, spinning and spinning in the dark

“Sometimes in life, we feel held down, tested and sought after by an unseen force that we can’t fully explain,” Sharif muses, “this album is a trip into the foundation of the dysfunction that surrounds us all in one way or another”

Termanology has been creating classic streetwise boom-bap hip-hop since the late 90s. One of the most prevalent figures of
the worldwide underground rap scene, Termanology has earned widespread critical praise and garnered a cult-like following
through his music, and has performed with acclaimed legends such as Kool G. Rap, Inspectah Deck, Ghostface Killah, and DJ
Premier, and is a frequent collaborator with his ‘Showoff Radio’ (on Sirius XM Radio’s Shade 45) co-host DJ Statik Selektah. He
has released over 30 highly-regarded albums across various formats, while his own imprint ST Records has produced records
for fellow underground-denizens like Shortfyuz, Ea$y Money, and Superstah Snuk.
Dame Grease, an NYC native, first made waves when he produced several songs on The Lox's Bad Boy Records debut album,
Money, Power & Respect, including the hit “We'll Always Love Big Poppa” featuring Puff Daddy and Faith Evans. He followed
that with work on Mase's quadruple platinum album Harlem World and on DMX's debut It's Dark and Hell Is Hot, on which
he produced thirteen of its nineteen tracks. The 2000s saw Dame establishing his own label, Vacant Lot, and making hits
for the likes of LL Cool J, Slick Rick, Ol' Dirty Bastard, T.I., Cam’Ron, Juelz Santana, Curren$y, French Montana, Riff Raff
and many more.
The two legends have collaborated on a full length album, Set in Stone, hitting the streets on Sept 13th 2019.
"Term and myself hooked up on the "Its Quiet" record (from Term’s More Politics album) a couple years back & that lead us to
creating Set In Stone. We wanted to make records that our fan base would respect, and have enough of a worldwide vibe for
the universe to appreciate," explains Dame Grease.
“The chemistry was just great. So one day while we were both on tour with The Beatnuts, Dame gave me the first batch of
beats and I began writing the album” says Termanology. “It was such a pleasure working with Dame- he makes so many
different styles of beats, I was never put in a box. I was able to just go wherever the beat took me. I really wanted to try
something different with this album. This is my most diverse project. Every song is different. I got boom bap joints, lyrical joints,
R&B records, political records, even a song about fighting alcoholism. There is something for everyone on this project.”

Philadelphia emcee and OBH capo Dark Lo and Harlem based producer
V Don have joined forces once again on their new collaborative album “Timeless”.
Frequent collaborators (“The Message”, “They Killed Pookie”, “Alleyway Piss” and
“Blow 3”) “Timeless” is their first full-length project together, and this eleven (11)
song soundtrack to the streets leaves fans of the duo wanting more. V Don’s dark
and gritty production is the perfect background for Dark Lo’s tales of the streets,
violence and crime. “Timeless” includes features from the legendary Roc Marciano,
Griselda artist Benny the Butcher, and frequent V Don collaborator, Eto.
V Don has been a force on the New York rap scene for several years and has
worked with almost everyone in the game. His production of “Ghetto Symphony”
for A$AP Rocky brought V Don’s sounds to every corner of the country and
he hasn’t looked back since. V Don is coming off of a hot 2018 campaign
after releasing EP’s with Willie the Kid, Adonis, and his very own project “The Bone
Collector.” Dark Lo is best known for his work alongside AR-AB and the Philly hip
hop scene. His distinctive voice and style is reminiscent of classic Philly rap and he
brings his energy on each track on the new album. Dark Lo has also had a strong
2018 after dropping his anticipated album “The Testimony.”

Imagine if you could put together a dream line-up of MCs and producers from all four corners of the rap world?

That’s what artist and illustrator Gangster Doodles set out to do when he put together a stellar collection of tracks by the rappers and talent that inspire his work.

The all-star line-up features everyone from hotly-tipped emerging producers like Eets, Caleb Stone, Maze Mountain and LoVibe next to underground perennials like Onra, Mndsgn and Jon Wayne all the way up to top flight producer Kaytranada and established rap vets like Madlib, Oh No, Blu and Defari.

This second collaboration between All City Records and Gangster Doodles is a jam-packed sonic adventure featuring 27 killer tracks from some of the finest creators out there.

Doodles had the idea for a comp two years ago. Hyped after partnering with All City for Knxwledge’s "Wraptaypes" project back in 2015, they initially set out to put together an EP but as the tracks kept coming in it exploded into the sprawling double LP of low-slung grooves and bangers from the best in the business.

With everyone on the record being a friend or friend of a friend, the comp just kept growing as GD went to work with the hustle he has learned from penning his post-it sketches day in day out for the last decade.

Word spread fast and soon he was being sent beats from all over, even reaching behind the prison walls of Bergen County Jail, New Jersey and securing a track from former Dipset affiliate Max B.

The last few years have been busy for Marlon "Gangster Doodles" Sassy. He released his acclaimed Gangster Doodles (The Book) alongside an ever-expanding array of prints, original works, apparel and exhibitions across the globe. Topping that off with animation projects, a graphic novel in the works and now, with this LP titled " Gang$ter Music Vol 1", he is about to debut his first ever music compilation.

He says himself: “Every time a new track came in it was like running down the stairs on Christmas morning to open a present. What started as a slow trickle of work coming in soon turned into a tsunami with some of my heroes like Onra, House Shoes, Blu, Jeremiah Jae joining up with young guns Kojaque, Kean Kavanagh, Dream Panther and others to beef up the record”

Hip-hop giants Cypress Hill have announced new album 'Elephants On Acid'.

The project finds producer DJ Muggs returning to helm the project, the first full length he has worked on with the group for over a decade.

Out on September 28th, the rap odyssey contains 21 tracks, moving from expansive pieces to short interludes, beat workouts and more.

“Anything can happen when Muggs, B-Real, and myself get together to record,” says Sen Dog. “We were kids when we first got together. We’ve grown up as men now, but the chemistry is still the same. When we first came out in the nineties, we sounded like nobody else; we sounded like ourselves. This is another continuation”.

B-Real adds: “The album is both a trip back to the roots and an escape into a completely new world”.

Shane Christakis, aka Shane Sounds (name bestowed upon him by the bay area legend DJ Fresh), is primed to explode. The up and coming producer/DJ from the California Bay Area, has been a devout disciple of the golden era of hip hop through and through. Honoring the craft and the ones that came before him through undeniably infectious beats that brace the weight of his choice samples and original layers. Getting his chops up through his younger days, Shane spent his time developing instrumental obstacle courses for local emcees to dance around including Gift Of Gab (Blackalicious),Spills (ny) Kinetic Source (Ozomatli) and Cashus King (LA.) By the age of 21 Shane threw himself into the ring of the Stones Throw beat making contest. To only the surprise of himself, Shane walked away twice as a weekly winner of the battles. After a small hiatus due to the birth of his daughter Clementine, Shane jumped back on the pads and began crafting the instrumentals for what would become Apostolos.

With the instrumentals in flux Shane reached out via Instagram to an upcoming emcee out of the Duck Down Camp, a prodigy of the late, great Sean Price, Rim. After chatting back and forth for a small time, making sure Rim knew Shane was in this project for the right reasons, Rim jumped on board and even helped land other up and coming NY emcees like Eddie Kaine & Spills. From there everything snowballed. One feature led to another and soon enough the album was taking shape with features from not only Rim and Eddie Kaine, but hip hop heroes such as Masta Ace, Planet Asia, A.G. of D.I.T.C. and Geechi Suede. With a few more instrumentals and spaces to fill Shane reached out to long-time bay area engineer/producer Deegan Mack Adams to help with the mixing and mastering and overall release of the project.

Apostolos gets its namesake and back cover imagery from Shane Sounds' great great Grandfather, Apostolos Christakis who immigrated to the United States from Greece at the turn of the 20th century. The documents you see on the back cover are Apostolos’s army registration documents only a week after coming to the United States. We pay our respects to the ones who came before us and allowed us to be here to create this project. Salute!

Limited first pressing, allotments necessary, more to be pressed, date tba / The tragic passing of Gift of Gab has lead to an outpouring of love and support from fans across the globe. As one half of trailblazing Bay Area duo Blackalicious, Gift Of Gab was at the forefront of the independent hip-hop movement that revitalized the West Coast scene in the late 1990s and early 2000s. His complex, tongue-twisting lyrical acrobatics headlined a string of classic Blackalicious albums, which featured iconic artists like Jurassic 5, Gil Scott-Heron, Rage Against The Machine, Questlove, George Clinton, DJ Shadow, and more. In recent years, Gab endured kidney failure, dialysis, and an emergency transplant, but remained resilient, finding empowerment in music. Recorded in the midst of these health struggles, the new album "Finding Inspiration Somehow" was already complete and set for release upon his death, and will now become the first posthumous collection from Gift Of Gab. An impressive showcase from one of the great wordsmiths in rap history, "Finding Inspiration Somehow" is a testament to perseverance, and a fitting tribute to an artist who will never be forgotten.

“This is me at my most imaginative, freakiest, and yet still most grounded and introspective,” says Japanese American rapper/actor Lyrics Born not only about his new album Vision Board, but also his “self” and his existence. “I feel like a new man! I’m healthier physically, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally.” The lead single and video “Diamond Door” is a pop/rap banger that lands you with an infectious barb and keeps you hooked for days, and is a thinly-veiled tribute to a particular style of female appreciation, but it can also be taken as a welcome mat to the new era of Lyrics Born. The accompanying video which shows Lyrics Born in his current physical form - svelte, stylish and with a confident swagger - reinforces this next chapter in his life. 60 pounds lighter, he lost the weight during the pandemic when he knew he needed to make a change. “Touring was becoming harder, and I was having all these weird health problems, but nothing that anybody could put their finger on,” he explains “My anxiety was high. I was not sleeping well. I was on the verge of really bad health.” And this improvement brought more confidence which shows in his new album. Vision Board is a focused affair that found him stretching his creativity farther and challenging himself to write in a way he’s never written before. Recorded primarily in New Orleans and produced by Rob Mercurio of Galactic (who also produced 2015’s Real People and 2018’s Quite a Life), it posited him in a new environment that helped his creative juices flow even more fluidly. “There’s nothing like recording in the Crescent City. It just gets in your blood, and the results are always funky and wild.” “This is about as psychedelic as I’ve ever been,” LB says. “I’m so proud of this album. I’m in a different space. The world is in a different space, and I wanted to celebrate that, loosen up and really create some imagery and share some emotion that I never have. I was listening to a lot of Shuggie Otis; a lot of obscure psychedelic soul and later Temptations,” he explained. “This is like if Alice in Wonderland was Japanese.” Vision Board was also inspired by another Bay Area rap luminary, although one who’s no longer with us - Gift of Gab. The dexterous Blackalicious MC and fellow Quannum Projects alum had a profound effect on Lyrics Born’s life, both creatively and philosophically. “I asked myself on some of these songs: ‘How would Gab approach them?’” he said. “I’d play with certain cadences, certain styles; I tried to stretch stylistically, lyrically and vocally on every single song. None of the patterns are the same.” Lyrics Born’s vulnerability shines through on the nine-track effort, something he’s not ashamed to admit (nor should he be). At one point during the pandemic, he was losing one friend, peer or family member every other week - from Zumbi of Zion I to Gift of Gab to Digital Underground’s Shock G. While many of the songs are deeply introspective, he had to “write some fun shit,” too. Celebratory horns, uptempo rhythms and fiery bars pepper the project from start to finish, and truly encapsulate Lyrics Born’s evolution of not just a groundbreaking Asian-American MC but also a human being. As the only Asian-American MC to release 10 studio albums, the first Asian-American to play major music festivals like Coachella and Lollapalooza and the first Asian-American to release a greatest hits compilation, Lyrics Born has been breaking barriers his entire life - and he’s not going to stop anytime soon. From the bombastic and tribal “I’m the Best Rapper in the World” with its self-winking boastfulness to the playful scat of “Bang Bang Bang” that slinks like an outtake from West Side Story, to the smooth and seductive “Who's The Best? (Dear Young LB)," to the psychedelic and swoony ”Alligator Boots” with it dreamy “Walk on the Wildside”-esque reverby sway, Vision Board sees Lyrics Born tackling different tones, textures and genres without fear and making them completely his own. It's an eclectic body of work that boasts more synths, more psychedelia and is generally more abstract.

If it's really a post-genre world, why does everything sound the same? The two halves of Tampa rap duo They Hate Change_Dre (he/him) and Vonne (they/them)_first came together in front of the apartment complex where they both lived as teens. Dre had just moved down from Rochester, NY; Vonne was trying to sell him bad weed. It was clear from the start that the two listen to music differently from most people_they're sonic omnivores, obsessive deep-divers, lovers of rare and radical sounds. Starting as kids trawling the internet for tracks, they've been collecting music from around the world and across the decades, amassing a shared sonic knowledge so deep that "encyclopedic" barely begins to cover it _ not just the East Coast hip-hop that Dre grew up on, or the hyperlocal bass-music variants like jook (the Gulf Coast's twerkably raunchy answer to house) and crank (think "Miami bass meets Nola bounce"), but also drum `n' bass, Chicago footwork, post-punk, prog (they're, like, seriously into prog), grime, krautrock, emo, and basically any genre on the map. Once they graduated to DJs on the Tampa DIY scene _ which includes everything from punk rock house parties to the black "teen nights" that pop up in rec centers and ballrooms _ they figured out how to pull all these disparate sounds together into a cohesive style. More importantly, they figured out how to make it something people will actually move to. When they made the transition to rapping and making beats, they brought that pleasure-seeking approach to sonic experimentation with them. "With this album, Vonne says, "it's really like, okay, you know how you talk about the internet breaking down borders? Here's what that actually sounds like. It's not just a hip-hop record with a couple more weird sounds. You want homegrown DIY? This is a record that was written, produced, and recorded in a 150-squarefoot bedroom from the least cool city you could think of." Finally, New is what a truly post-genre musical landscape is supposed to be: building deep connections that transcend outdated distinctions between them, spilling over with the joy of exploration and possibility, and daring other artists to think broader, go deeper, take bigger risks. Let the rest of them keep playing by the old rules_They Hate Change will keep changing the game.

Celebrate the ten-year anniversary of Dessa's classic Parts of Speech album with this limited-edition vinyl reissue, back in stock for the first time in years. Includes metallic silver vinyl and new gatefold packaging with additional artwork and a poster insert. Singer, rapper, and writer Dessa has made a career of bucking genres and defying expectations—her résumé as a musician includes performances at Lollapalooza and Glastonbury, co-compositions for 100-voice choir, performances with the Minnesota Orchestra, and top-200 entries on the Billboard charts. She contributed to the #1 album The Hamilton Mixtape and the RBG documentary; her track, “Congratulations,” has notched over 20 million streams. As a writer, she’s been published by The New York Times and National Geographic Traveler, broadcast by Minnesota Public Radio, and published a memoir-in-essays (My Own Devices, 2018) in addition to two literary collections. As a speaker, Dessa has delivered keynote speeches and presentations on art, science, and entrepreneurship; guest lectures at universities and colleges across the US; and a TED Talk about her science experiment on how to fall out of love. She’s also the host of Deeply Human, a podcast created by the BBC and American Public Media. Dessa has been covered by Pitchfork, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal amongst others. The LA Times says she “sounds like no one else.” NPR’s All Songs Considered calls her “a national treasure.” On the stage and on the page, Dessa’s style is defined by ferocity, wit, tenderness, and candor.

Acclaimed producer, songwriter, and vocalist Shafiq Husayn has been a vital force on the Los Angeles music scene for decades. A member of trendsetting trio Sa-Ra Creative Partners, Shafiq has produced tracks for a staggering spectrum of talent, including Erykah Badu, Ty Dolla $ign, Pharoahe Monch, Robert Glasper, Ice T, Bilal, Jurassic 5, and many more. Over the last few years, the Grammy winner has also become the leader of The Dove Society, an expansive L.A. musical collective. Now, Shafiq Husayn and The Dove Society are debuting the new album So Gold, an eclectic masterpiece emerging from sessions Shafiq describes as “pure love, magic, inspiration!” A worthy follow-up to Shafiq’s acclaimed 2018 opus The Loop, the album features contributions from Anderson .Paak, Syd (of The Internet), Peyton, Thurz, Jimetta Rose, Speed Walton, and many more. Bursting with the kinetic energy of vibrant creative collaboration, the album synthesizes disparate styles into a cohesive tapestry of lush cosmic soul. “It’s new age everything and above,” Shafiq explains. “Focused and direct in the songwriting and production, but still adventurous and refreshing.”

GoodFelons Records present Pyrex Picasso by Benny The Butcher, featuring legendary appearances from Conway, ElCamino & Rick Hyde and production handled by Rare Scrilla and Chop La Rok, this is a throwback to TT3/Plugs I Met-era Benny. Pitchfork had this to say about the album: "The Griselda rapper’s latest album accentuates many of his strengths, highlights no unknown weaknesses, and is peppered with some of the finest tracks of what will be remembered as a golden era for The Butcher....Benny sounds triumphant, tossing out a smackdown to his haters like it’s nothing at all."

RJ’s career took off while performing under the name Reign Man. He was selected as a finalist for MTV’s Making The Band 2 by P Diddy, and six months later won the MTV MC Battle, landing him a deal with Def Jam Records. Due to unexpected events involving the firing of then Def Jam President, Kevin Liles, Reign Man’s music was unfortunately shelved. Back in Philly, Reign Man linked with Reed Dollaz and joined Top Klass, the city’s largest independent label. He was an integral part of the battle rap DVD era and had a cult following on the internet. His last battle was in 2015 where he won against Urls Ty Law. Reign Man decided to drop the stage name and start recording music under his real name - RJ Payne. He released seven albums in 2017 under Educated Ignorance Music Group. Four albums were tributes to the late rappers, Big L, Big Pun, Prodigy of Mobb Deep, and Sean Price with all of the beats completely reproduced by PA Dre. He has continued on his relentless grind dropping dope project after dope project, and once again teams with Memphis born/Erie raised producer PA Dre for Beautiful Payne 4. These days, the rapper has been leaning toward more songwriting than battle bars through his Beautiful Payne EPs. BP4 sheds more light on Payne's personal life and musical journey. From honoring his late mother on "Momma I Made It" to fighting the thought of having a child in today's world on "The Curse," the indie artist offers transparency over light-hearted soulful production that gives him room to speak, but keeps listeners nodding their heads. In just nine tracks and two artist features (King Iso and Buffalo's own L Biz), you're taken on a wild ride through elaborate storytelling with countless gems to take heed of. The project allows Payne's words to resonate until the very end. It's safe to say that RJ Payne and PA Dre have created an undeniable experience for all of us to enjoy.

HFC is now finally mastered and commercially available for the first time, marking the first-ever proper solo releases for Blu.

The legendary Ultramagnetic MC touches down in London for a one-away collab with We Are The Horsemen, featuring the one and only Kaidi Tatham.

What you sayin’, Kool Keith...? Enter your spaceship for a transatlantic meeting of minds as the legendary Kool Keith links up with We Are The Horsemen (Outernational Sounds head honcho Harvinder Singh Nagi and producer Sub One) and the great Kaidi Tatham for a future-jazz flavoured trip through the great MC’s London adventures.

Kool Keith needs no introduction to hip-hop heads worldwide. As one of the greatest MCs ever to touch the mic, Keith has never stopped innovating and progressing. From his days in the seminal 1980s Bronx unit Ultramagnetic MCs, through his pioneering development of new conceptual characters and styles in the 1990s (Big Willie Smith, Dr. Octagon, Dr. Dooom, Black Elvis), to his continuous run of radically independent recordings in the 2000s and beyond, Kool Keith defines rap longevity and artistic originality. No one else in hip hop has a comparable record of continuous reinvention, conceptual boldness, and stylistic panache.

And after four decades in rap, Keith is still one of the hardest working rappers in the game, perpetually seeking new sounds to spit on and new collaborators from across the musical spectrum. Fresh off the acclaim for his new Black Elvis 2 release, the protean MC has touched down on Outernational Sounds for a unique collab with We Are The Horsemen and Kaidi Tatham. ‘London Is The Place’ finds Keith riding the Horsemen’s atmospheric, break-toughened riddim and reaching back in time to drop kaleidoscopic, stream-of-consciousness impressions of the Ultramagnetic MCs infamous 1989 tour, before flashing forward to the present in order to namecheck Honest Jons Records, saxophone star Nubiya Garcia and master keyboardist and broken beat pioneer Kaidi Tatham, who contributes trademark jazz keys and bruk steez to the AA side remix. The 12” is closed out by a third version, the Horsemen’s own Kool Jazz Mix, bringing see- sawing organ stabs and a neck-snapping Ultra-sampling hook.

Kool Keith, Kaidi Tatham and We Are The Horsemen, taking it higher and overcoming the pressure with ‘music so progressive’, to quote Keith himself! Limited press – don’t sleep on this one!!'

Brand new album

All songs written by Oddisee.
Appearances written by respective feature guests.

All songs produced by Oddisee.
"Bartenders" co-produced by Dunc.
Additional instrumentation by
Ralph Real (keys), Dennis Turner (bass),
Olivier St. Louis & Saint Ezekiel (guitar)
Jon Laine (drums)
Fredeka, Felix Herbst, Johan Lenox & Don Carn (strings)

Mixed by Oddisee
Mastered by Hans-Philipp Graf, HP Mastering

Artwork & Design by Arthur Banach

Outer Note Label 2023

Comes in a gatefold cover.

All songs written by Oddisee.
Appearances written by respective feature guests.

All songs produced by Oddisee.
"Bartenders" co-produced by Dunc.
Additional instrumentation by
Ralph Real (keys), Dennis Turner (bass),
Olivier St. Louis & Saint Ezekiel (guitar)
Jon Laine (drums)
Fredeka, Felix Herbst, Johan Lenox & Don Carn (strings)

Mixed by Oddisee
Mastered by Hans-Philipp Graf, HP Mastering

Artwork & Design by Arthur Banach

Outer Note Label 2023

Okayplayer is quoted as saying "Sleep Sinatra delivers sharp observations across Brainstormz" and they were correct. The flow appears effortless, yet complicated. The beats are stellar. The features are heavy. As of this writing this album has surpassed 50,000 streams and seems to be a favorite among Sleep Sinatra fans. This album is rap music at its finest; banger from start to end.

Limited to 400 copies, exclusively available at HHV.
Comes with gatefold cover and the album on vinyl and additionally a Digipak CD.

All songs written by Oddisee.
Appearances written by respective feature guests.

All songs produced by Oddisee.
"Bartenders" co-produced by Dunc.
Additional instrumentation by
Ralph Real (keys), Dennis Turner (bass),
Olivier St. Louis & Saint Ezekiel (guitar)
Jon Laine (drums)
Fredeka, Felix Herbst, Johan Lenox & Don Carn (strings)

Mixed by Oddisee
Mastered by Hans-Philipp Graf, HP Mastering
Artwork & Design by Arthur Banach
Outer Note Label 2023

McKinley Dixon calls the late Toni Morrison the greatest rapper of all time; and the way he tackles topics like survival, violence, and religion within the expansive landscape of the Black experience, evokes her novels. It is from the title of Morrison’s Beloved trilogy where he finds the title of his new album with City Slang Records out June 2: Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? Musically, his household was defined by “artists whose first name was Mary,” including Mary J. Blige and gospel duo Mary Mary. Discovering Outkast was formative for Dixon, deepening his love for hip-hop while he also grew curious about the more theatrical rock of groups of the day, bands like My Chemical Romance and Panic! At The Disco that his Maryland friends introduced him to. “Those groups also helped me with my sense of longing, since their music reflected a sense of longing,” he says. Eventually, he channeled these competing influences into a debut EP he released in 2013. With time, his music became his primary means of self-expression, whether discussing Blackness or his own relationship with healing. Across his next releases, his style evolved, and his confidence grew, especially when it came to live instrumentation. His 2021 debut album For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her was a game changer, as Dixon set his sights on heartache and grief. “I was making these really dense and chaotic songs, stuffing whatever thought I had into five and a half minutes,” Dixon says of that project. Beloved! Paradise! Jazz?! is an attempt at channeling different impulses. Sometimes rough and other times delicate, this record is a journey into is a journey into the psyche of McKinley Dixon, with all the attendant peaks and valleys.

Shane Christakis, aka Shane Sounds (name bestowed upon him by the bay area legend DJ Fresh), is primed to explode. The up and coming producer/DJ from the California Bay Area, has been a devout disciple of the golden era of hip hop through and through. Honoring the craft and the ones that came before him through undeniably infectious beats that brace the weight of his choice samples and original layers. Getting his chops up through his younger days, Shane spent his time developing instrumental obstacle courses for local emcees to dance around including Gift Of Gab (Blackalicious),Spills (ny) Kinetic Source (Ozomatli) and Cashus King (LA.) By the age of 21 Shane threw himself into the ring of the Stones Throw beat making contest. To only the surprise of himself, Shane walked away twice as a weekly winner of the battles. After a small hiatus due to the birth of his daughter Clementine, Shane jumped back on the pads and began crafting the instrumentals for what would become Apostolos.

With the instrumentals in flux Shane reached out via Instagram to an upcoming emcee out of the Duck Down Camp, a prodigy of the late, great Sean Price, Rim. After chatting back and forth for a small time, making sure Rim knew Shane was in this project for the right reasons, Rim jumped on board and even helped land other up and coming NY emcees like Eddie Kaine & Spills. From there everything snowballed. One feature led to another and soon enough the album was taking shape with features from not only Rim and Eddie Kaine, but hip hop heroes such as Masta Ace, Planet Asia, A.G. of D.I.T.C. and Geechi Suede. With a few more instrumentals and spaces to fill Shane reached out to long-time bay area engineer/producer Deegan Mack Adams to help with the mixing and mastering and overall release of the project.

Apostolos gets its namesake and back cover imagery from Shane Sounds' great great Grandfather, Apostolos Christakis who immigrated to the United States from Greece at the turn of the 20th century. The documents you see on the back cover are Apostolos’s army registration documents only a week after coming to the United States. We pay our respects to the ones who came before us and allowed us to be here to create this project. Salute!

Born in Philly and raised in Montclair New Jersey, The Custodian of Records is involved into many projects with prominent artists from the underground ”new wave boom bap” scene.
Sitting on a large collection of vinyls for over 20 years and finding his influences from legendary producers like Large Professor, DJ Premier, Prince Paul, The famous Public Enemy production team “The Bomb Squad”, DJ Muggs from Cypress Hill and The RZA from the Wu-Tang, The Custodian cooked up some dope beats with soulful samples and drum breaks with his cherished Akaï MPC2000XL and E-mu SP-12.
Freshly homemade with ingredients from real vinyl samples so no “YouTube shit” like he says.

A selection of 12 tracks made it to his compilation album called “The Sampler Platter”.
The sound reflects perfectly what the Custodian stands for. The album features Estee Nack of Tragic Allies, Vic Spencer, Daniel Son, Milano Constantine of the D.I.T.C. crew, Flashius Clayton, Sleep Sinatra, Fla-Fla of Sparrow The Movement, Chuck N Lock and SCVTTERBRVIN to name of few.

Some new heat from frequent HHE collaborator M.W.P. with Hus Kingpin! Check what M.W.P. has to say about this project...



“This Remix Album is an ode to Hus Kingpin and some of the work we have done over the years…



I linked up with Wavo about 8 years ago. SmooVth and him had heard some of my tracks on Soundcloud of all places, and wrote me regarding my music. I was quickly captivated by their style and demeanor, so it was a no brainer for me to start working with the two.



The first record I did with Hus was a Remix track of “Time Is Runnin’ Out” which was the opening track on my “New Horizon” album featuring Guilty Simpson. His verse totally blew me away, and from that day forward he became one of my favorite emcees and still is to this day.



From that point on we’ve done quite a bit of work together. Both for his projects and my own. So it was only right that I gave this album of his the M.W.P. treatment. I will forever feel blessed that he helped me gain some momentum in the game and I feel privileged to have worked with such a talented artist as him.



Hopefully this will not be the last you hear from M.W.P. and Hus Kingpin, but for now enjoy my interpretation of Bolio: Reze Pelo Rio.”



Green vinyl will limited to only 100 copies and black vinyl to 150 copies so don't sleep!

Some new heat from frequent HHE collaborator M.W.P. with Hus Kingpin! Check what M.W.P. has to say about this project...



“This Remix Album is an ode to Hus Kingpin and some of the work we have done over the years…



I linked up with Wavo about 8 years ago. SmooVth and him had heard some of my tracks on Soundcloud of all places, and wrote me regarding my music. I was quickly captivated by their style and demeanor, so it was a no brainer for me to start working with the two.



The first record I did with Hus was a Remix track of “Time Is Runnin’ Out” which was the opening track on my “New Horizon” album featuring Guilty Simpson. His verse totally blew me away, and from that day forward he became one of my favorite emcees and still is to this day.



From that point on we’ve done quite a bit of work together. Both for his projects and my own. So it was only right that I gave this album of his the M.W.P. treatment. I will forever feel blessed that he helped me gain some momentum in the game and I feel privileged to have worked with such a talented artist as him.



Hopefully this will not be the last you hear from M.W.P. and Hus Kingpin, but for now enjoy my interpretation of Bolio: Reze Pelo Rio.”



Green vinyl will limited to only 100 copies and black vinyl to 150 copies so don't sleep!

To say Harry Fraud is on fire is an understatement. In just two years, he has fully produced four projects with Curren$y (The Marina, The OutRunners, Director’s Cut, Bonus Footage), The Plugs I Met 2 with Benny The Butcher, Hoffa with Dave East, and now Borrowed Time with Dark Lo. The new collaborative effort showcases 10 tracks with additional features from AR-Ab, Boldy James and 38 Spesh (on the bonus Flexi Disc version of "Ringing Shots"). The lush production is perfect for Dark Lo’s gritty bars and tales of life on the Philadelphia streets. Facing sentencing for a federal witness tampering charge, Dark Lo has been working relentlessly all year. With the recent release of Charlie Pope with V Don and Extreme Measures with Havoc (of Mobb Deep), Borrowed Time serves as the perfect addition to Dark Lo’s impressive catalog.

“Live From The First”, the debut album by Pearl Gates is a sonic evolutionary process, chronicling his journey from the streets to the rap game.

The stage is set in the trenches and as it gradually shifts to a more elevated space and state of consciousness, the common thread revealing itself throughout the process is growth. The music is engaging; from gritty and ruthless sounds on “Rocks Right Now” to a virtuous and energizing vibe on “Elevate”, Gates delivers a welcoming, well balanced musical experience. “Live From The First” is brash, honest, thought provoking and highly conceptual while providing insight on everyday life in one of NYC's more bustling and enterprising communities, Washington Heights.

The first in the album title refers to the nick-name for 181st street in upper Manhattan where Pearl Gates comes from. “Most of the tracks on the album revolve around stories and experiences from the block” he reveals. That doesn’t necessarily mean all of the stories are about street life however. Gates, who is also an accomplished singer, also manages to incorporate his soulful hooks into the songs without sacrificing the Hip-Hop elements of each track. Gates says “my father was a singer and I inherited his talent of perfect pitch. I use it to flesh out my music but lately I’ve been asked to contribute hooks by Kool G Rap, Masta Ace, Wordsworth and other artists, which is flattering”.

Some notable features who appear on “Live From The First” include Torae, Geechi Suede (of Camp Lo) and Cassidy. Speaking on the latter Pearl Gates revealed “I didn’t expect Cassidy to be on the album. We have a mutual friend who is a producer and one night he brought him through just to hang out. Cassidy heard the track and said, you want me to get on this? That was all love”. Other up and coming artists will appear on the album as well.

In the last few years Pearl Gates has been making notable music and appearances. His "Diamond Mind" EP (2015) was praised by media outlets including The Source, HipHopDX, 2DopeBoyz and Respect Magazine. The "Play This" EP (2016) with fellow Washington Heights rapper Syll also received likes from media and DJs/radio shows including DJ Premier and Drake’s OVO Sound Radio. Gates also completed tours of Europe and North America with eMC and PRhyme.

Legendary Bronx producer and Ditc representative Buckwild doesn’t need much introduction, his credit list speaks for itself having produced for a plethora of legends such as Notorious BIG, Faith Evans, Nas, 50 Cent, AZ, Big L and the list goes on. Recently he’s been getting busy with several up and coming names and on this brand new album he’s bringing the heat with a few of them as well, having gathered well established names such as Raekwon, Meyhem Lauren, Little Brother and Chris Rivers together with new buzzing cats such as Madhattan, Rasheed Chappell and Asun Eastwood. Buckwild has delivered an album that’s as “Fully Loaded” as the title says, proving once again his legendary status in this game.