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DELUXE 180g VINYL WITH BONUS 7'. Apollo Brown's Thirty Eight is a contemporary throwback, inhabiting the realm of reverent reinvention and innovation. It deftly bridges the gap between '70s Blaxploitation soundtracks (e.g. Curtis Mayfield's Superfly or Marvin Gaye's Trouble Man) and the hip-hop records that sampled from them. The tracks on Thirty Eight are presented in gritty, heavily saturated Technicolor, the scratches and cigarette burns as purposeful as they are happily accidental. These are suites sounding from long barrels held by lone men lurking in grimy project hallways. Tinged with revenge and regret, shrouded in thick tendrils of hollow-point smoke, the songs have all the makings of an epic gangster tragedy. They're also great when paired with anything Raymond Chandler. Crackle and sample hiss run like electric current throughout, charging the record with a retro feel and resonant warmth. Yet these qualities are only secondary to Brown's impeccable ear for instrumentation. Thirty Eight is full of funk, soul, jazz, blues, hip-hop, and everything in between. The bluesy guitar twang of slow-burner 'Black Suits' and the lush, orchestral strings of 'The Warning' are just two examples of the depth and diversity Brown brings to the table. All singing on the album comes in the form of brief samples, some high-pitched and sped up, others left untouched. Taken together, they amount to glimpses of an emotionally affecting narrative, enabling the listener to fill in the plot and words between the booms and baps. Brown enlists New York mercenary Roc Marciano for the soundtrack's two features. With the sharpest of eyes and the frostbitten wit of a Polo clad hustler slanging in the dead of winter, Marciano delivers his best verses in recent memory, his vivid narratives perfectly suited for Brown's soulful production.

[J] B5 Mo Azz[

"We attract people who need that boom and that bap." That's more than a line; it's a legacy. When Diamond District dropped In the Ruff on Mello Music Group in 2009, the gritty drums and grimy raps combined as elementally as hydrogen and oxygen. The D.C. Voltron of Oddisee, yU, and X.O. dusted off and revitalized a sound once consigned to the catacombs. Hailed as an instant classic, its impact reverberated throughout the underground and mainstream. The Washington D.C. City Paper called it the city's best album in many years. During an era when lyricism was deemed too intellectual and samples too dated, Diamond District overturned conventional logic. They preserved the raw and made it righteous. A half-decade later, the holy trinity has returned with March on Washington. The truths remain timeless. Wisdom over rhythm. Slang turned into testament. The march turned into indelible memory. This is rap for every man (and woman) done by extraordinary men. They're doing it for the pioneers of the culture and for Trayvon Martin, for those workers toiling on the weekends to get their moms out of the hood. It's music to entertain, but also to restore a feeling. It places an increasingly rare value on wordplay, flows, concepts, breath control, and passion. It's replete with the intangibles that make hip-hop special. Oddisee crafts beats that bang like galvanized soul, hard enough to deflect bullets but infused with a veiled sensitivity. And as the group says on finale, "Bonus Flow," they made it cool for "K. Dot to do what he do....and "Oddisee's better than Kanye too." The songs reflect the creative push and pull of the group itself, three solo artists who manifest something greater than the sum of their parts. This is the antidote for those who feel like they didn't leave hip-hop, hip-hop left them. It refuses to spin its wheels or let its focus stray. It is filthy enough to come from the gutter, but it doesn't cater to low sensibilities. There is the spirit of the old transplanted into the legs of the new. Round up the troops, lace those boots. This is triumph that you can march to, until you can't walk anymore.

For his new album Finale handed all the production duties to rising star Oddisee. Building on the
raw Detroit template, Finale brings a modernist revision of the industrial foundation laid by the
city's premiere lyrical foremen. The album features Homeboy Sandman (Stones Thow) & Kenn
Starr

Future's breakthrough album 'Pluto' is now available on vinyl for the first time ever via Omerta Records. The album has been remastered specifically for this vinyl release and been pressed onto high quality 180gm vinyl. Comes with black protective inner sleeves, insert and housed in a stunning silver reflective cover.
First time available on vinyl ever. Remastered and on high quality 180gm vinyl.

Collaborative album from Texas producer Gensu Dean and Detroit MC/producer Denmark Vessey. Gensu Dean has worked with Count Bass D, Brand Nubian, Roc Marciano, Planet Asia (their 2013 collab Abrations received praise from XXL, HipHopDX). Vessey has worked with Quelle Chris, Danny Brown, Elzhi. His 2015 album Martin Lucid Dream was ''excellent.''

If you're just tuning into Open Mike Eagle's stellar career, the LA Weekly anointed him last year as the hottest thing in indie rap. Pitchfork called him a 'whiz with matching easy-going hooks to intimate personal reflection.' But Dark Comedy could be the best thing he's ever done—a record that captures the perennial struggle between art and commerce, the last half-century of widening class rift, and the need to be funny or die. This is intended to dump whiskey on the unsuspecting heads of those with false ideas of authenticity or what rap should be.

Highly-anticipated fourth solo album from RJD2, showcasing the myriad styles he has spanned in his ten-year career as a maverick producer. In collaboration with MCs, vocalists and various instrumentalists, the album displays an urgency and sophistication in weaving together trademark rock-solid drums, soulful vibes and horns, unexpected samples, and anything else available, ultimately presenting a kaleidoscopic look both forward and back.

Music is an exchange of ideas. This album is something for those exhausted with the shuck and jive of pop culture, who believe in the purification rituals offered by hard snares, funky drum kicks, soul-coughing bass, and deeply rooted vibrations. Steadfastly infusing their songs with spirituality and positivity, yU and Slimkat are everymen with preternatural talent. Over the years, they've tirelessly built a rep in the DMV, collaborating on yU's The Earn and Before Taxes, which OkayPlayer called 'one of the best hip-hop albums released in the last few years.' In 2009, yU released In the Ruff as the philosophical heart of super-group Diamond District, a record hailed by MTV as 'arguably the best hiphop ever released in D.C.' Slimkat supplies the beats that make the blood rush to your head. Named one of the best producers of 2010 by KevinNottingham. com, he's dished countless production dimes to the likes of Muhsinah, Eric Roberson, Diamond District, and more. The People of Today is a seamless and head-spinning record. It's hard-boiled beats and raps laced with wisdom and virtue. The sort of record that you can sit with today and tomorrow, and any time you need to be reminded that we're all in this together.

The second installment of the Jeedeci series is this 'Love U 4 Life' 7. Debuted on the DIRT TECH RECK label profile on BBC with Benji B on October 2012. The internet has been going nuts since.