Vinyl Destination: The new look of hip hop albums

In his brilliant 2007 book, ‘Check The Technique: Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies’, hip-hop writer Brian Coleman sat down with the artists behind 36 of the genre’s finest albums to discuss the creative processes, stories and inspirations which lay behind the music.

Coleman’s aim was to address the paucity of content on rap album sleeves – often limited to a standard list of production credits and the obligatory shout-outs – when compared with the historically rich presentation and extensive writings found in classic jazz and rock LPs.

Coleman’s compelling work succeeded in its aim, shedding new light on some of the defining albums of this genre – the Wu-Tang Clan’s ‘Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)’, Run-D.M.C.‘s ‘Raising Hell’ and A Tribe Called Quest’s ‘Low End Theory’ among them – direct from the artists themselves.  But in retrospectively compiling a book of liner notes that were absent from the original releases, Coleman also – perhaps inadvertently – underlined how the packaging, artwork and presentation of many hip-hop albums has often frustratingly fallen short of matching the quality of the music locked within the vinyl grooves.

As major record companies react to the rise of illegal downloading and the recent slump in music sales by increasingly eschewing physical releases altogether in favour of putting out less costly legal digital downloads via iTunes and Amazon, a small handful of artists and labels are heading in the opposite direction.

Spearheaded by a clutch of US independent operations such as Los Angeles-based Stones Throw Recordings and Brooklyn’s Nature Sounds, some rap labels have begun issuing many of their key releases in lavish, elaborate packaging, often with extensive essays, frequently on vinyl format, and occasionally pressed up in collectable limited quantities. Hip-hop fans, hungry for something a bit more tangible than either the somewhat soulless experience of a downloaded mp3 file or the poorly-mastered CD-R self-releases hustled on street corners by young unsigned rappers, have duly scooped them up.

Metal Face Records recently reissued MF Doom’s ‘Operation: Doomsday’, a landmark underground rap record from 2000 on which the veteran MC adopts a comic-book super-villain persona inspired by Marvel Comics’ Doctor Doom seeking to rid the world of phoney rappers. In a move that chimes with the dramatic technicolour tone of the music within, the album was rolled out in a quadruple vinyl format in a metal mask tin, complete with a comic book-style lyric book and cartoon trading cards. The double CD reissue meanwhile was packed in a metal sandwich box which recalls those Marvel superhero school lunchboxes that readers of a certain age will fondly remember from their childhood.

CPP CD Sleeve Plastic CD Sleeve Clear CD PP Sleeve from China ...

Media-packs.com ofers CD DVD Packaging Sleeves, like cpp cd sleeve,paper cd sleeve,pp cd sleeve,clear cd sleeve and plastic cd sleeves. More info? To superfine a meretricious dvd cd packaging and storaging way. the Sleeves/Envelopes packaging is the one i advisable this instance. they are twopenny than authoritative dvd showcase,small dvd somebody and quaternate dvd cases. and preclude the hardware expanse a lot. the cd dvd sleeves can prefab from diametrical substantial. Similar Paper/cpp/pp/non woven/PVC/Bopp ETC. Today,, i apply you orotund reference of the CPP CD Sleeves. We are shaper and bourgeois of the CPP CD Arm for most informal wideness. equal:80 Microns,100 Microns,120 Microns and 150 Microns.normally the cpp cd arm load in a poly bag apiece 100 Pcs, with a paper introduction with the kind or the merchant search gens.and we feature 4000 PCS apiece carton. the cpp cd sleeve if customer space an position equivalent a overloaded 20Feet container we can act within 10 days. becoz for the cpp cd sleeve we score 6 production lines. we also do retail acting in cpp cd arm performing equivalent: 5000 PCs apiece rule. cpp cd sleeve is several from cd stuff arm, cd report arm is normallly with a take pane and a aerofoil, it is not transparent plastic, but cpp cd sleeve is a good of straight crystalise dvd cd packaging. This urinate your DVD or CD Movies more outdo to regnization. CPP CD Arm is also polar from OPP CD Arm, OPP CD Sleeve is often sleazy in toll becoz it is much small. not hard similar cpp celluloid cd sleeves. ooking for an cheap and location action way to keep your CD DVD media? CD wadding sleeve envelopes are as wizened as the saucer itself and the earn impressible pane lets you see the circle part. Options allow a tracheophyte of silvery flag so you can rest handle or say your assemblage with a flamboyant shape. Refill sleeves are also a superior way to prevent. You can keep two discs on one arm and fuddle your integral accumulation with you in a CD pocketbook. For those with a much explicit compendium of CD and DVD media, the fill you impoverishment for your mammoth 4-to-a-side CD case is also open. Pls representative our income trainer for writer information: sales@media-packs.com trip our website @ http://www.cppcdsleeve.com or protocol://www.media-packs.com more around our DVD CD Fackaging products?

CMJ New Music Monthly

It's in the Bag, A New, Easy, Affordable, and Doable Approach to Food Storage

Gluten Free Food Storage, It's in the Bag

Billboard

How to Get Somewhere in the Music Business, From Nowhere with Nothing