90s Hip Hop

In Shades of Blue Madlib, hip-hop producer extraordinaire, tackles Blue Note's soul-jazz catalogue, enjoying free rein in the fabled label's vaults.

The social heart of The Fugees and its most talented performer, Lauryn Hill tailored The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill not as a crossover record but as a collection of overtly personal and political statements.`z

Sampling artists as diverse as Hall & Oates, Steely Dan and The Turtles, 3 Feet High and Rising is often viewed as the stylistic beginning of 1990s alternative hip hop (and especially jazz rap).

While most of the players in the jazz-rap movement never quite escaped the pasted-on qualities of their vintage samples, with The Low End Theory, A Tribe Called Quest created one of the closest and most brilliant fusions of jazz atmosphere and hip-hop attitude ever recorded.

No matter how controversial, it remains one of the greatest and most influential hip-hop albums of all time.

The Score is the second and final studio album by the hip hop trio Fugees.

The album has cemented its place in hip-hop history and has since gone on to achieve 6x platinum certification in the US, selling over 3.5 million copies, and has achieved platinum status in the UK as well.

Covering themes of insecurity, social issues and personal relationships, Badu delivered a highly intimate and personal album that reached Platinum two months after its release.

The album blends R&B, hip hop, and jazz influences with Badu's introspective and socially conscious lyrics.

By 1994 the Beasties had settled into their cultural role as the grand arbiters of cool, and 'Ill Communication' is pretty much a catalog of coolness

The album is consistently named in magazine polls as one of the greatest albums of all time. No-one believed the Beastie Boys could top the hard rocking beast of 'Ill Communication', but along came 'Paul's Boutique'. Their first album release for Capitol Records the album was originally released in the summer of 1989 and frankly didn't hit the spot, initially, with many critics. Essentially a love letter to their home town of New York, 'Paul's Boutique' is a dense record with its multiple layers of samples and beats that helped to redefine just how good sampling could be. With the help of production duo the Dust Brothers, the Beastie Boys mix up numerous beats, samples and loops to create a great record that many critics now regard as one of the finest release of 1989, the decade or even the century.

Double vinyl remastered from the original masters and pressed extra loud for DJs. There are very few albums across any genre that stand the test of time better than 93 ‘Til Infinity, the classic debut record from the Hieroglyphics crew’s very own Souls of Mischief.

Straight Outta Compton was the hugely successful and highly controversial second album from Eazy E, Ice Cube, and Dr Dre.

Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...is the solo debut of American rapper and Wu-Tang Clan member Raekwon.

Finished in 1998, unreleased until 2000, and featuring reworked material that dates back to the trio's earliest years, Fantastic Vol. 2 is practically a retrospective of Slum Village's career.

In time, Blige became a global symbol of female empowerment and perseverance, but on My Life, she lay her soul bare to brilliant ends.

It's time to celebrate the legacy of the best rapper that ever did it. Notorious BIG wasn't just a rapper, he was a storyteller, a prolific poet, and through his words, persona, life and music he opened doors and opportunities for Hip-Hop as a whole.

The Infamous is the second studio album by the American Hip Hop duo Mobb Deep, released in 1995. The album features guest apperances from Nas, Wu-Tang Clan members, Reakwon and Ghostface Killah. It marked Mobb Deep's transition from a relatively unknown Rap duo to an influential and commercially successful one.

RZA, Method Man and co. display the styles that have made this group legends in the industry. 

36 Chambers, an insular and weird album by design, arrived not a moment too soon in a decade where insular and weird music found unexpected traction in the mainstream.

If you love Marvin Gaye, Al Green and Prince - this is up there.

Now approaching two decades after the record's release, Get On Down proudly brings you this deluxe LP reissue. Stillmatic, unavailable on vinyl since its original 2001 release, is now presented with remastered audio.

The was the first rap LP to top the Billboard album chart in 1986.

Ol' Dirty Bastard rose to fame in the world renowned Hip Hop gang Wu-Tang Clan.

Rare Tracks from 1992-1995

Compilation of the year. It wasn’t really a movement, barely even a moment, but the Daisy Age was an ethos that permeated pop, R&B and hip hop at the turn of the 90s.

The De La Plugs created the D.A.I.S.Y. (Da Inna Sound, Y'all) philosophy on their brilliant and weird debut, Three Feet High and Rising (making them the first—and probably only—hip-hop act to appropriate a Johnny Cash song for their album title).

The complete Dilla instrumentals from the classic album pressed on randomly mixed colored vinyl.

The ambitious album, intended as somewhat of a sequel to Ready to Die, picking up where its predecessor left off.

It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back is the second studio album by American hip hop group Public Enemy, released on June 28, 1988, by Def Jam Recordings and Columbia Records.

The 1996 sophomore follow-up was titled It Was Written, and in contrast to the urban bleakness of his debut, had Nas dipping his toes into the world of mafioso rap. 

Cypress Hill's eponymous debut album revolutionized hip-hop in several respects. 

Step in the Arena is the second studio album by hip hop duo Gang Starr, commercially released on January 15, 1991.

It is on OutKast's debut album that the fledgling production team Organized Noize began forging one of the most distinctive production sounds in popular music in the '90s: part hip-hop; part live, Southern-fried guitar licks and booty-thick bass runs; and part lazy, early-'70s soul. 

KMD (Kausing Much Damage, or a positive Kause in a Much Damaged society) was a Hip Hop group in the early 90s perhaps best known for launching the career of acclaimed MC/Producer MF Doom (known during his KMD tenure as Zev Love X).

In the aftermath of their commercial resurgence in 1994 with ‘Ill Communication’, Beastie Boys decided to return to their punk rock roots with the following year’s ‘Aglio E Olio’ EP. Mike

2LP set featuring 15 of the finest Beastie Boys tracks from throughout an incredible career. Almost 20 years of music condensed into a one best of compilation.

Gang Starr is undoubtedly one of the most revered, beloved and influential groups in Hip Hop.

The contributions of the late Detroit producer James DeWitt Yancey - better known to the world as J Dilla- to the world of hip-hop can't be overstated, and nowhere is his legacy more apparent than his work as a member of Slum Village.

It was produced by the group's production team The Bomb Squad, who sought to expand on the dense, sample-layered sound of Public Enemy's previous album, 'It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back' (1988). 

Dead Serious is the debut studio album of American hip hop duo Das EFX, originally released in 1992. 

Efil4Zaggin, is about as close as you can come to a death metal/hip-hop hybrid. People will get hurt here.

This carefully curated double LP compilation combines the best of Mantronix's work from the early, and arguably, best era of their career into one amazing listening experience. Whether you are an avid Mantronix fan or are looking for a place to start - this is the collection to wrap your ears around.