Ramson Badbones
Death Mask

Innercity Griots, the second album from Freestyle Fellowship, is perhaps the essential West Coast left-field rap album of the early ’90s. Released in 1993 on 4th & Broadway, it’s a towering, progressive hip-hop masterpiece that expanded rap’s boundaries through lyrical elevation and production innovation. Their talent was ahead of everybody else by light years. This is pure b-boy jazz.Freestyle Fellowship were some of the earliest technically dazzling rappers to come out of California. Mikah 9, P.E.A.C.E., Aceyalone and Self Jupiter – along with DJ Kiilu – forged their famed lyrical dexterity in the ultra-competitive crucible of the Good Life Cafe. Founded in Leimert Park, South Central LA in December 1989, this earthy health-food store and cafe was where the city’s finest microphone fiends would gather to showcase their freestyle skills at the Thursday night open-mic.Forcing MCs to raise the bar and stay fresh every week (a challenge made even tougher by the strict “no cussing” policy) the Good Life became an incubator for groups like the Pharcyde and Jurassic 5 and their events attracted big-names like Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Ice-T, Pharrell, and John Singleton. To Self Jupiter, the Good Life was “college – you had to come with something peculiar, left-field each week”. It served as a predecessor to the Project Blowed scene, and inspired influential club nights like Low End Theory.The Fellowship’s “chopping” double-time raps were an evolutionary step for lyricism. A style that sounds freestyled: abstract hip hop before it existed. “We do double-time passages and runs and riffs” Mykah 9 told the LA Times in a 1993 article, “we improvise and play off of each other’s words and sounds-like jazz musicians do. What we are is liberators, liberating rap from its R&B/funk structures – that 4/4 [time] prison”. All 4 members were very different but they all had a unique jazz-scat style that was fresh. Their flamboyant chopping technique seemed like they were trying to rap at the speed of thought and it influenced everyone from Snoop to Ras Kass to Xzibit to Kendrick Lamar.In West African tradition a griot is a repository of vital history, sharing stories and wisdom with each generation by setting words to music. Over the past three decades, Innercity Griots has been ushered from rapper to rapper and from fan to fan as a rite of passage. As both oral history and foundational rap music, it will, indeed, outlast us all. Aceyalone was right.

We are proud to bring you the stunning white vinyl repress of Ocean Wisdom's second album, 'Wizville'!With guest appearances from an ALL STAR cast, Ocean has left no stone unturned, touching upon multiple genres and bringing together some of the biggest legends in the history of the industry. Wizville boasts an unrivalled track list including collaborations with the record breaking, genre defining, phenom that is Dizzee Rascal! The legend himself and arguably one of the greatest rappers of all time, Wu Tang Clan's own Method Man! The Mercury award winning scene smasher who defined a generation, Roots Manuva! The Grime scene OG who birthed a generation of MCs with unmatched skill, P Money! The most poignant person with a pen in UKHH, Jehst! The UKHH veteran and most respected wordsmith in the game, Chester P! The original riddim killa and Londons' own originator Rodney P and the grime scene's Dr Dre Aka Rude Kid. To top it off, Ocean has also enlisted the musical talents of Baquiat, Leaf Dog, Mystry, Illinformed, Kidkanevil, Chemo, Pete Cannon, Muckanicks, Pitch 92 & more to produce the album.