After 30 or more years of hip hop, DJ's and beat producers are still looking for the perfect beat.  The internet has opened up the next level of hip hop creativity.  The internet has crate diggers to buy, sell or trade vinyl records.  Are you looking to sell you vinyl records on ebay.  Use this forum to get ideas or tips to better help you sell you vinyl record crate collection to make money. Do you have a crate collection of Hip Hop singles and Funk / Soul / R&B LP’s you would like to sell on forum?

Are you interested in DJ Hip Hop vinyl record crate collecting?  Are you looking to make money  buy selling your old 12” singles, funk, soul and R&B records on ebay?  Maybe you just would like to become a member of this forum to network with other vinyl record crate collectors to trade or exchange.  Are you a beginner looking learn more about the art of DJ hip hop crate digging to better help you be a better DJ,  beat make and producer?  This forum may be just what you are looking for!  Vinyl records have survived all music formats...from eight track tapes to CDs and there are still hip artists sample and record their track using vinyl.

There is a reason for this, simply put, there is still a demand for old vinyl records. People like the sound, the ambience of a record. In this forum we will discuss the reasons for the demand, talk about analog v.s. digital sound quality, where to find quality used records, we could share stories of rare finds, the best sound equipment, share stories about our collections, how to clean and store our collections, discuss album cover art, talk about new music and/or groups (from all genres), the historic role some dj vinyl singles has played in music hip hop history and whatever topic is relevant or interesting to the forum  as a whole.

Travis Gales, Publisher

 TheCrateDigger

Hip Hop music on record is born by Fatback Band's "King Tim III", Younger Generation's "We Rap More Mellow", and The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" (Hip Hop legend Grandmaster Caz wrote the lyrics but never got credit).

Important artists such as Kurtis Blow and Grandmaster Flash also begin their careers, and some of the first socio-political-conscious records arise on the Paul Winley label through chiefly Tanya Winley. Philadelphia's legendary radio personality Lady B becomes the first female rapper to have a record, and Steve Gordon's "Take My Rap" is considered to be the first white rap record. Afro-Filipino Joe Bataan creates a hit with his "Rap-O, Clap-O", the first signs of Hip Hop's diversity. Enjoy Records and Sugar Hill Records become the defining Hip Hop labels of the old school era. 

This is Kurtis Blow's year. He becomes the first rapper signed to a major record label, Mercury Records, where his song "The Breaks" becomes a certified gold record. He is the first to release a Hip Hop album, to embark on a Hip Hop tour, to be featured on television ("Soul Train" in October), and the first to give rap mainstream marketability (he also opened up for The Commodores and Bob Marley on tour).

Rap is still seen as a fad although several disco-Hip Hop hybrids prove successful such as "Funk You Up", "Zulu Nation Throwdown Part I", "The New Rap Language", and "Monster Jam". Casper has the first rap record in Chicago, and The Sequence become the first all-female rap crew on record. Treacherous Three's "Body Rock" is the first Hip Hop song to use rock guitars, and Blondie member Deborah Harry's "Rapture" is the first massive Hip Hop record done by a white artist.  

This is the year of seminal rap and the birth of a new genre in Hip Hop: electro-funk, initiated by Afrika Bambaataa's & The Soul Sonic Force's "Planet Rock", the most sampled Hip Hop record of all time (James Brown's "Funky Drummer" is the most sampled record in Hip Hop). There is a great revival of interest in the Hip Hop elements, and this subgenre steers the music away from pure disco beats.

The other most important Hip Hop record of all time is Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five's "The Message" which jumpstarts political/social rap. The Cold Crush Brother's "Punk Rock Rap" is another record that fuses Hip Hop with rock, and Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force's "Looking for the Perfect Beat" is another seminal all-time Hip Hop classic. The first strands of Hip Hop soul also arise out of artists such as Planet Patrol and C-Bank ("One More Shot"), and the "Smurf" craze becomes one of Hip Hop's most important trends.