DAY ONE

 

 "Yo, most these rap cats don't know where it started, where it came from."

When you walk into Big City Records, everyone's a Big Deal in the Industry. I'd enter and Jared would stop what he's doing, give me a pound and call me by my handle as if to say, "Wowwww, look who just walked into the building! Onemaaaaaaaaannnn!!"  Of course, I'm no Big Deal. Especially if you consider the company I'd often find myself in. 

Pete Rock would be flipping through the rarest-of-rare box of 45s... Lord Finesse would be hunched over a turntable going through a tower of LPs in search of loops to flip.

So it makes sense, with all these legends passing through, that buying a used hiphop album would also mean buying a piece of its history. This LP, Lord Finesse Return of the Funky Man, epitomizes the art of turning old funk records into hiphop beats. And this copy has the fingerprints of the crew all over it.

Signed by Lord Finesse himself to fellow D.I.T.C. member OGEE, it's got stickers slapped on from the original pressings of Diamond D's first LP and Showbiz & AG's first 12". It's the kind of memorabilia that you could only find at Big City Records.

And THAT's a Big Deal!