HiPNOTT Records, founded by blogger/music enthusiast Kevin Nottingham, will be releasing the first of its two-part mixtape series HiPNOTT Records 2010 Takeover on January 11.
2010 Takeover, co-sponsored by HipHopDX.com, features work from Nottingham’s artists as well as guest appearances from the independent scenes more prominent names. Murs, Illyas (of Tanya Morgan), Guilty Simpson and Kyle Lucas are all included on the project.
Describing the mixtape as reminiscent of a special era that influenced many of today’s acts, Nottingham explained to DX, “The Golden Era of Hip Hop was a time when Hip Hop felt good and people made Hip Hop music because they felt good about it… and it was reflected in its sound. A lot of people lump the Golden Era sound into 90’s boom bap, where in actuality, that was just one sound of many. Yeah, you had Gang Starr and A Tribe Called Quest, but you also had acts such as Naughty By Nature and Digital Underground who brought a fun, feel good vibe to Hip Hop. I would never compare any of my artists to these classic acts, but I will say that they each have the potential to reach their level of stardom.”
Putting together the mixtape series over the course of three months, Nottingham added, “I came up with the idea with my HiPNOTT COO, Kareem Fort, who thought it would be a good idea to hit 2010 running with new music. We realized that when we announced the signing of Cymarshall Law and K. Sparks recently a lot of people were still unaware about the label. Hopefully after this year, people will see that we’re serious about placing a footprint in Hip Hop.”
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With part two of the series dropping in February, as well as projects from Cymarshall Law and K. Sparks and G.C. ready for release in the coming months, Kevin stated, “We have some great music lined up for the whole year at HiPNOTT Records with our current roster and we have a few deals in the works to sign on new acts. Just looking over our release schedule yesterday, I think we have enough music to put out one album per month for the whole year. And it’s all quality music! Just as the mixtape name suggests… 2010 is the takeover!”
