Boston-based record label Get On Down has released a list of its “Black Friday” Record Store Day offerings. The label will make the records available exclusively to participating stores for in-person purchase only on November 28.
Among the records to be released is the first ever picture-sleeve reissue of Rammellzee and K-Rob’s 1983 song “Beat Bop” with officially licensed artwork by Jean-Michel Basquiat. The record was originally released on the artist’s own Tartown Records label in a reported pressing of 500 units with individual copies of the rare original having since fetched more than a thousand dollars. Get On Down’s reissue will included “a four-panel folded insert with deep background on the original single’s creation, compiled by Andrew ‘Noz’ Nosnitsky – including interviews with many of the artists involved with its production: Rammellzee, K-Rob, Glenn O’Brien, percussionist Al Diaz, Profile’s Cory Robbins and more.”
Get On Down will also release a pair of Christmas-themed Hip Hop reissues with a 7-inch single of Run DMC’s “Christmas In Hollis” b/w “Peter Piper” and a 1987 Profile Records holiday compilation. The “Chrismas In Hollis” release will include a playable postcard of the title track. The Christmas Rap reissue includes the above single and other songs like Dana Dane’s “Dana Dane Is Coming To Town,” Sweet Tee’s “Let The Jingle Bells Rock,” and the Surf M.C.’s “A Surf M.C. New Year.”
The label is also set to offer fans the first glow-in-the-dark version of Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force’s 1982 single “Planet Rock” on a 12-inch pressing. The release honors the recent donation of Bambaataa’s vinyl collection to Cornell University’s Hip Hop archives and the just-completed Fall tour of his original records by DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist.
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The “Black Friday” offerings also include a five-record box set of People Records 45s. Following the 7-inch record reissuing of the JBs’ Food For Thought album in April, Get On Down adds on to its series of reissues from James Brown’s People Records with a handful of notable singles collected in a single package.
In March, HipHopDX spoke with Get On Down co-founder Matt Welch about how the label curates its limited-edition releases.
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“The product we develop is not for big-box stores and mall stores,” Welch said. “We’re dealing with artists with cult followings. Those followings are very aware of all the idiosyncrasies or details of an artist’s personality. So if you expand on something in the packaging, the hardcore fan is really gonna pick up on that, whereas if you try to apply that to a mass-produced item, the message is going to get lost.”
