Here’s the problem – Barry already owns several pressing’s of Illmatic. As a record company marketer – how can we convince Barry to pony up for yet another copy of Nas’ debut?
The common answer is one of three options – a 7″ box set, a cassette tape, or some kind of limited edition coloured vinyl that’s only offered as fifteen versons each.
While I can understand that offering obsessive collectors the chance to cop a limited-edition purple vinyl pressing for a premium price might be appealing, I strongly believe that there should should always be an option to buy a rap album on regular old black vinyl.
Perhaps the most offensive gimmick of recent times is the misguided push to get rap fans to start collecting 7″ rap records. By no stretch of the imagination is there any actual value to buying tiny rap singles, outside of not wanting to carry a large crate of records to your next show. Full disclosure: I once stashed a stack of rap 45’s in my jacket because I wanted to go to the pub before playing a gig. Other than the convenience of not having to carry a crate of records around all night, there is not a single discernible advantage to adapting to tiny rap records. It’s bad enough that you have to flip the record once you get to the end of side a, but if you cop a 45 box set, you can potentially change the record after every song!
Elsewhere, the options to waste your hard-earned include copping limited edition tapes, coloured vinyl, tapes or 7″ box sets of entire albums. I mean I can get behind the first wave of this shit, which involved releasing 2LP versions of albums designed for CD’s, but recommending that anybody buy a 7″ box set of Ready To Die is complete fuckery.
What do you think is the biggest rip-off for classic rap fans in 2019?
