Vinyl is a niche industry these days, as a lot of people don’t even have CD players in their computers anymore, let alone a record player. Whether or not you miss vinyl as an audio format, the rise of digital and streaming music has affected many other parts of music listening culture. One such experience that’s more or less died out is the practice of crate digging, but new website “Digging Into Hip-Hop” aims to bring that experience back.
Using what they call a “3D crate digging engine,” the site literally recreates a wooden crate of records in digital format. You can click on a record to check out its artwork and then listen to a selected song from that release on YouTube.
It’s not quite the same as heading to your local record shop, and by only including hip hop records it neglects the real value of crate digging: finding a dope, obscure non-hip hop song to sample for a new beat. However, the 76 records currently available include some true classics and deep cuts, and with so many young heads out there who haven’t listened to these throwback joints, it’s definitely worth checking out.
Head on over to the site to check out music from the Crooklyn Dodgers, Big L, Digable Planets, Das Efx, and more.
