Classic hip-hop albums celebrated on new stamp card-style print
A new stamp card-style print has been released paying tribute to 40 hip-hop albums, tracing the genre back to its early-1980s roots and celebrating its contemporaries.
The print is has been produced by Dorothy, a UK-based creative studio behind iconic posters including rave road maps and blueprints. Those behind the work have described it as “a mini hip-hop history lesson”, showcasing the canon’s diversity. Each record has the year it was released, the label that carried it, and running time included.
Beginning with Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five’s landmark 1982 LP, ‘The Message’, records from the same decade include Run D.M.C.’s eponymous debut (1984), ‘Radio’ by LL Cool J (1985), Boogie Down Productions’ 1987 triumph, ‘Criminal Minded’, and ‘All Hail the Queen’, Queen Latifah’s first full-length, released in 1989.
From the 1990s, artists include Gang Starr (‘Step in the Arena’; 1991), A Tribe Called Quest (‘The Low End Theory’; 1991), Cypress Hill (‘Black Sunday’; 1993), Wu-Tang Clan (‘Enter The Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers’; 1993), 2Pac (‘All Eyez On Me’; 1996), Miss Elliott (‘Supa Dupa Fly’; 1997), Lauryn Hill (‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’; 1998) and MF Doom (‘Operation Doomsday’; 1999). Elsewhere, Jay Z, J Dilla, Kanye West, 50 Cent, and Kendrick Lamar all feature, with the most recent album coming in the shape of Run The Jewels’ ‘RTJ4’.
The design for each ‘stamp’ is either an interpretation of the album itself, or a song from the track list. Each comes as an 80 x 60cm litho print in six colours, with silver-foil border mimicking the perforation of a postage stamp. Other versions are available, with ‘stamp collections’ based on post-punk, psychedelic, post-rock, alternative and electronic music. The latter includes records by Aphex Twin, Silver Apples, Neu!, Orbital, Portishead, Tricky, The KLF, and Roni Size.
See the full collection here.
