Universal Music Enterprises has announced a campaign titled "Respect The Classics" that will involve remastering and rereleasing seminal hip-hop albums. The series began this month with a number of West Coast reissues, including: N.W.A's "N.W.A. & The Posse" and "Straight Outta Compton," Eazy E's "Eazy Duz It" and Ice Cube's "AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted." Don't worry East Coast fans, the first run also included one New York City release: EPMD's "Strictly Business."
All of the aforementioned albums were originally released on Priority Records, and will be rereleased in digital and CD form, and "Compton," "AmeriKKKa" and "Eazy-Duz-It" will all be released in remastered vinyl versions as well.
Universal also announced more releases to come later in 2013, some debatably classic but who are we to judge. Albums slated for rerelease include Eminem's "The Real Slim Shady," Kanye West's "808's And Heartbreak," 2Pac's "Greatest Hits," N.E.R.D's "In Search Of," Common's "Like Water For Chocolate" and Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter." Further announcements are coming with regards to reissues of albums from Public Enemy, Slick Enemy, Slick Rick, Onyx and Gangstar.
Fans of DMX and 50 Cent, or maybe just vinyl junkies, are in for a treat as well. Respect The Classics will celebrate the tenth anniversary of Fitty's "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" on what it calls "platinum vinyl edition." Whether this means the vinyl will be platinum colored remains to be seen. DMX's two 1998 albums, "It's Dark & Hell Is Hot" and "Flesh of My Flesh Blood of My Blood," will be released on vinyl that's definitely colored...gold and clear-with-blood-splatter respectively.
