This Is A Stick Up!

Hip Hop record collectors are a strange bunch, and I wholeheartedly include myself in that sweeping statement. After many years of collecting rap records, I find that many of my buying habits are deeply ingrained in my psyche, and as much as I try to cease doing something I find it hard to stop. For instance, buying "different" versions of the same record - even if I already own a particular record I find it hard to then later resist a promo copy if I see one, and a test pressing is even better so I would have to grab that too. But then I might discover a seven inch version on 45rpm and I find I gotta scoop that up also. Where will all this end? I don't have enough room here in the DAILY DIGGERS HQ for all my vinyl as it is, so buying duplicates is sheer madness if I'm completely honest with you.

A few years ago I managed to kick my "buying sealed records" habit. I thought it was gonna be cool to have a sealed doubles stash of 12"s and LPs from the 80s and 90s which had never seen the light of day, but as the habit escalated I realised that if I carried on I would need another storage facility just for my sealed collection . Hence I swiftly put an end to that form of knee jerk buying. However, there is one habit I cannot kick, and to be honest I would never try to. Why? Because it makes me happy. I know I'm not alone with this habit either, so I urge you as my fellow rap fiends to stand up, be counted and share the burden with me. Ok here goes (this feels like an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting!) ... I have an addiction to buying records with stickered sleeves.
These tend mostly to be promo 12"s which were sent to DJs in advance of general release, and some were smaller indie label 12"s where for cost reasons a plain sleeve was brightened up with a dope sticker. The fact is, these little stickers seem to have an alluring quality about them, and I hear "buy me" in my head whenever I see one I've yet to come across before. As a little kid growing up in the 80s I always had a liking for stickers, and maybe this has something to do with my continuing obsession. I also worked with stickers for a few years within the motor trade designing car graphics on (vinyl) stickers. Whatever the reason, I'm hooked on buying these, however my friend STICKERED STEVE is on another level when it comes to fiending for stickers on record sleeves (you might have guessed that by his name). I'm hoping after reading this he will get in touch and share us with a few of his stickered gems.

But right about now ... THIS is a stick up!