Sony Music Entertainment’s Certified releasing ‘Raised by Rap: 50 Years of Hip Hop’

Double vinyl to feature legendary rap hips

Continuing an extensive celebration of Hip Hop’s 50th birthday in 2023, Sony Music Entertainment (SME) and Certified proudly present a new commemorative double LP vinyl entitled Raised By Rap: 50 Years of Hip Hop in stores on July 28th. It collates 25 of rap’s most definitive generational anthems on one body of work. It will be available in an array of exclusive vinyl colorways at Target and Urban Outfitters.

Raised By Rap is emblematic of hip hop history with hits from across all decades. The compilation showcases the legacy and footprint Sony Music Entertainment artists have had on the genre. Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock [“It Takes Two”] and Run DMC [“It’s Tricky”] rep the eighties, while Wu-Tang Clan [“C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me)”] and Nas [“NY State of Mind”] highlight the nineties. OutKast [“Ms. Jackson”] soundtracks the turn-of-the-century, and Lil Nas X [“Old Town Road” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus (Remix)] and Bia [“Whole Lotta Money”] signal the genre’s future right now.

The compilation spans eras of hip hop and illustrates its constant evolution with careful curation and expansive scope unlike anything else in the culture right now.

It arrives on the heels of a series of high-profile releases by Certified—the digital destination platform celebrating SME’s hip hop catalogs. Prior vinyl drops have ranged from Nas’s Made You Look: God’s Son Live 2002 to Run DMC’s Tougher Than Leather alongside the release of a new socially driven content series called Made By Hip Hop.

Over the course of the next few months, Certified will also be releasing more vinyl releases in the wake of Raised by Rap: 50 Years of Hip Hop. These will include re-releases of albums such as Project Pat’s Mista Don’t Play, Everythangs Workin.

As part of Sony’s HH50 campaign, on October 6th, Big Pun’s 25th anniversary of Capital Punishment will be released on vinyl in partnership with Get On Down. Additionally, Get On Down will be releasing a limited 25-year anniversary pressing of Capital Punishment on double colored vinyl in a new gatefold jacket with commemorative OBI bundled with a seven-inch single of “Still Not a Player” b/w “Twinz (Deep Cover 98).”

Get On Down is also releasing, for the first time on vinyl since its original release in 2001, Project Pat’s second studio album Mista Don’t Play, Everythangs Workin in two limited exclusive colored vinyl variants. The set is produced by Three 6 Mafia’s DJ Paul and Juicy J.

Run DMC’s sixth studio album Down With The King was released 30 years ago on May 4th, 1993. Get On Down will be releasing later this year a limited double colored vinyl edition in a gatefold jacket bundled with a colored seven-inch single of “Down With The King” featuring Pete Rock and CL Smooth b/w “Come On Everybody” featuring Q-Tip. Tougher Than Leather, Run DMC’s fourth studio album, is also celebrating 35 years and is available on translucent blue vinyl at Get On Down.

In collaboration with Vinyl Me, Please, multiple albums will also be reissued on vinyl as part of VMP’s Fifty Years of Hip Hop campaign. Hip hop fans can look forward to the highly requested represses of TLC’s hit albums CrazySexyCool on 2 LP red and white vinyl and FanMail on 2 LP blue with white vinyl including a bonus seven inch with extended versions of “No Scrubs” & “U In Me.”

Vinyl Me Please’s hip hop subscribers can look forward to historic albums being featured such as Q-Tip’s Kamaal The Abstract in July, Run DMC’s Tougher Than Leather in October, Boogie Down Productions’ By All Means Necessary in January 2024, and Wu-Tang’s The W in April 2024.

Vinyl Me, Please and SME’s Certified are collaborating to present a pop-up experience celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip hop at the Rock The Bells Festival at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, NY on August 5th. Showgoers who stop by the event can shop for exclusive vinyl and sign up for special offers.

2 LP

Side A:

  1. Genius Rap – Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde
  2. It’s Tricky – Run DMC
  3. It Takes Two – Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock
  4. Can I Kick It? – A Tribe Called Quest
  5. Summertime (Single Edit) – DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
  6. Funkdafied – Da Brat

Side B:

  1. Insane in the Brain – Cypress Hill
  2. C.R.E.A.M. – Wu-Tang Clan featuring Method Man, Raekwon, Inspectah Deck, Buddha Monk
  3. Shook Ones, Pt. II – Mobb Deep
  4. Ready or Not – Fugees, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, Pras
  5. N.Y. State of Mind – Nas
  6. Watch Out Now – The Beatnuts featuring Yellaklaw

Side C:

  1. Ms. Jackson – Outkast
  2. Grindin’ – Clipse
  3. Hip-Hop – Dead Prez
  4. Poppin’ My Collar – Three 6 Mafia
  5. Blow the Whistle – Too $hort
  6. Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You) – UGK (Underground Kingz) featuring Outkast

Side D:

  1. Goosebumps – Travis Scott
  2. A Lot – 21 Savage
  3. Streets – Doja Cat
  4. Mask Off – Future
  5. Praise The Lord (Da Shine) – A$AP Rocky featuring Skepta
  6. Old Town Road (Remix) – Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus
  7. Whole Lotta Money – Bia

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn