Vinyl Me Please Rap & Hip Hop

I had some reward points and I was gonna to grab the Roots for 12 bucks and use a swap but they had a “ like new” copy of Black Pumas for 14. Here’s hoping I don’t get a cd or a record that’s in 100 pieces.
 
It’s my understanding that the OutKast wasn’t widely available because the VMP version was the first vinyl pressing of that complete album.

I’m curious if there’s going to be anything to similarly distinguish this Roots pressing from previous versions, like the $13 version I can buy from Amazon. I don’t really care to pay double the price for a pretty color on the record. I might be cancelling my RHH track this month! Hooray money!
 
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I actually think the pinwheel variant looks tight. Still, ANOTHER month goes by with no discernible difference between the ROTM version and the standard variant. And I’m usually very quick to point out that this is not always the case - when VMP press the full version of an album that’s never been fully pressed before, or have a half-speed and/or analog remaster, I’ll always correct people who say “I can get this exact same thing on Amazon for cheaper” because that’s absolutely not the case.

The thing is, hip-hop has had a less-than-stellar history with vinyl. VMP said it themselves when they first started this subscription: most labels and pressing plants don’t care to put the same effort into making a rap record sound fantastic that they’d put into, say, a jazz or a prog rock album. Hip-hop vinyl in the 2010s is littered with low-effort pressings, production delays, exorbitant overcharging, etc. so when VMP was offering rap vinyl that was given the same top-of-the-line remastered, exclusive art booklet, tip-on jacket star treatment as records from “more prestigious” genres, for $23, I was ecstatic. For a LONG time it seemed like VMP understood that hip-hop deserved to be taken just as seriously in the audiophile world as any other genre. So when it came to albums like Doggystyle that were already available on vinyl, but in significantly inferior conditions, I was more than willing to ignore the “but I can buy this same album for a few bucks cheaper, what makes yours so special?” complaints, and instead focus on the fact that it was a 2xLP 45RPM analog remaster of a hip-hop classic, something that does NOT happen often outside of VMP.

So, knowing how the R&HH track started, it’s incredibly perplexing seeing so many ROTMs in a row just be standard recolors. If you can get an easily-available Roots album expertly remastered and pressed, by all means, go for it - I don’t see jazz fans or soul fans complaining when a 2xLP 45RPM half-speed analog remaster is a bit more expensive than a 1xLP standard press. But VMP has been so much better than this, and I gave them the benefit of a doubt for a long time because “sure their business practices are shitty but the product quality hasn’t diminished”. I can’t even really say that now
 
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