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A couple of days ago I went through my vinyl again and pulled out five records I had almost forgotten about. Five 12" singles from Rawkus Presents Soundbombing II, each one with a photo of a New York subway car on the cover, each one printed in its own color. Back in the day these covers hung on the wall above my turntable. Putting the records back on the platter reminded me how much this label meant to me and how many heavy names Rawkus had on its roster in 1999.
So this post is a trip back to those five singles, the tracks I picked from each one, the artwork I stared at for years, and the label behind all of it.
Soundbombing II in a nutshell
Soundbombing II came out on May 18, 1999 as a mixed compilation, blended by DJ Babu and J Rocc of the Beat Junkies. It reached #30 on the Billboard 200 and #6 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, strong numbers for an indie rap compilation. The lead single was "1-9-9-9" with Common and Sadat X. Rolling Stone's Matt Diehl called it "the year's most vital hip-hop compilation"
The first Soundbombing dropped in 1997 and the third one followed on June 4, 2002, mixed by Cipha Sounds and Mr. Choc. For me the second volume is the peak of the series. The roster reads like a map of late 90s New York underground rap with a few guests from Philly, Detroit and beyond.
The artwork: five subway cars on my wall
Rawkus pressed the album tracks as a series of 12" singles titled Soundbombing II: The Singles, catalog numbers RWK 192-1 up to RWK 196-1. Every sleeve follows the same system. A black header bar with the Soundbombing II logo and the A and B sides on top, the Rawkus logo with the catalog number on the left, and below that a full-bleed photo of a subway car in close-up. Doors, windows, rivets, roll signs. Each single gets its own tint: sepia, cyan, cold grey, red on ochre, olive green.
My favorite is RWK 195-1. The roll signs in the window read Pelham Bay Park and Pelham Exp, the northern end of the 6 line in the Bronx. Put all five next to each other and they look like one long train pulling into the station. For me that also explains the name. Bombing is the graffiti word for hitting trains, and Rawkus was bombing the city with sound.
Discogs credits the art direction, design and layout to Nobody Creative and lists Jeff Staple for additional design and photo retouching on the singles. Yes, that Jeff Staple. Long before the Pigeon Dunk he said about this time: "I designed a bunch of album covers for Rawkus"
The CD booklet adds graffiti pieces by writers like Phase 2 and Case 2 and photography by Franck Khalfoun. Street culture and rap on one sleeve, exactly the mix I care about on this blog.
The five singles and the tracks I picked
RWK 192-1: The High & Mighty feat. Mos Def & Mad Skillz – B-Boy Document 99
RWK 193-1: Eminem – Any Man
RWK 194-1: Shabaam Sahdeeq feat. The Cocoa Brovaz – Every Rhyme I Write
RWK 195-1: Diamond D – When It Pours It Rains
RWK 196-1: Pharoahe Monch – Mayor
Rawkus Records: how it started
Rawkus was founded in 1995 in New York by Brian Brater and Jarret Myer. The money came from their friend James Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch, and in 1996 Rupert Murdoch took a majority stake. hat detail always felt strange next to the label's image, yet the budget allowed promotion that a pure indie could only dream of, as RapReviews put it.
The catalog from those years speaks for itself. Company Flow's Funcrusher Plus and the first Soundbombing in 1997. Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star in 1998. In 1999 Mos Def's Black on Both Sides, Pharoahe Monch's Internal Affairs and Soundbombing II. In 2000 Big L's posthumous The Big Picture, which went gold. While the mainstream was deep in the shiny suit era, Rawkus gave lyricists a home and a real budget. The Lyricist Lounge compilations came out of that world too.
If you want to see a few of those names together in one room, check the Hip-Hop cypher with Mos Def, Big Pun, Canibus and DMX I posted years ago.
Why Rawkus faded out
The turning point came with the major label deals. After a distribution deal with Priority in 1999, Rawkus signed a joint venture with MCA in 2002. When MCA was folded into Geffen, Rawkus ended up under Interscope/Geffen, and in early 2004 Geffen chose to let the joint venture end.
The damage was already visible before that. Artists like Sir Menelik and Shabaam Sahdeeq left. Albums by Kool G Rap, Skillz and The Last Emperor were announced and pushed back again and again, some of them stuck at the single stage. The label that stood for independence now sat inside a corporate structure, and its identity went with it.
In 2006 Rawkus came back with distribution through Sony's RED and newer acts like Kidz in the Hall, Marco Polo and The Procussions. In 2007 it launched "Rawkus 50", a digital program for fifty releases. Since then the label has stayed quiet, with 2007 as the last year of new projects.
So why is Rawkus a history lesson today? The label was built for a moment. Vinyl 12"s, mixtape culture and indie distribution were the way to reach heads in 1999. The underground moved on to artist-owned labels, direct sales and streaming, and Rawkus lost its independence right when that shift began. What stays is the catalog and the careers it launched: Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Hi-Tek, Company Flow, Pharoahe Monch as a solo artist.
Back on the wall
After this listening session the five sleeves they might be going back up above my turntable. Soundbombing II still sounds like New York in 1999 to me, and the covers still look like a train pulling in. You can stream the full compilation below.
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