Charizma: Big Shots (2LP, "Apple Juice" vinyl) [STONES THROW]

Why you'll love it

This 20th anniversary 2LP set comes on "Apple Juice" coloured vinyl. The album peaked at No. 2 on CMJ's Hip-Hop chart, and The A.V. Club's Nathan Rabin said nearly every song sounds like a terrific single.

This edition

• 2LP set
• "Apple Juice" vinyl
• 20th anniversary edition

About the album

Every label has an origin story, and Stones Throw's is a Bay Area MC and his producer friend making boom bap in the early 90s. Charizma and Peanut Butter Wolf recorded Big Shots between 1991 and 1993 for Hollywood BASIC, and the music sat in the vault for a decade before Stones Throw finally put it out in 2003.

Charizma's voice brims with eagerness and wit, and Wolf's jazzy, textured beats point straight towards the label's future. "Here's a Smirk" and "Methods" set the pace, "Talk About a Girl" rides drum-machine and piano loops, "Devotion" and "Fair Weathered Friend" are standouts, and "My World Premiere" and "Ice Cream Truck" show just how much fun the pair were having.

Stones Throw pays tribute to Charizma and his impactful but tragically short hip hop career in collaboration with Peanut Butter Wolf through this reissue of Big Shots on apple juice coloured vinyl, as a nod to his drink of choice in the studio. While Charizma's death in 1993 meant he didn't get to see the formation and success of Stones Throw Records, or the influence his music would have on the label's first single, "My World Premiere," and on Big Shots itself, his unique signature is palpable on every track. Juice in the booth, it turns out, is a perfectly respectable recording habit.

Also at Kops: more Charizma on vinyl · browse Hip Hop / R&B

Tracklist

Listen

On Stones Throw, a reissue of the 2003 album.