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DJ Shadow Endtroducing... Endtroducing is the Mo Wax / Ninja Tune lineage that 2econd Class Citizen descends from — Shadow's sample-based method, one generation earlier, on the label that defined the aesthetic. -
Various Vacation Bye Bye Vacation Bye Bye is the same Berlin beats infrastructure — Equinox and Closer both operate through HHV and OYE, the same channels that connect Brighton producers to Berlin distributors. -
Freestyle Fellowship Innercity Griots Selections - Raiders Of The Lost Wax #2 Myka 9 from Freestyle Fellowship features on "As Good As You Get" — Innercity Griots is the jazz-rap foundation that 2CC's abstract vocal tracks are built on.
Aaron Thomason makes records under the name 2econd Class Citizen out of Brighton, but the infrastructure around him is Berlin. His home label Equinox Records — run by DJ Scientist, a Munich-born turntablist and crate digger — positioned itself explicitly in the tradition of Ninja Tune and Mo’ Wax, the two London labels that defined sample-based downtempo in the ’90s. This album was released on The Content Label, a boutique LA imprint run by Dday One that puts out six to eight records a year, all sample-based.
The Myka 9 feature on “As Good As You Get” is the thread worth pulling. Myka 9 is Freestyle Fellowship — the LA jazz-rap collective that pioneered the abstract, improvisational approach to hip-hop in the early ’90s, years before the beat scene formalized around Low End Theory nights and Brainfeeder releases. Having him on this record connects a Brighton producer, a Berlin label ecosystem, and an LA underground lineage that predates the one most people know. DJ Food did the typography. The Herbaliser remixed the closing track. Three decades of UK breakbeat culture showing up in the credits of a record released through LA and distributed through Berlin.