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It’s hard to dispute the fact that LA’s Stones Throw Records—currently celebrating its tenth anniversary—is one of the country’s best hip-hop labels. Although it still emphasizes the kind of stripped-down, no-frills hip-hop that people in some circles unfairly tag as “backpacker rap,” in recent years the label has truly expanded its sound, issuing albums from genre-bending soul singers like Aloe Blacc and Georgia Anne Muldrow and a number of killer compilations (both on Stones Throw and Now-Again, the distributed imprint of funk-45 collector Egon) highlighting hip-hop’s roots. Factor in the significant success of Madlib (and his alter egos like Lootpack, Quasimoto, Yesterday’s New Quintet), Dudley Perkins, and J Dilla (whose underground fave Ruff Draft was just reissued in an expanded edition) and you can see why Stones Throw is no longer exclusively thought of as a hideout for nut jobs.
