A new record store in Oakland specializes in vintage and contemporary rap sold on cassette, vinyl and CD.
"We opened the store because there was no place to reliably buy Too $hort CDs within the Oakland city limits," said Andrew Nosnitsky, best known for his long-running rap blog Cocaine Blunts, which he writes under the alias Noz.
Last week, Nosnitsky opened Park Blvd Records & Tapes with his friend Jason Darrah, who also operates a blog called 12ManRambo, according to Fact.
Bay Area rap is a particular interest of Park Blvd, though the shop specializes in both old and new school rap, which it sells on cassette, vinyl and CDs. Stylistically, said Nosnitsky, customers can find music that varies from "backpack to street."
"We also stock a wide variety of music beyond that though," he added, "[like] new and classic R&B, jazz, electronic, international — whatever is cool that we can find, really."
An online store is coming soon for the Bay Area and beyond, so out-of-towners will be able to "lie and tell people you went to the Bay Area even if you didn't," Nosnitsky writes in a recent blog update.
