Joe Bataan opens “The Story of Ghetto Records” box set at Now-Again Records/Rappcats HQ, Los Angeles

Latin propellant and Ghetto Records co-founder Joe Bataan visited Now-Again and Rappcats HQ in Los Angeles late in 2022, to open his copy of the Vinyl Me, Please x Now-Again ‘The Story of Ghetto Records’ box set and shares his reactions with Now-Again’s founder Eothen “Egon” Alapatt. The moments were captured on film by Bennett Piscetelli, and this excerpt was editd by Richard Edens.
‘The Story of Ghetto Records’ is told through 7 landmark albums of Latin jazz, deep soul, raucous boogaloo, and heavy salsa.
“There’s a reason that it took nearly half a century for Joe Bataan to allow these records to be issued again - his label was born out of rebellion and frustration with the music industry. He refused to be burned a second time,” Egon says. “It took years to gain his trust, and I knew I would finally earn it - because I, too, wanted to know the true ‘Story of Ghetto Records.’
The Anthology is accompanied by an extensive Listening Notes booklet, as well as a podcast series hosted by Pablo E. Yglesia, which will serve as a definitive guide to each album, set against the backdrop of stories from the artists’ lives. Ghetto Records’ master tapes were largely lost in the chaos of the label’s closure in the mid-70s. Egon and Yglesias sourced the cleanest copies of rare original vinyl, which mastering engineer Jason Bitner spliced, restored, and remastered. The exception was the Paul Ortiz album ‘Los Que Son’ whose master tapes Bataan zealously guarded over the years, and which was cut in an all-analog transfer. The never-before-heard Bataan songs on ‘Drug Story’ were found on a master tape in Spain decades after Bataan thought he had lost it forever.
Lacquers for all titles (except for ‘Drug Story’) were cut by Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering. All seven titles are pressed on exclusive 180g black vinyl at GZ.
Album List:
Eddie Lebron - ‘Ghetto Records Presents… Eddie Lebron’
Papo Felix and Ray Rodriguez - ‘Papo Felix Meets Ray Rodriguez’
Paul Ortiz Y La Orquesta Son - ‘Los Que Son’
La Fantastica ‎- ‘From Ear To Ear’
Joe Acosta - ‎’The Power Of Love’
Candido Y Su Movimiento - ‎’Palos De Fuego’
Joe Bataan - ‘Drug Story’
VMP Anthology is a reinvented, immersive box set experience for music fans willing to journey beyond the liner notes. Each Anthology features expert storytelling, exclusive inserts, and a collectors-edition vinyl box set. ‘The Story of Ghetto Records’ is the fourteenth VMP Anthology release. Now-Again Records has produced two Anthologies with VMP - ‘The Story of Tribe Records’ and ‘The Story of Zamrock.’ Other VMP Anthology issues honor The Grateful Dead, Blue Note Records, the Women of Motown, Ghostly International, Stax Records, Herbie Hancock, Metal Blade Records, Vanguard Records, Philadelphia International Records, Quincy Jones, and Willie Nelson.

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The Legend!

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