Crate Diggers: Peanut Butter Wolf Can't Stop Buying Records
“I definitely have a disorder. It’s an addiction and I’m glad that this is my drug and not something that could make me an angry, horrible, mean person.”
DJ/producer/Stones Throw founder Peanut Butter Wolf is showing us around his Los Angeles home, having moved in recently enough that 15,000 records are still packed in boxes, waiting to be removed, organized and cataloged for the many, many shelves that have yet to be installed.
“We had a moving company and I warned them about all my records,” says Wolf in our latest edition of “Crate Diggers” above. “They said, ‘We can get it all done in one day’ and they brought five guys out. By 4 pm, they had to call and get another truck and more people. That’s when you realize you have too much crap. I’m trying to get rid of a lot of records but that’s hard because I can’t get rid of anything.”
Calling Wolf, whose Stones Throw Records has released albums by J Dilla, MF Doom, Mayer Hawthorne and Madlib, a collector is like saying Michael Jackson had a few minor hits. 8-tracks with portable 8-track player. Hundreds of 8x10 promotional photos. His first mixer he bought at 14. And a slew of tapes, including the first mixtape he’s ever made.
Naturally, Wolf’s collection runs deep, as the DJ walks us through albums by industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle, post-punk legends Public Image Ltd. and influential rapper Schoolly D, among others. Dating his love of music to a second grade teacher who would let his class listen to disco, soul and funk every Friday, Wolf talks spending $3,000 on records at one time, vinyl shopping with Q-Tip and name-dropping Jazzy Jeff to peruse a store with more than 4 million records. Check it out above.
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