Tower Records: How NEXT Level were they? (For those that KNOW)

[MusicConsulting]

Tower Records was so next level, they thought of a way to keep people involved in their brand where there wasnt even a store nearby.

They invented a SYSTEM where they catalogued most of what they had in inventory and you could call the 1800 number (this was before myspace,soundcloud,mp3.com,amazon sound samples) and this narrator would come up and preview the album for you!!

I use to test this thing daily. One time I put AMG in the phone & this radio dj sounding voice came booming through the telephone "AMG....bytch Betta Have My Money" I can't remember if it said bytch or not,

But the point is Tower Records had somehow found time to put ENTIRE fukking labels into their sample databank. Imagine how many fukking titles that is and how many hours it must have taken for this guy to record this? This voice was not robotic. They must have had that guy record hundreds of Thousands of titles.

I would try it over n over. Jive Titles had EVERYTHING... ALL OF JIVE's shyt, all the affiliate umbrella label shyt, it was all fukking there.

"Celly Cel ......Heat fo YOOO AZZ" He said it with this emphasis when he said "AZZ", like "damn you better buy this album"

I think they even had HWA. I forgot if they said the song titles as well. shyt was so comical.


Does anyone else remember calling this number? If you lived in the major cities, your ass could go to Tower Records or someplace. But pre internet music listening if you were a hip hop fan, you didn't have many places other than a few outlets.

I was always astounded when I would try some label and they would have it. If it was a major distributor, they somehow had that shyt recorded. They must have had over million recorded lp demos.

"Abooooove the Law Uncle Sam's Curse"


I just wanted to post this to see if anyone else called that number growing up to Tower & what artist you put in there to listen to the voiceover say something gangsta or really crazy sounding.

 

[mobbinfms]

Never called them. Copped so many tapes there though

 

[Cole Cash]

Tower Records was so next level, they thought of a way to keep people involved in their brand where there wasnt even a store nearby.

They invented a SYSTEM where they catalogued most of what they had in inventory and you could call the 1800 number (this was before myspace,soundcloud,mp3.com,amazon sound samples) and this narrator would come up and preview the album for you!!

I use to test this thing daily. One time I put AMG in the phone & this radio dj sounding voice came booming through the telephone "AMG....bytch Betta Have My Money" I can't remember if it said bytch or not,

But the point is Tower Records had somehow found time to put ENTIRE fukking labels into their sample databank. Imagine how many fukking titles that is and how many hours it must have taken for this guy to record this? This voice was not robotic. They must have had that guy record hundreds of Thousands of titles.

I would try it over n over. Jive Titles had EVERYTHING... ALL OF JIVE's shyt, all the affiliate umbrella label shyt, it was all fukking there.

"Celly Cel ......Heat fo YOOO AZZ" He said it with this emphasis when he said "AZZ", like "damn you better buy this album"

I think they even had HWA. I forgot if they said the song titles as well. shyt was so comical.


Does anyone else remember calling this number? If you lived in the major cities, your ass could go to Tower Records or someplace. But pre internet music listening if you were a hip hop fan, you didn't have many places other than a few outlets.

I was always astounded when I would try some label and they would have it. If it was a major distributor, they somehow had that shyt recorded. They must have had over million recorded lp demos.

"Abooooove the Law Uncle Sam's Curse"


I just wanted to post this to see if anyone else called that number growing up to Tower & what artist you put in there to listen to the voiceover say something gangsta or really crazy sounding.

I do, I remember testing it too, with rbl posse and jt the Bigga figga and that shyt worked. That shyt was on point. Amazing how much work that had to take

 

[MusicConsulting]

Never called them. Copped so many tapes there though

Damn, you were lucky. I had shytty selection in my town, you had to special order, sometimes it takes up a month to get it in stock. No one has time for that today, Hip Hop ordering was so goddamn hit or miss in the days of yesteryear. Now, you can find the entire Kool Keith catalog on youtube.

 

[mobbinfms]

Damn, you were lucky. I had shytty selection in my town, you had to special order, sometimes it takes up a month to get it in stock. No one has time for that today, Hip Hop ordering was so goddamn hit or miss in the days of yesteryear. Now, you can find the entire Kool Keith catalog on youtube.

Breh. I grew up in the Bay Area. Tower Records wasn't shyt. We had Amoeba and Rasputins.

 

[MusicConsulting]

I do, I remember testing it too, with rbl posse and jt the Bigga figga and that shyt worked. That shyt was on point. Amazing how much work that had to take

YEA, I tried that with JT & RBL as well!! That shyt was so fukkING crazy. I think they had a female voice too, but most of the recordings were by this ONE guy. And sometimes if you listened long enough, it sounded like he was laughing when he said some of these titles. I think that has to do with your mind starting to imagine hearing things because you find it so funny. They had everything with Sick Widd It, I wonder when they gave that up. Because that's a lot of titles to keep adding. I wonder if that guy gave up because of all the rap titles he had to record. No Limit, Suave House,Get Low, that's a lot of releases with just those 4.

 

[MusicConsulting]

Breh. I grew up in the Bay Area. Tower Records wasn't shyt. We had Amoeba and Rasputins.

Oh shyt, you had the goldmines. I heard stories...

The things that these distribution places would do were demonic (I worked in Music retail for a little bit), they had Cd's priced at sometimes 13.00 wholesale price. It is no wonder cd's hit the coffins with practices like this. How the hell you going to charge 13.75 for a CD wholesale with a straight face to music retailers? Stores going to have to sell more than shirts, used cd's and bootlegs. Some of these labels have to be financed by the Illuminati, how the hell do they keep going with these prices?

 

[Dixon Cider]

The hood Fingerhut

 

[Asicz]

Tower Record extremely liberal refund/return Policy was.
They allowed returns of open merchandise.

Came in handy when Sauce Money and Amil dropped solos.

 

[keond]

The Tower Records here in atlanta was huge. Like the size of a Walmart. Magazine section was tough. And they had a mean ass jazz section. Damn near every record that ever made was in that Tower. I damn near cried when they shut that bytch down

 

[Juggalo Fred]

Tower Record extremely liberal refund/return Policy was.
They allowed returns of open merchandise.

Came in handy when Sauce Money and Amil dropped solos.

that first sauce money solo was dope

 

[Asicz]

that first sauce money solo was dope

It had one good song Face Off ft Jay Z
Not worth 13.99

 

[OnlyInCalifornia]

I remember they even found a way to legally sell illegal mixtapes all the way out here by making you cop the shirt with a 'free' cd in it.

Nothing beats Amoeba in LA/SF, shouts to @mobbinfms

 

[Bankroll.org]

Yall should check out the documentary on Tower Records, really well done

 

[TheRtist]

shout outs to Napstar.