Peanut Butter Wolf
My Vinyl Weighs A Ton

Listening notes

Peanut Butter Wolf's My Vinyl Weighs A Ton was released in 1999 on Stones Throw Records under catalog number STH 2017. Catalogued under hip hop and turntablism, the album arrived as a full-length vinyl release from the label that Wolf himself founded.

The record is spread across six sides, spanning positions A through F, which places it in triple LP territory by format. That physical scope is worth noting on its own terms: the title's self-referential nod to the weight of vinyl is matched by an actual commitment to the format, with the music distributed across an unusually large number of sides for a hip hop release of its era.

The tracklist runs to twenty-three entries and reflects a structure common to turntablism-adjacent records of the period, mixing full-length tracks with brief interstitial pieces. Several entries clock in under thirty seconds — "Sit Down And Shut Up" at fifteen seconds, "Barter" at twenty-one, "Top Illin" at twenty-two, "T Shirts" at twenty-nine, "Ten Minutes Left" at eighteen, and "Hawaii 5000" at eighteen — functioning as transitions or interludes between the longer material. The longest single track is "Tale Of Five Cities," which occupies all of side D at eight minutes and fifty seconds. Other extended pieces include "Styles, Crews, Flows, Beats" at five minutes fifty seconds and "Run The Line" at five minutes eighteen seconds.

Stones Throw Records, the label on which My Vinyl Weighs A Ton appeared, went on to become one of the more recognized independent hip hop imprints of the following decade. This 1999 release represents an early entry in that catalog.