Back to the groove

Kingston City, once the beating pulse of vinyl culture in Jamaica, attracting musicians islandwide to get their precious records pressed and distributed, has faced a steady decline in the art in the digital age. Recently, as is the cyclical nature of movements, modern artistes have been seen revisiting the practice and digital releases are now increasingly accompanied by limited edition vinyl records, sometimes in the form of picture or coloured pressings. Leading the charge in ensuring a wide selection of vinyl records old and new are available locally, is the newly opened Street Supply Co flagship store, found within The Dubwise Cafe on 82 Lady Musgrave Road.

Formerly Base Kingston & Belle, a hub for artistes and Brand Jamaica merchandise located in Manor Park, Street Supply Co rebranded in 2015/2016 to include limited edition streetwear apparel collections. The original concept for the new flagship store was to continue in that vein, but conversations with local music enthusiasts inspired Rohan Scott, store manager of Street Supply Co., to personally reach out to recording artistes in his network, as well as record label VP Records to get the hard-to-come-by vinyls on his shelves. Now, a quick perusal around the space will find you face-to-face with floor-to-ceiling displays of albums by Protoje, Jesse Royal, Mortimer, Lila Iké and more.

“[Vinyl culture] is still big abroad, so what we want to do with Street Supply Co is help make it accessible and facilitate it here. Looking around where I can get records from, I went to my tribe and everybody contributed. But then I wanted more so I went and made some phone calls and then one of my bredrins put me in contact with VP Records ... I reached out and dem say, ‘Ye mon! But nobody down deh nah deal wid di ting proper!’ and I said, ‘Well I would love to be that guy.’ So they put together a little thing and we signed up some documents and here we are,” recounted Scott.

The recent addition of records to the list of available merchandise at Street Supply Co doesn’t take away from their streetwear apparel focus. Scott made it clear that the fashion subculture and its promotion throughout Jamaica will always be the first passion and priority of the brand. In addition to becoming a vinyl sub-distributor for Jamaican artistes and VP Records, Street Supply Co. will also carry apparel by them along with their existing in-house merchandise.

Since the inception of the company, its mission has also included the social development of the community it exists in. Today, they quietly assist in screen printing art programmes in schools, namely the Alpha Institute, with some of the apparel they carry by lifestyle brand Jamaica Nice and the brand Protoje being produced by students. Scott seeks to emphasise highlighting Brand Jamaica and also encourages local artistes to reach out to him and seek collaboration as they are always open to the uplifting of the island’s talent.

“We’ve been around for a while working extensively throughout Jamaica promoting streetwear. We work with Alpha helping them train young boys. Jamaica Nice ... Some of our artistes like Protoje, they print with Alpha. What we do, we want to distribute Brand Jamaica. Whether you’re here or in the diaspora. We love to work with local artists to help push their brands. So, brands [we currently carry] like Free From Babylon; Dubwise Jamaica, one of our collaborative partners; ZJ Sparks, the Steamfish and Okra Body; Very Culture ... we love those brands.”

Street Supply Co. is now officially open for business from Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m. - 7 p.m., at Dubwise Cafe at 82 Lady Musgrave Road.

lifestyle@gleanerjm.com