{"id":3480,"date":"2025-10-15T14:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T14:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/3480\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T14:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T14:31:08","slug":"an-inside-look-at-new-york-citys-best-independent-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/3480\/","title":{"rendered":"An inside look at New York City\u2019s best independent record\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On the corner of Jamaica Avenue and 170th Street in New York City\u2019s Jamaica, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huckmag.com\/article\/queens-local-surfers-rockaway-beach-scene\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Queens<\/a> neighbourhood lies a\u00a0record store with a\u00a0humble, retro blue and yellow frontage. \u200b\u201cVP Records: Miles Ahead in Reggae,\u201d it reads. Named after its founders Vincent \u200b\u201cRandy\u201d Chin and Patricia \u200b\u201cMiss Pat\u201d Chin, the store was first opened by the pair in the Jamaica area in 1979 after they relocated from their home country of Jamaica.<\/p>\n<p>Inside, reggae, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huckmag.com\/article\/how-dub-became-a-defining-sound-of-70s-britain\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">dub<\/a>, soca and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huckmag.com\/article\/worlds-dancehall-culture-church-come-together-jamaica\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">dancehall<\/a> records fill crates lined across the walls, sitting alongside flags featuring the Rastafarian red, green and yellow colours, t\u2011shirts, books on reggae and Jamaica (the country), and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huckmag.com\/topic\/music-photography\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">music photography<\/a>. Yet the old school signage and relatively small interior belies a\u00a0rich history, and continuing influence on the music industry. Today, VP Records is the world\u2019s largest distributor of reggae and Caribbean music, as well as featuring a\u00a0long running record label arm, with offices in several cities across the world including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huckmag.com\/topic\/london\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">London<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huckmag.com\/article\/miami-beach-captured-in-its-hedonistic-heyday\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Miami<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huckmag.com\/article\/surreal-scenes-from-the-streets-of-tokyo\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Tokyo<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huckmag.com\/article\/remembering-fietas-johannesburgs-vibrant-neighbourhood-ripped-by-apartheid\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Johannesburg<\/a> and of course, Kingston, Jamaica.<\/p>\n<p>The Jamaica Avenue shop one of the oldest record stores featured in Vinyl NYC, a\u00a0new book by husband-and-wife photography duo <a href=\"https:\/\/jamesandkarlamurray.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">James T. and Karla L. Murray<\/a>, with its text penned by music journalist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hattielindert.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Hattie Lindert<\/a>. \u200b\u201cWhen you think of Jamaica, Queens, you might actually think more of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huckmag.com\/article\/powerful-portrait-hip-hop-history\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">hip hop<\/a> \u2013 it\u2019s always been a\u00a0melting pot,\u201d says Karla. \u200b\u201cVP Records is run by Miss Pat, who is a\u00a0legend in that world, and it\u2019s gorgeous. It\u2019s a\u00a0community centre \u2013 she holds record store events, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huckmag.com\/article\/anderson-zaca-block-party-new-york-darkroom-mcs\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">block parties<\/a> and has a\u00a0foundation for kids that are interested in becoming musicians.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the corner of Jamaica Avenue and 170th Street in New York City\u2019s Jamaica, Queens neighbourhood lies a\u00a0record&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3880,2879,3878,3883,3874,3875,3879,808,1443,3873,3877,3882,9,24,55,54,56,1232,3876,3881],"class_list":{"0":"post-3480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-archiving","9":"tag-book","10":"tag-boroughs","11":"tag-existences","12":"tag-explores","13":"tag-frontages","14":"tag-hattie","15":"tag-interiors","16":"tag-james","17":"tag-lindert","18":"tag-located","19":"tag-murray","20":"tag-new-york","21":"tag-new-york-city","22":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","23":"tag-new-york-city-news","24":"tag-ny","25":"tag-people","26":"tag-shops","27":"tag-vinyl"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}