Sometimes you find a place that is just too amazing to comprehend on your first visit. In Harajuku there’s this place called “Grope in the Dark.” I first visited months ago and I kept telling myself I would have to go back and take pictures. I finally did.

When I first saw that sign, I had to double take. I turned around and walked back to examine it more closely. I thought about the name. Grope in the Dark. What the fuck could that be about? I thought about the claim of having Imports and Originals. Imports of what? I then thought that maybe it was one of those record stores that I had been desperately searching for since I got to Tokyo. That had to be it right?

So I took the small elevator to the 4th floor. As the doors opened, I heard the original sample from Rakim and Eric B’s Paid in Full. This meant that I was in a place that had access to a Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers record. It had to be a record store right?

Wrong. They did have a turntable though.

Grope in the Dark is a boutique of all things hip hop.

Depending on the day that you go in, the owner could be spinning some old school hip hop and soul records, playing random old school music videos and VHS recordings of Yo! MTV Raps, or even watching a documentary on Public Enemy.

When I say this place is a hip hop boutique, I mean its a boutique of mostly Golden Age hip hop. While you may disappointed when you see a “Free Weezy” T-Shirt, the rest of the shop is mostly about hip hop culture and fashion before 1996. There’s also a collection of random stuff that I call 黒物　(Kuromono - Black things). 

Oh yeah. The owner had a high top fade. Video coming soon.