The sound of Blue Note had been embedded in hip hop through sampling and remixes since its early days, but Madlib raised the bar when the DJ/producer/rapper/musician invaded their vaults for his 2003 masterpiece, Shades of Blue – a visionary album featuring remixes/reimaginations of classics by Donald Byrd, Bobbi Humphrey, Ronnie Foster, Bobby Hutcherson, Wayne Shorter and more. Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series is all-analog mastering from the original master tapes and pressed on 180-gram vinyl.