Shibuya. The hip-hop shop, open since 1980.

Shop: Manhattan Records
Town: Tokyo, Japan
Established: 1980
Formats: Vinyl, 7", Cassette, CDs
Crates: Hip-hop, Soul, Funk, Disco, Reggae, Electronic

Masao Hirakawa opened Manhattan Records on 6 April 1980 in a small apartment behind Shibuya police station, with about three thousand records. It moved to Udagawacho in the early nineties, across from the second Tower Records, and it has been the hip-hop shop in Tokyo ever since - which matters, because Shibuya became the centre of Japanese hip-hop partly through shops like this one. The flagship runs over two floors: new hip-hop vinyl, apparel and goods downstairs, a deep second-hand floor above