A Canadian record label executive is auctioning off a recently-discovered time capsule of gold and platinum plaques from N.W.A. as well as solo projects by core members, including Eazy-E, Ice Cube, and Dr. Dre. After sitting untouched and forgotten for decades, the sales awards were recently discovered in an old storage locker in Richmond, British Columbia.
Vancouver native Bryan Turner moved to Los Angeles to form Priority Records in 1985, which became the label home to the forefathers of the West Coast hip-hop movement. A chance meeting between Turner and Ruthless Records co-founder Jerry Heller forged a distribution deal between the two labels, and launched the career of N.W.A., selling over three million copies of Straight Outta Compton in the process.
Any time the group or one of its members hit a sales milestone, Turner would send a plaque home to his parents in Richmond. "My parents were a huge influence on my life. We are a very close family, and I did something that was very out of the ordinary, as you can imagine. I wanted to share that with them, I thought it would be something they would be proud to display on their house," he told CBC. For a few years, the walls of the Turner home acted like a kind of hip-hop museum, but a renovation forced the Gold and Platinum records into storage, where they sat untouched until this year.
Turner’s father passed away five years ago, and his mother’s passing a month ago prompted the family to prep their house for sale. Daniel Cutler, Turner’s nephew, discovered the bounty of hip-hop memorabilia while cleaning out a long-dormant storage locker in the family’s name. Turner and family have decided that the rap relics will be shown to the public, and auctioned off at a one-day pop-up gallery in Vancouver. Half of the proceeds will go to the B.C. Children's Hospital.
Want to get your hands on one more platinum plaque, and own a piece of hip-hop history? The silent auction is set to take place at the Chinatown music venue Fortune Sound Club in Vancouver on Saturday, August 29th, as part of the larger N.W.A.-themed pop-up shop organized by Bryan Turner’s nephew Daniel Cutler. Check out a few photos from the uncovered haul above, via CBC.
