Newark rapper Redman‘s groundbreaking debut, Whut? Thee Album, is getting fresh life on wax with a new, all-black vinyl variant. The pressing, available for pre-order now, offers another great reason to revisit one of hip-hop’s most celebrated first outings.

Whut? Thee Album introduced Redman as one of hip-hop’s most original new voices, combining incisive lyricism and funk-infused production. The album was released through Def Jam Recordings, Rush Associated Labels, and Chaos Recordings. Recording took place across 1991 and 1992 at studios in New York, with production handled by Redman, credited under his birth name Reggie Noble, along with EPMD’s Erick Sermon and Pete Rock. Redman signed to Def Jam after building a reputation as a member of EPMD’s Hit Squad.

Redman has described the recording process as a key independent learning experience for him—according to the rapper, Sermon showed Redman the ropes but frequently left him alone to record. “When I first started doing the album I was mad at Erick for leaving me in the studio,” he told the author Brian Coleman in 2007. “I was like ‘what the fuck am I doing here?’ I had an album to hit the world with, and it was just up to me. But I’m glad he did it, because I learned everything that I needed to.”

Whut? Thee Album features tracks including “Time 4 Sum Aksion,” “Tonight’s da Night,” and “Blow Your Mind,” all of which capture Redman’s charisma and freestyle proficiency over funk loops that went on to shape the sound of 1990s East Coast hip-hop. “Funk is a feeling,” Redman told XXL in 2014 of his relationship with the sound. ”Funk is a way of life. Funk is… [pauses] It’s actually a nucleus that you have to be born with. When I got down with E Sermon and EPMD, he helped me advance my funkness.”

Whut? Thee Album debuted on the Billboard 200 and was later certified gold by the RIAA for sales of more than 500,000 copies in the U.S.

Shop Redman’s Whut? Thee Album on vinyl here.