WASHINGTON PARK — Two DJs will celebrate the opening of their South Side record store this week as their pandemic pop-up project has grown into a brick-and-mortar business with thousands of records on Washington Park’s “Arts Block.”
Miyagi Records — a record resale shop curated by Nigel Ridgeway, known as TREW, and Marco Jacobo, known as Maker — opens noon Friday at 307 E. Garfield Blvd. A grand opening celebration begins 5 p.m. Friday.
“With both [Ridgeway and Jacobo] being DJs and collectors, for us, records never went away,” Jacobo said. “It’s outlasted so many other types of ways of listening to music, and it’s become more than just a record.”
The record shop started as a series of pop-ups by Ridgeway and Jacobo. Chicago legend The Twilite Tone, “one of our first customers at the pop-up when we started,” will spin during Friday’s grand opening event, as will DJs TREW, Maker, Shazam Bangles, Rudy De Anda and Hameedulah, Ridgeway said.
A soft opening takes place next door to the shop 5-9 p.m. Thursday at Retreat at Currency Exchange Café, 305 E. Garfield Blvd., where DJ and artist JayToo will spin a soul set using records available at Miyagi.
The celebration continues all weekend, as the store opens 11 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, and DJ sets and live beats start at 1 p.m both days. Twelve-inch singles are 12 percent off Saturday, and beatmakers and DJs get 15 percent off all records Sunday.
Miyagi Records will open on the University of Chicago’s Arts Block, which was launched by artist and Rebuild Foundation founder Theaster Gates. The shop neighbors the L1 business accelerator and store, the Green Line Performing Arts Center, the Arts Incubator and the Currency Exchange café.
“The preservation, curation and recirculation of Black music that Miyagi Records brings to the Arts Block demonstrates the depth of creative entrepreneurial talent that lives in our communities,” Theaster Gates, artist and founder of the Rebuild Foundation, said in a statement.
The record store traces its roots back to early in the pandemic, when widespread shutdowns and venue closures severely impacted working artists like Ridgeway and Jacobo.
“Prior to the pandemic, I was a working DJ — deejaying and performing in my band,” said Ridgeway, who also operates the Heat Rock record label with Jacobo. “The pandemic knocked that all out of place.”
The pair turned to selling records at popups, bolstered by a massive Craigslist haul of disco, house, new jack swing and other music bought from two DJs who were active from the late ’70s through the early ’90s.
Miyagi Records only has “maybe 50 left from those initial 6,000” records bought through Craigslist, Ridgeway said. “Those records ended up seeding the business and helping us grow.”
The Washington Park shop will offer an “all killer, no filler” array of sounds for record collectors, with more than 5,000 records available on opening day, Ridgeway said.
Ridgeway’s favorite record on the shelves for Miyagi Records’ opening day is Muddy Waters’ “Electric Mud,” Waters’ divisive foray into electric blues, which was recorded at Chess Records’ studios at 21st Street and Michigan Avenue.
For Jacobo, it’s “Stainless Soul” by The New Apocalypse, a psychedelic joint featuring a driving, horn-led instrumental cover of the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby.”
“Classics” from Marvin Gaye, Madonna, Whitney Houston and other legends will be sold at Miyagi, as the store “needs to be accessible” to be successful, Ridgeway said.
But the crate-digging duo will make sure their eclectic interests, from Polish jazz and jazz fusion to Bollywood soundtracks, are well-represented on Miyagi Records’ shelves, they said.
“When you’ve been collecting for a good amount of time, seeking the same records and owning the same records, you want to discover new music and even be able to put other people on to something they don’t know,” Jacobo said. “That’s a part of DJ culture that goes way back.”
Miyagi Records is open 4-9 p.m. Thursdays, noon-9 p.m. Fridays and 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.
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