This Obscure Hardcore Record Just Set a Sales Record
I confess that I’ve never heard of Judge or their album, Chung King Can Suck It but apparently it’s worth a lot of money. A 1989 albumby this straight edge band from New York City recently sold on Discogs for a record $6,048. In fact, when copies come up on eBay, they usually fetch around the same amount.
Huh? What?
According to Factmag, the story goes like this.
When the band was recording this record–working title Bringin’ It Down–at Chung King Studios in NYC, things were very crowded. The Beastie Boys were in one studio working on Paul’s Boutique. LL Cool J was in another crafting Walking with a Panther. And Run DMC was in another working on a bunch of different material.
With three platinum-selling acts occupying the three best studios, Judge was relegated to crappy Studio Four. It also didn’t help that their assigned engineer was a coke head who stopped showing up on the third day. That meant Judge had to use another engineer who didn’t know the first think about hardcore.
They considered the results so sub-standard that just 100 copies of the finished product to fulfill orders from fans who had pre-ordered it. Another ten were pressed up for friends and family. And just to make a point, the album was retitled Chung King Can Suck It.
A proper version of Bringin’ It Down eventually was released, but all collectors want to hear about is this super-rare version. Here’s what it sounds like.
