Customers dig through crates at Rich St. Records Credit: Raghav Raj | Lantern Reporter
Seven years after it went underground, a beloved Columbus record shop with over 20 years of history is once again open for weekly business, complete with a new name and storefront.
Rich St. Records, formerly known as Roots Records, announced in an Aug. 12 Instagram post that it now has a “weekly schedule” — 1-7 p.m. Thursdays, 1-10 p.m. Fridays, 1-7 p.m. Saturdays and noon-6 p.m. Sundays — for its newly opened location at 554 W. Rich St.
Store owner Carl Newman said he founded the original Roots Records — previously located on the corner of High Street and Fifth Avenue — in 1997 as a reggae record store, which stocked underground hip-hop, house, techno and jungle music on CDs, cassettes and LPs.
In 2005, Newman said the store moved to a different location on High Street — situated at 1357 N. High St. — before it eventually closed in 2017.
Newman said closing the store felt necessary, as he was dealing with burnout and exhaustion from the nearly 20 years spent running the business.
“I was just physically tired of this, being on High Street for almost 20 years, going there every day and having a retail store to take care of,” Newman said. “I just needed a break.”
Newman said after closing the High Street storefront, he continued selling music from Roots’ collection out of the Franklinton warehouse where Rich St. Records now operates. Newman said he sold products through online marketplaces including Discogs and Amazon, as well as during pop-up events and live concerts hosted at the current storefront.
“I’ve had this spot for almost 20 years as storage, and I had all the old furniture, sound systems and all the record racks from Roots,” Newman said. “I was just like, ‘Let’s see what happens.’ Then all these people started coming in.”
Newman said the decision to open Rich St. Records for regular hours was born from interest and enthusiasm the store received from the Columbus community following its frequent pop-up events, which began in 2021.
“People were bugging us because we were only open two days a month,” Newman said. “We have a ton of killer records in there, and I got some really good people working here with me, so at a point we were all like, ‘We need to keep this thing going and keep pushing the music.’”
Derrick Hill, an employee at Rich St. Records, said the store’s depth and variety of selections help set it apart.
Derrick “DJ Pos2” Hill rings up a customer at Rich St. Records on Aug. 23. Credit: Raghav Raj | Lantern Reporter
“There’s times where we are the only shop in America that will have a certain release because of the connections that the people that help out here have,” Hill said. “That’s what makes this place so special — ‘This is where I’m gonna find stuff that I know I’m not even going to find on the internet.’”
Hill, a long-time hip-hop DJ who performs around Columbus under the name “DJ Pos2,” said his favorite aspect of Rich St. Records is its connection to Columbus’ DJ scene.
“You got reggae, but also your South African, South American or Brazilian stuff, your house, drum-and-bass, techno stuff,” Hill said. “A lot of the other stores either have a little tiny section with that stuff or none at all, so that’s where this place is definitely always with the DJs in that culture.”
While Rich St. Records has hosted internationally recognized DJs like Coco Bryce and Tim Reaper, it also showcases prominent local DJs at its events. One such DJ is Jason Rawls, an assistant professor of hip-hop in Ohio State’s School of Music, who said he has DJed at Rich St. Records multiple times.
Rawls said he always looks forward to playing at the store, calling it “a feel-good place.”
“It’s a place that you really need to go to to experience. It’s not really something you can tell somebody,” Rawls said. “While you’re watching a show or listening to somebody DJ, you can go through records. There’s nothing like that.”
Newman said he hopes opening up Rich St. Records for regular hours will give the younger generation a space to explore a different side of Columbus’ underground music scene.
“Seeing the young people that are into it and doing it gets me fired up and excited because they’re keeping it alive,” Newman said. “So I’ll do my part — get some good records in here and throw a few events here and there.”
More information about Rich St. Records can be found on its website.
