Stones Throw Records is an independent

Independent record label

An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...

 hip hop

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 based in Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

. It was started in 1996

1996 in music

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1996.-January:* January – At the trial of two American teenagers, Nicholaus McDonald and Brian Bassett, for the murder of Bassett's parents and young brother, defense lawyers attempt to lay the blame for the murders on the fact...

 by DJ/Producer

Hip hop production

Hip hop production is the creation of hip hop music. Though the term encompasses all aspects of hip hop music, it's most commonly used to refer to the instrumental, non-lyrical aspects of hip hop. This means that hip hop producers are the instrumentalists involved in a work...

 Peanut Butter Wolf

Peanut Butter Wolf

Chris Manak, aka Peanut Butter Wolf, is a DJ, hip-hop producer and the founder of hip-hop label Stones Throw Records.A native of San Jose, California, He took on the name Peanut Butter Wolf in the late-80s when he realized that a girlfriend’s youngest brother feared the “peanut butter wolf monster”...

 in part to release the music he made with Charizma

Charizma

Charles Hicks a.k.a. Charizma was an MC from San Jose, California, United States. He is most known for his work with Peanut Butter Wolf; the two of them formed a duo together, but their music was cut short when Charizma was murdered in late 1993.-Biography:Charizma was 13 when he got his first...

 who was killed at the age of 20.

Stones Throw is home to Madlib

Madlib

Otis Jackson Jr. in Oxnard, California, known professionally as Madlib, is a Los Angeles-based DJ, multi-instrumentalist, rapper, and music producer...

 and many of his projects: Madvillain

Madvillain

Madvillain is a hip hop group consisting of MF DOOM and Madlib . Their debut album Madvillainy was met with wide critical acclaim for its unique approach—short songs, obscure lyrics, few choruses and a sound which was generally unfriendly to commercial radio.In 2006, Madvillain was featured on...

, Jaylib, Yesterdays New Quintet

Madlib

Otis Jackson Jr. in Oxnard, California, known professionally as Madlib, is a Los Angeles-based DJ, multi-instrumentalist, rapper, and music producer...

, Quasimoto

Madlib

Otis Jackson Jr. in Oxnard, California, known professionally as Madlib, is a Los Angeles-based DJ, multi-instrumentalist, rapper, and music producer...

, and Lootpack

Lootpack

Lootpack were an American hip hop group signed to Stones Throw Records with members Madlib, Wildchild, and DJ Romes. They made their first appearance on the 1993 debut album by Tha Alkaholiks, 21 & Over....

. Other notable artists on the roster include Anika, Dimlite, Dam-Funk

Dâm-Funk

Dâm-Funk is an American Modern Funk singer, DJ and producer from Pasadena, California. In 2009 he debuted his five LPs of new material, which were edited and released on two discs as Toeachizown late in the year on Stones Throw Records...

, Mayer Hawthorne

Mayer Hawthorne

Mayer Hawthorne is an American singer, producer, songwriter, arranger, audio engineer, DJ, rapper and multi-instrumentalist based in Los Angeles, California, USA. The stage name "Mayer Hawthorne" is a combination of Cohen's real middle name and the name of the street he grew up on in Michigan...

, Guilty Simpson

Guilty Simpson

Byron Simpson, better known by his stage name Guilty Simpson is a rapper from Detroit, Michigan. He was previously known as Guilt. Over time, he saw that there were more emcees using the alias. In order to set himself apart from the others, he added his last name to become Guilty Simpson. He is...

, Strong Arm Steady

Strong Arm Steady

Strong Arm Steady, often referred to as SAS, is a rap/hip hop group in California's underground hip hop scene. As of December 2009, the act consists of members Mitchy Slick of San Diego, California, and Phil Da Agony and probably the most visually distinct member, Krondon, who is albinistic...

, Gary Wilson

Gary Wilson (musician)

Gary Wilson is an experimental musician/performance artist best known for his 1977 album You Think You Really Know Me, after which he promptly retired from recording and performing concerts...

, MF Doom

MF Doom

Daniel Dumile is a hip hop artist who has taken on several stage names in his career, most notably MF DOOM, where the "MF" stands for metal face, and for tracks he has produced, metal fingers...

, J Dilla

J Dilla

James Dewitt Yancey , better known by the stage names J Dilla and Jay Dee, was an American record producer who emerged from the mid-1990s underground hip hop scene in Detroit, Michigan...

 , Aloe Blacc

Aloe Blacc

Aloe Blacc is an American soul singer, rapper, and musician.-Early career and Shine Through :...

, J Rocc, Arabian Prince

Arabian Prince

Arabian Prince is the stage name of Mik Lezan , a rapper and hip hop producer, best known for being an original member of the rap group, N.W.A.-Biography:...

, The Stepkids, Jonti, CX KiDTRONiK, Baron Zen

Baron Zen

Peanut Butter Wolf, before making his name as a DJ and Producer and before founding Stones Throw Records, was programming drums for one-man punk rock/disco act Baron Zen, known to almost no one, because Baron Zen did not play shows, did not release records, rejected all forms of publicity, and...

, Koushik

Koushik

Koushik Ghosh is a Canadian electronic musician from Dundas, Ontario. Koushik is signed to Stones Throw Records and has released a collection of singles and EPs from 2001–2005 on that label, Be With , and the debut full length, Out my Window...

 and James Pants

James Pants

James Pants is an American multi-instrumental recording artist. Although his music defies simple categorization, he is promoted as a purveyor of the "fresh beat," an early-80's sound with influences from 80’s soul, electro boogie, early rap, new wave, and post-punk disco.He was discovered by DJ and...

. J Dilla

J Dilla

James Dewitt Yancey , better known by the stage names J Dilla and Jay Dee, was an American record producer who emerged from the mid-1990s underground hip hop scene in Detroit, Michigan...

's final album during his lifetime, Donuts

Donuts (album)

Donuts is an instrumental hip hop album by producer J Dilla. Donuts was released on February 7, 2006, his 32nd birthday, and only three days before his death...

, was released by Stones Throw in February 2006. They also released a solo album by the progressive rock

Progressive rock

Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...

 guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez

Omar Alfredo Rodríguez-López is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, writer, actor and film director who was born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico...

 called Old Money

Old Money (album)

Old Money is a studio album by Omar Rodríguez-López released by Stones Throw Records in November 2008, and is the musician's first album on that label...

.