A popular online retailer of hip-hop records, apparel, and collectibles that got its start in a Northeastern University dorm room nearly two decades ago is pulling the plug and officially shut down operations at the start of the new year.
Adam Walder, founder of UndergroundHipHop.com, or UGHH, as it’s more popularly known, said in a blog post on the company’s website Tuesday that due to declining revenues, he’s decided to stop slinging vinyl and promoting locally and nationally known hip-hop artists.
“We have been fighting our hardest to stay in business for the past few years,’’ Walder wrote. “Our overhead is too great (rent, payroll, internet fees, bank loans, credit cards, etc.) and it makes business sense to not continue in what can only be described as an adventure of a lifetime.’’
The company stopped taking online orders Wednesday.
The site got its start in Walder’s dorm room in 1997, according to his blog post. At the time, it was nothing more than a website for Walder’s personal conquests as a disc jockey, called “DJ Quest’s Slammin’ Hip Hop Page.’’ It also served as a digital landing spot for streaming music by relatively unknown artists.
The site almost immediately gained traction. By 1999, its name had changed and UGHH was up and running. It was around that time that Walder launched online forums for discussions about the music genre, and offered a unique place for people to shop for records and mix tapesput out by independent artists and labels.
In 2005, as the business grew “exponentially,’’ according to Globe archives, Walder added a brick-and-mortar shop near Boston’s Symphony Hall. It was there that people could flip through records, or hop on one of the in-store computers to fill a digital shopping cart with merchandise that UGHH had in stock. A clerk at the register would then walk to the adjacent warehouse and gather the goods. The store even served as a small venue for popular performers, and hosted events.
“I had no idea it would become as large as it has,’’ Walder told the Globe when the store opened. “There’s just no place else to get this kind of music.’’
After a decade, however, the store closed down. In 2015, UGHH consolidated and moved its warehouse operations and office into new headquarters in Newmarket Square.
Just two years later, UGHH is again downsizing — this time, it seems, for good.
Steve Annear can be reached at steve.annear@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @steveannear.
