the gift is a series dj house shoes started to spotlight under the radar producers. pressed in a limited edition of 300 copies on 180 gram vinyl. raj mahal was a colleague of house shoes in the detroit hip-hop scene in the 1990s, a scene he joined just about the time fantastic volume one was recorded (1996). when he moved to chicago and refined his style, there was widespread talk that raj would follow in the footseps of other detroit alumni by releasing a proper album. that album has finally come.