Free The Funk Records opened its doors in Tacoma’s North End at 2201 N 30th St Suite A in the spring of 2024, when owner Sean Ober, known around the local DJ scene as DJ Dab, signed the lease on April 1st and turned a longtime passion for crate digging into a storefront. By June 2025 the shop had already marked its first anniversary, and by June 2026 it reached two years in business, a pace that has let it grow from a startup idea into a fixture for Tacoma vinyl collectors and working DJs alike.
The heart of the inventory is 45 rpm singles, with the shop stocking roughly 10,000 of them, a specialty that sets Free The Funk apart from record stores built primarily around full length LPs. Alongside that deep well of 45s, the store carries CDs, DJ gear, audio equipment, apparel, and even gaming products, making it as much a hangout spot for music and gear enthusiasts as a place to flip through bins. Free The Funk Records has also become an official dealer for a notable lineup of DJ equipment brands, including Funk Night Records, Turntable Training Wax, Stokyo, Phase DJ, Reloop, Allen and Heath, Hercules, and Ecler DJ, meaning working DJs can pick up both the records they need and the hardware to play them without a special order.
Inside the store, listening stations let customers preview a record before committing to a purchase, a mini arcade area gives visitors something to do between crates, and DJ equipment on display doubles as both merchandise and demonstration gear. The shop also rents out records and DJ equipment, a service aimed squarely at working DJs who need a specific track or piece of gear for a single gig rather than a permanent purchase, a niche offering that few general record stores provide.
Owner Sean Ober brings a creative bent to the business beyond retail, producing remixes and overdubs of obscure recordings that dig into proto rap and tape loop techniques, work that reflects the same crate digging instinct that stocks the shop’s shelves. That hands on relationship with the music, rather than a purely retail approach, shows up in the way the store’s selection leans toward deep cuts and dance floor staples that a casual collector might not stumble across elsewhere.
Free The Funk Records keeps a compact schedule, open Thursday through Sunday from noon to 6 p.m., making it a weekend and late week destination rather than an everyday stop, which fits the shop’s identity as a specialty spot for people who plan a visit rather than wander in casually. The North 30th Street location sits within Tacoma’s North End, a neighborhood known for its mix of small businesses and residential streets, giving the shop a low key setting that matches its focus on serious collectors and DJs over casual foot traffic.
For anyone in the South Sound hunting deep cuts on 45, professional DJ gear, or a rental for a one night gig, Free The Funk Records in Tacoma has built its two years in business around exactly that specialty, one crate, one dealer partnership, and one rental at a time.
