SUGAR HILL RECORDS
Sugar Hill Records was a record label specializing in hip hop music that was founded in 1979 by husband and wife Joe and Sylvia Robinson with Milton Malden and financial funding of Morris Levy, the owner of Roulette Records. (More from Wikipedia)
Sugar Hill Records is an early hip hop label that was founded in 1979 by the married couple of Joe Robinson and Sylvia Robinson plus Milton Malden, with financial backing by Morris Levy of Roulette Records. Sylvia Robinson – often called the “Mother of Hip Hop” – was listed as the CEO of the label. She has a long R&B history dating back to the 1956 hit “Love is Strange” (co-written by Bo Diddley and Jody Williams), under the name of Mickey and Sylvia; Mickey Baker taught her to play guitar, and they worked together off and on for about a decade. The two are also known for performing back-up singing on the 1961 Ike and Tina Turner hit, “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine”. Under the name Sylvia, Sylvia Robinson later scored a #3 hit in 1972, “Pillow Talk”.
The generally acknowledged original rap song is “Rapper’s Delight” (1979) by the Sugarhill Gang. (Both Sugar Hill Records and the Sugarhill Gang are named after the Sugar Hill section of Harlem – by the way, Harlem is adapted from the Dutch place-name Haarlem). As noted in Wikipedia: “Bill Adler, an independent consultant, once said, ‘There was hardly ever a moment when rap music was underground; one of the very first so-called rap records [“Rapper’s Delight”], was a monster hit.’”
(September 2016)
