Sugar Hill Records was an American

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

specializing in

hip hop music Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music Music genre, genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African Americans, African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide r ...

that was founded in 1979 by husband and wife Joe and Sylvia Robinson with Milton Malden and funding from Tony Riviera and Morris Levy, the owner of Roulette Records.

History

Joe Robinson had parlayed a music publishing company that he established years before in New York into Red Robin, Fury, Fire, Enjoy, All Platinum, Stang, Vibration, and Turbo Records before establishing the Sugar Hill label. Artists included his wife Sylvia Robinson, of Mickey & Sylvia fame (who had success in the 1950s with " Love Is Strange"), The Moments ("Love on a Two Way Street"), Brother to Brother, Shirley and Company (" Shame Shame Shame").

Beginnings

The Sugar Hill label's first record was "

Rapper's Delight "Rapper's Delight" is a 1979 rap song that serves as the debut single of American hip-hop trio the Sugarhill Gang, produced by Sylvia Robinson. Although it was shortly preceded by the Fatback Band's " King Tim III (Personality Jock)", "Rapper ...

" (1979) by

The Sugarhill Gang The Sugarhill Gang is an American hip hop group formed in Englewood, New Jersey, in 1979. Their hit " Rapper's Delight", released the same year they were formed, was the first rap single to become a top 40 hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, rea ...

, which was also the first top 40 hip hop single. Afterwards Super Wolf, The Sequence,

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were an American hip hop music, hip hop group formed in the South Bronx of New York City in 1978. The group's members were Grandmaster Flash, Kidd Creole (not to be confused with Kid Creole), Keef Cowboy, ...

, Funky Four Plus One, Crash Crew,

Treacherous Three The Treacherous Three was a pioneering American hip hop group that was formed in 1978 and consisted of DJ Easy Lee, Kool Moe Dee, L.A. Sunshine, Special K and Spoonie Gee (who left in the late 1970s), with occasional contributions from DJ D ...

, West Street Mob, and Spoonie Gee joined the label. R&B group The Positive Force released record from Sugar Hill Records also. Sugar Hill's in-house producer and arranger was Clifton "Jiggs" Chase. The in-house recording engineer was Steve Jerome.

Success

They enjoyed several years of success. Sylvia produced several music videos and a young

Spike Lee Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and author. His work has continually explored race relations, issues within the black community, the role of media in contemporary ...

making his first music video for the song " White Lines" (performed by Melle Mel and the Furious Five).

Sold out

A distribution deal with

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc. established in 1972, though MCA had released recordings under that name in the UK from the 1960s. The label achieved success in the 1970s through the 1980s, often by acquiring other ...

ended up in protracted litigation, and, finally, the label closed down in 1986. In 1995,

Rhino Records A rhinoceros ( ; ; ; : rhinoceros or rhinoceroses), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant taxon, extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls) in the family (biology), famil ...

purchased all the released and unreleased masters owned by the Sugar Hill label, covering the Americas and Japan, with

Castle Communications Castle Communications, also known as Castle Music, was a British independent record label and home video distributor founded in 1983 by Terry Shand, Cliff Dane, and Jon Beecher. Its video imprint was called Castle Vision. The label's producti ...

(now known as

Sanctuary Records Sanctuary Records Group Limited was a record label based in the United Kingdom and is, as of 2013, a subsidiary of BMG Rights Management solely for reissues. Until June 2007, it was the largest independent record label in the UK and the largest ...

, a division of

BMG Rights Management BMG Rights Management GmbH (also known simply as BMG) is an international music company based in Berlin, Germany. It combines the activities of a music publisher and a record label. BMG was formed in October 2008 after Bertelsmann sold its st ...

) taking the international rights. In 2002, the company's Sugar Hill Studios (originally called "Sweet Mountain Studios") in Englewood,

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

was destroyed by a fire. "Rapper's Delight", " The Message", and many other Sugar Hill hits were recorded there. Master tapes from the All Platinum years, as well as Sugar Hill recordings, were reportedly destroyed in the fire.

Label overviews

*''Old School Rap – The Sugar Hill Story (To the Beat Y'all)'' (3-CD, 1993, Sequel Records) *''The Best of Sugar Hill Records'' (1-CD, 1994, Hot Classics) *''The Message: The Story of Sugar Hill Records'' (4-CD, 1994, Castle Music) K Only*'' The Sugar Hill Records Story'' (5-CD+12", 1997, Rhino Records) e-released in 1999 without the 12-inch*''The Best of Sugar Hill Records'' (1-CD, 1998, Rhino Records) ifferent compilation than above

References