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When it comes to hip-hop,New York and New Jersey are in an entanglement.
However, Slyvia Robinson recognized that rap was fast becoming a viable art form and sped up the inevitable.
What the MCs were doing then was just rapping over music.
It was like a party thing.
We used to go out to different clubs and thats all they did.
One time, my sister had a birthday party atHarlem Worldfor my aunt Sylvia.
Thats why she bought the three guys together.
They began recording about a week later.
It wasnt easy getting Rappers Delight, Sugarhill Gangs monumental 1979 first single, on the radio.
Her tenacity went a long way so, admittedly, did some extra money.
(Lets just say, there was a lot of payola going on then.
Uncle Joe sent her with the bag, and she went all around the country.
It eventually reached No.
37 on the Billboard Hot 100, sold over a million copies, andcatapulted hip-hop into an international business.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Sugar Hill Records is the reason why you still have hip-hop today, says Ward.
It was the opening of record labels, and everyone getting into studios and making these songs.
The first iteration of Sugar Hill Records folded in the mid-80s.
Thats the foundation Redman was coming from.
To date, the Garden State has produced some of the most impactful artists the world has ever known.
They won a Grammy for Best Rap Album for 1995sPovertys Paradise.
Queen Latifah later came along and revitalized Flavor Unit in the 90s, turning it into a management company.
Would Nass If I Ruled the World have inspired a generation of then-young millennialswithout Lauryn Hills vocals?
Would EPMDs Head Banger without Redman shouting, Negroes!
at the beginning have the same level of raucous detail?
Would Def Jam haveexistedwithout seeing the possibilities laid out by Sugar Hill Records?
Sugar Hill Records stretched the creative mind towards entrepreneurialism.
It allowed it to happen and be seen.
I think that changes things forever, John Robinson says.
Rappers Delight is one of the most successful records.
Despite all of the chitchat, the perspective was brilliant.
