The first lady of hip-hop has died. Sylvia Robinson, who founded Suger Hill Records, which gave rap the first real hit, has sadly passed away of congestive heart failure at the New Jersey Institute of Neuroscience in Secaucus.
However, in tribute to Sylvia, it’s worth pointing out that she was much more than just the person who helped to invent hip hop (if that wasn’t enough!)
Sylvia was a performer in her own right and had a couple of hits that you might know away from her time with the fledgling rap scene. Shall we listen to some music together? Lets.
Born Sylvia Vanterpool in New York City, Sylvia had a recording career of her own before cutting wax with the Sugar Hill Gang.
Her first successful record was ‘Love Is Strange’ from ’56.
The song was written by Bo Diddley and saw release under the name of Mickey & Sylvia. And yep, you’ll almost certainly know it and should be aaaahing, now linking up an old R&B hit with the woman who helped rap to go mainstream.
In ’64, Sylvia married Joe Robinson who she would later found Sugar Hill Records with. But let us not get ahead of ourselves.
Producing records throughout the ’60s, it wouldn’t be ’til ’73 when Sylvia would have a hit of her own again. She recorded ‘Pillow Talk’, which was initially offered to Al Green… but alas, Al thought the song was far too filthy and went against his religion.
And so, Sylvia released the record herself, which became an R&B hit, climbing as high as #3 on the pop chart.
‘Pillow Talk’ was ahead of the game, being one of the records recognised as being a prototype of disco music, which of course, would take over the universe a couple of years later.
Of course, it would be the release of Sugar Hill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’ which would see her musical hunch pay dividends. Sylvia saw the potential of hip hop and capitalised on it, opening the door to one of the most iconic records ever recorded.
Sugar Hill released a number of club hits, such as the wonderful ‘That’s The Joint’ by Funky 4+1, as heavily sampled as any other record released at the time.
The hits weren’t over. Sugar Hill continued to play a huge part in the early years of hip-hop. Sylvia’s roster included Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five, and together, they released the synth-tastic ‘The Message’, which still sounds as fresh as it ever did.
In fact, so great is The Message, that is was chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. With Sylvia’s vision, one of the best documents of American life was captured on wax for eternity.
In more recent years, Robinson appeared as a sample when Moby lifted her vocals in his song ‘Sunday (The Day Before My Birthday)’ and J Dilla sampled ‘Sweet Stuff’ on ‘Crushin”.
She is survived by three sons and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
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Bobby says
Great article. RIP, Sylvia Robinson.