RAPAMANIA: THE REAL EMPIRE! JOE AND SYLVIA ROBINSON Owners of Sugarhill Records

HIP HOP HISTORY! JOE AND SYLVIA ROBINSON Owners of Sugarhill Records R I P SYLVIA & JOE! And if you wanna talk the T.V Show EMPIRE! Joe and Sylvia Robinson the owners of Sugarhill Records who also had 3 sons Joey, Leland & Rondo R.I.P to Joey and Rondo. The family has been in the music industry since the 50's when Sylvia recorded as Mickey and Sylvia the hit included "LOVE IS STRANGE" which is always heard in mob movies such as Casino and others. Later on Sylvia recorded a all time classic "PILLOW TALK " in 1973. As many may not have known that Joe Robinson was really from the street of Harlem running numbers in a section called Sugarhill.The times of Nickey Barnes, Frank Lucas and others during the late 60'a into the 70's Sylvia was the brains behind the business producing and writing songs with many recording artists from Ike and Tina Turner, Shirley & Co with the classic hit Shame, Shame, Shame on you. But her biggest prize at the time was a R&B group called the MOMENTS who had songs like "LOOK AT ME I'M IN LOVE "LOVE ON A TWO WAY STREET" & later on "SPECIAL LADY" but things got sour and the Moments left Sugarhill ALL PLATINUM label and became RAY, GOODMAN & BROWN.

SYLVIA

But while all this was going on there was a thing brewing in the streets of the South Bronx called Hip Hop. And the start of Sugarhill Records began with a group putting out the 1st street rap single called Rappers Delightt by the Sugarhill Gang.Yes they end up signing Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5, Sequence ,The Funky 4 plus 1 more, Kool Moe Dee and The Treacherous 3, Busybee Starski, The Crashcew, Wayne & Charlie and her sons group West Street Mob.Yeah things got rough at Sugarhill and alot of group were unhappy But one thing we can all say is that Sylvia produced some of the greatest Hip Hop Classics ever recorded. Business dealing was getting crazy due to the shady people that Joe Robinson dealt with in the beginning to launch Sugarhill Records which in turn affected the groups signed to the label But if you look at that picture posted and knowing they had 3 sons and all, their own building with studios and staff at 96 West Street in Englewood N J was this the real EMPIRE!