My third entry in my "Women in Music" series. Enjoy!
The Mother of Hip Hop
In 1979, a single was released that would become one of the most influential singles in the history of popular music. Then, in 1982, another single was released that would become even more influential in the same genre. Those singles are, respectively, "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang and "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. There's a good chance you are familiar with these songs. You might even know their history and why they are so influential in a genre that has dominated the 21st Century. What you probably don't know is that there was a woman behind both of these singles that was so essential, they wouldn't have happened without her.
Sylvia Robinson is often referred to as the Mother of Hip Hop. Her career in the music industry, however, started years before the birth of rap and hip hop. From an early age, she was drawn to music and as a teenager she immersed herself in the Harlem music scene. She learned how to play the guitar and sing, and had a curiosity in how the music industry worked.
In 1956, she became part of a musical duo with her boyfriend simply called Mickey and Sylvia. Their single "Love is Strange" topped the R&B charts and just missed the top ten of the pop charts. They had other charting songs on the R&B charts, but they broke up in 1958.
Over the next several years, Sylvia wrote or co-wrote songs for other artists, played guitar on recordings for artists like Ike and Tina Turner, and began to learn record production. She also married Joseph Robinson, a recorded producer. The Robinsons had their own record labels and produced several successful artists through the late sixties to the mid-seventies.
In 1972, Sylvia released a single that she wrote and recorded called "Pillow Talk." The song became her second career chart topper on the R&B Charts and peaked at number 3 on the pop charts. It also earned her first gold record and a Grammy nomination. By the last half of the seventies, Sylvia became more involved with recording and production, eventually forming the record label Sugar Hill Records, named after the Sugar Hill area of Harlem, the hub of its music scene.
By 1979, Harlem buzzed with the creativity of an emerging musical genre. Rap and hip hop along with record scratching and breakdancing were drawing big crowds. Sylvia Robinson owned a couple of bars in Harlem, and this new musical culture became part of her everyday life. A group of young MCs caught Sylvia's attention, and she helped them form the Sugar Hill Gang, as well as co-writing and producing the single "Rapper's Delight."
Although hip hop culture and music dominated much of the music scene in Harlem at the time, record companies and DJs outside of Harlem were resistant to the vibrant music, failing to see a market appeal beyond the streets and clubs of Harlem. Sylvia Robinson, however, envisioned great potential. In her spare time, she traveled around the metropolitan area of New York, stopping at radio stations to gift promos of "Rapper's Delight" to DJs. With much persistence, the single started catching on, eventually becoming the first rap song to hit the top 40 on the US pop charts, while enjoying even greater success beyond the states.
After the success of this single, doors began to open for Sylvia and many other artists in hip hop culture. Sylvia produced one of the first all-female rap groups, The Sequence, who had a hit with "Funk U Up" in 1980.
In 1982, Sylvia teamed up with Grandmaster Melle Mel to co-write and produce the song "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five. According to Melle Mel, Sylvia insisted they write lyrics about real life in the 'hood. Her persistence paid off and "The Message" was born, with the rap centered around the lives of the MCs including the challenges they faced as black men.
"The Message" became one of the most (if not the most) influential songs in the history of hip hop. When Rolling Stones polled the top artists and executives in hip hop for their 2012 "50 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop," the number one spot was indisputably "The Message." At number 2 was, you guessed it, "Rapper's Delight."
The success of both of these crucial songs are undeniably connected and indebted to Sylvia Robinson. It's no wonder they call her the "Mother of Hip Hop."
