Podcasts about The Sugarhill Gang

American hip hop group

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  • May 15, 2025LATEST
The Sugarhill Gang

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Best podcasts about The Sugarhill Gang

Latest podcast episodes about The Sugarhill Gang

Stuck in the '80s Podcast
744: Steve Perry and Willie Nelson's 'Faithfully'

Stuck in the '80s Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 15, 2025 29:38


Steve Perry and Willie Nelson have just released a duet version of "Faithfully," the 1983 song from Journey that was a huge hit for the band. The song promotes the 40th anniversary of Farm Aid. Spearsy and guest co-host Dave "Auggie" August review the song and compare it with Perry's other recent work. Plus, full seggies including Mystery Movie Moment and Name That '80s Tune. Our Sponsors The 2026 lineup of The 80s Cruise is here, along with our promo code. Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas departs Port Canaveral on February 27 with stops in Nassau, Falmouth and Labadee. Artists include: Bret Michaels, Nile Rodgers & Chic, OMD, Billy Ocean, Gary Numan, Berlin, Taylor Dayne, Sugarhill Gang, Quiet Riot, Glass Tiger, Donnie Iris, Dazz Band, Heaven 17, Men Without Hats, Aldo Nova, Rob Base and Kool Moe Dee. Former MTV veejays Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter and Downtown Julie Brown will be there too. And now, if you're a first-time guest on the cruise, you can $250 in cabin credit when booking if you use the promo code STUCK. For more information, go to www.the80scruise.com. Our podcast is listener-supported via Patreon. Members get special swag and invitations to patron-only Zoom happy hours with the hosts of the podcast. Find out more at our official Patreon page. The Stuck in the '80s podcast is hosted by creator Steve Spears and Brad Williams. Find out more about the show, celebrating its 19th year in 2024, at sit80s.com.

Trax FM Wicked Music For Wicked People
Lynda Law's Soul Show Replay On www.traxfm.org - 6th May 2025

Trax FM Wicked Music For Wicked People

Play Episode Listen Later May 6, 2025 60:00


**Lynda Law's Soul Show Replay On traxfm.org. This Week Lynda Features Soul/Boogie/Dance Classics/Contemporary Soul From Soul Kitchen (OST), One Way, The Sugarhill Gang, James Ingram, BB&Q Band, Jordan Johnston, Midnight Star, Drizabone, The Brothers Johnson, Jaki Graham, The O'Jays & More #originalpirates #soulmusic #contemporarysoul #70smusic #80smusic #disco #danceclassics Catch Lynda's Soul Show Every Tuesday From 4:00PM UK Time On www.traxfm.org Listen Live Here Via The Trax FM Player: chat.traxfm.org/player/index.html Mixcloud LIVE :mixcloud.com/live/traxfm Free Trax FM Android App: play.google.com/store/apps/det...mradio.ba.a6bcb The Trax FM Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092342916738 Trax FM Live On Hear This: hearthis.at/k8bdngt4/live Tunerr: tunerr.co/radio/Trax-FM Radio Garden: Trax FM Link: http://radio.garden/listen/trax-fm/IEnsCj55 OnLine Radio Box: onlineradiobox.com/uk/trax/?cs...cs=uk.traxRadio Radio Deck: radiodeck.com/radio/5a09e2de87...7e3370db06d44dc Radio.Net: traxfmlondon.radio.net Stream Radio : streema.com/radios/Trax_FM..The_Originals Live Online Radio: liveonlineradio.net/english/tr...ax-fm-103-3.htm**

Stuck in the '80s Podcast
743: The Rock Hall of Fame's 2025 Inductees

Stuck in the '80s Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 30, 2025 27:49


The Rock n Roll Hall of Fame has announced its 2025 class of inductees. Co-hosts Spearsy and Chuck Coverly go through the list and grade them on their "Eighties-ness." Plus seggies including "Spin Me Round." Our Sponsors The 2026 lineup of The 80s Cruise is here, along with our promo code. Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas departs Port Canaveral on February 27 with stops in Nassau, Falmouth and Labadee. Artists include: Bret Michaels, Nile Rodgers & Chic, OMD, Billy Ocean, Gary Numan, Berlin, Taylor Dayne, Sugarhill Gang, Quiet Riot, Glass Tiger, Donnie Iris, Dazz Band, Heaven 17, Men Without Hats, Aldo Nova, Rob Base and Kool Moe Dee. Former MTV veejays Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter and Downtown Julie Brown will be there too. And now, if you're a first-time guest on the cruise, you can $250 in cabin credit when booking if you use the promo code STUCK. For more information, go to www.the80scruise.com. Our podcast is listener-supported via Patreon. Members get special swag and invitations to patron-only Zoom happy hours with the hosts of the podcast. Find out more at our official Patreon page. The Stuck in the '80s podcast is hosted by creator Steve Spears and Brad Williams. Find out more about the show, celebrating its 19th year in 2024, at sit80s.com.

La Story Nostalgie
Dans les années 80, chacun faisait c'qu'il lui plaît

La Story Nostalgie

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 30, 2025 4:02


Qui aurait dit que les paroles de cette chanson, pardon ce rap, seraient encore chantées toutes générations confondues plus de 40 ans après. En effet, quand le 45 Tours sort chez les disquaires en 1982, dans les salles de cinéma, on projette un film qui s'appelle Blade Runner et qui nous raconte à quoi ressemblera le monde de 2019. Alors en 2025, six ans plus tard, vous pensez bien que plus personne n'aura gardé le souvenir ni de l'air ni de l'histoire de ce mec et de cette fille, en voyage au bout de la nuit. Et pourtant, vous le savez, il y a beau ne plus avoir de disquaires pour mettre la pochette du single de Chagrin d'amour dans leur vitrine, même les jeunes du Millenium la chantent encore. Il est facile aujourd'hui d'en donner les raisons. Chacun fait c'qu'il lui plaît, c'est d'abord le premier rap en français, un titre qui colle aux années 80 qu'on en finit plus de célébrer au XXI° siècle. Et puis il y a le thème universel de la vie solitaire dans les grandes villes, jouant sur le mythe de la décadence urbaine : l'alcool, le sexe, la solitude, le sordide, l'insomnie, les bars interlopes et les petits matins chargés de nicotine. L'auteur de la chanson se nomme Philippe Bourgoin. Dans les années 70, il était parti à New York vivre son rêve de devenir un réalisateur renommé. C'est là qu'il rencontre une Américaine francophile comme on en trouve beaucoup dans les milieux branchés à l'époque. Elle se nomme Valli Kligerman et l'admire, Philippe est un surdoué. Bien qu'il soit en train de terminer ses études, il a déjà signé le scénario d'un film dans lequel jouent Jean Yanne et Jodie Foster. Phil et Valli se plaisent, sortent ensemble et se marient, en cachette. Mais une fois son diplôme obtenu, il rentre en France laissant Valli à New York. Philippe est revenu au pays avec dans la tête une chanson qu'il a écrite plusieurs années auparavant avec son pote Gérard Presgurvic. Ils avaient en vain essayé de vendre à tout le monde cette histoire d'insomnie et de fille de bar, sans succès. Mais lorsqu'il entend la chanson Magnificent Seven des Clash, un rap qui commence par un réveil qui sonne à 7 heures du matin, Philippe se souvient du hip hop de Sugarhill Gang qu'il a découvert quand il était à New York. Il écrit alors Cinq heures du mat, j'ai des frissons et revoit tout le texte en le scandant comme un rappeur. Ce n'est plus du tout la même chanson. Gérard Presgurvic ne compte donc plus l'interpréter, Bourgoin contacte alors Gregory Ken, un gars qui a déjà pas mal bourlingué puisque de guitariste de groupe yéyé dans les sixties, il est devenu un chanteur emblématique des comédies musicales parisiennes dans les années 70. On l'a vu dans Hair, Jesus Christ superstar, Mayflower et Starmania où il interprète Ziggy, à sa création, avec France Gall. Sa femme Valli ayant décidé de le rejoindre à Paris, Bourgoin réécrit la chanson et lui donne le rôle de la fille de bar : le duo Chagrin d'Amour est né et convainc Eddie Barclay.Cette chanson pourtant étonnamment noire et désespérée est un tube énorme notamment grâce à la nouvelle radio jeune NRJ et d'autres radios libres qui diffusent le disque vingt fois par jour. Tout le monde en est dingue, qu'on se reconnaisse ou pas dans la déshérence de l'anti héros. Trois millions de 45 tours vendus plus tard, ce n'est plus un tube, c'est un hymne à notre sombre humanité qui refuse de le prendre avec gravité.

Stereo.Typen Podcast
#104 Nile Rodgers

Stereo.Typen Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 25, 2025 93:41


„Le Freak“ hat Hits geliefert. Unfassbar viele Hits. Die er entweder geschrieben, produziert oder performt hat – oder alles drei zusammen: „Good Times“, „We Are Family“, „Lost in Music“, „Everybody Dance“, „I Want Your Love“ mit seinen Bands Chic und Sister Sledge. „Upside Down“ von Diana Ross, „Let's Dance“ von David Bowie, „Like a Virgin“ von Madonna. Begonnen hat sein Ruhm mit Disco – Nile Rodgers ist ein Erfinder von Disco. Obwohl er selber zu bescheiden wäre, um das von sich zu behaupten. Und er sieht Disco auch nicht als geschlossene Ära, sondern als Teil eines Dance-Movements, das bis heute anhält. Kann man so sehen, es war nur eben der glamouröse, hedonistische Teil, dessen Bilder aus dem legendären Studio 54 immer noch allgegenwärtig sind und dessen Musik immer noch nachhallt. Auch in Samples von Will Smith, Modjo, Notorious B.I.G. und seiner Witwe Faith Evans, Alcazar und der Sugarhill Gang. Die verwendeten als eine der ersten „Good Times“ – heute ist es der meistgesamplete Song aller Zeiten. Kein Wunder, dass Daft Punk in den Zehnerjahren beschlossen, den Original-Disco-Vibe der späten 70er nochmal heraufzubeschwören – zusammen mit Nile Rodgers. In Episode #104NileRodgers versammeln wir uns mit Kollegin Laura Pöss unter der Discokugel und sprechen über ihre Begegnung mit dem Master himself. Der erzählt von seinen Hits, von alten und jüngsten Zusammenarbeiten und reflektiert die silberglänzende Disco-Ära.

The Show on KMOX
Darryl McDaniels of Run DMC joins the show!

The Show on KMOX

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 24, 2025 19:26


Chris and Amy are joined by founding member of Run DMC Darryl McDaniels to discuss how he's performing with the Sugarhill Gang and St. Louis Symphony Orchestra at Stifel Theatre coming up on May 8th.

Stuck in the '80s Podcast
742: Unlikely Cover Songs of the 80s Part 14

Stuck in the '80s Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 16, 2025 46:59


So many of the great songs of the '80s that we associate with our favorite artists are actually cover songs. How do we know? Because we've now done 14 podcasts about them! Today's show features the origins of songs made famous by Pat Benatar, Laura Branigan, Tracey Ullman, and Joan Jett. Our Sponsors The 2026 lineup of The 80s Cruise is here, along with our promo code. Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas departs Port Canaveral on February 27 with stops in Nassau, Falmouth and Labadee. Artists include: Bret Michaels, Nile Rodgers & Chic, OMD, Billy Ocean, Gary Numan, Berlin, Taylor Dayne, Sugarhill Gang, Quiet Riot, Glass Tiger, Donnie Iris, Dazz Band, Heaven 17, Men Without Hats, Aldo Nova, Rob Base and Kool Moe Dee. Former MTV veejays Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter and Downtown Julie Brown will be there too. And now, if you're a first-time guest on the cruise, you can $250 in cabin credit when booking if you use the promo code STUCK. For more information, go to www.the80scruise.com. Our podcast is listener-supported via Patreon. Members get special swag and invitations to patron-only Zoom happy hours with the hosts of the podcast. Find out more at our official Patreon page. The Stuck in the '80s podcast is hosted by creator Steve Spears and Brad Williams. Find out more about the show, celebrating its 19th year in 2024, at sit80s.com.

The Loyal Littles Podcast
369. "Littlepalooza Part Deux" - Mike McGill

The Loyal Littles Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 3, 2025 73:35


Chuck and Roxy are back and open with some announcements, an RIP and a few TV/Movie reviews. Next it's time to "Meet the Littles" as our hosts welcome Mike McGill to the podcast! (22:30) We get to hear all about him going to Syracuse University and they getting to caddie for Mr. Tony! WEBSITE: www.waterpio.com EMAIL: mike@waterpio.com Then our hosts close out the show with a very controversial bowling segment and your emails/notes! (55:30) SONG: "Kennedy and Monroe" by Hot Pink Hangover www.hotpinkhangover.com JINGLE: "Brackets Delight" A parody of a song by The Sugarhill Gang. Recorded by mrlip in Springfield, VARecorded: 03/15/2017  Released: 03/15/2017  First aired: 03/14/2018Podcast Website - www.loyallittlespod.com  Patreon: www.patreon.com/c/loyallittlespod/membershipPodcast Email - WTFCPODNET@GMAIL.COMTwitter:@loyallittlespod Instagram: @theloyallittlespodcastPODCAST LOGO DESIGN by Eric Londergan www.redbubble.com Search: ericlondergan or copy and paste this link! https://www.redbubble.com/people/ericlondergan/shop

Building Abundant Success!!© with Sabrina-Marie
Episode 2575: Mark " Money" Green ~ Hip-Hop, Rap Promoter, Talent Agent , The Sugar Hill Gang, Prince, Backstreet Boys, Grandmaster Flash, Salt-N-Pepa, Eddie Murphy, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince , Jay-Z. in his Book The Show Must Go On

Building Abundant Success!!© with Sabrina-Marie

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 1, 2025 44:59


Salt-N-Pepa, Usher, Prince, Diana Ross, Teena Marie, Chaka Khan, An industry veteran who currently serves as one of the directors for the Hip Hop Museum, Green outlines his career spanning five decades. This includes producing concerts and/or representing as a longtime agent for artists such as Usher, Prince, Diana Ross, Teena Marie, Chaka Khan, the Backstreet Boys - among othersThen there's the fine line between the grind in the streets and the hustle in the industry.  Mark battled with con artists, drug dealers and pimps and people trying to show off their local high profile at the expense of his artists. “I didn't get too caught up in that because I had to keep one eye on the money!” He stayed focused, even when distractions of every kind showed up on the road–drugs, groupies, out-of-control artists–and he kept many ships afloat when everything should have drowned.  But again, the show must go on. Mark's stellar reputation put him in high demand and working with Melba and soon Freddie Jackson, Dru Hill, Al B Sure, Grandmaster Flash, a young Usher and music pioneer Prince solidified his reputation in the industry. He would join Associated Booking Corp, where his talent for spotting rising stars and his love for hip-hop led to the signing of such game-changing artists as Salt-N-Pepa, Roxanne Shante, Kid & Play, and DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince.  He would go on to become Director of Marketing at EMI/Capitol Records and expanded again, this time into radio, promotions, and into the fields of jazz and rap, earning accolades in promotions and even producing, writing, and publishing successful tracks like "Remember the First Time" for singer Eric Gable and "Midnight Hour" for rapper Lady Spice MC.  Green moved as the industry moved and found himself in independent marketing and promotions consulting and secured a record deal with Light Year/Warner Brothers for his independent label, with singer/songwriter and R&B legend Teena Marie as his first artist. A year later, working with  Northstar Distribution, Green became General Manager, distributing music for Prince's independent label, where the purple one signed R&B music siren Chaka Khan and the soul-stirrer and crooner Larry Graham  on the artist's NPG Records. Soon, shaping his own destiny, Green launched Celebrity Talent Agency, representing a wide array of artists, where he's secured talents for tours, festivals and commercials nationally and globally.  Ever-expanding his vision, Green also serves as Associate Director/General Manager of Lehman Performing Arts Center, Chairman of Artist Relations for The Hip-Hop Museum (THHM), and maintains ownership of Celebrity Talent Agency.  The Show Must Go On! His riveting story of the industry's ups and downs and his own personal experiences will inspire anybody who believes in themselves to believe that they can live their wildest dreams!© 2025 Building Abundant Success!!2025 All Rights ReservedHeart Media @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBASAmazon ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBASAudacy:  https://tinyurl.com/BASAud

Crema d'estrelles
28- "Especial 2 Graus de Separació" Good Times

Crema d'estrelles

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 26, 2025 84:38


Aquest episodi especial de Crema d'Estrelles està dedicat íntegrament a la secció "2 Graus de Separació", amb dues excepcions: un petit homenatge a Angie Stone, que es podria considerar la secció "Absències", i "Una de Frank Zappa", que avui encaixa perfectament amb la temàtica del programa. Explorarem la immensa influència de Good Times de Chic en la història de la música, teixint connexions entre estils i dècades a través de més de vint cançons. Des del rock fins als orígens del hip-hop, descobrirem com aquest clàssic té vinculacions curioses i ha deixat empremta en la trajectòria de molts artistes. Ens acompanyaran noms com Mickey & Sylvia, The Sequence, Queen, Blondie, Kool and The Gang, Jamiroquai, Grandmaster Flash, Kool Herc, Sugarhill Gang, Fatback Band, Perucho Conde, Shirley and Company, i molts més. També remarcarem la contribució de figures essencials com Angie Stone i destacarem el paper clau de dues dones sovint oblidades en els inicis del hip-hop: Cindy Campbell i Sylvia Robinson. A més, ens submergirem en el fenomen dels "mixes", escoltant el primer disc de mescles publicat de la història. I per tancar aquest viatge sonor, Frank Zappa ens oferirà la seva visió única i irreverent. Un episodi imprescindible per entendre com una sola cançó pot transformar la història de la música! Jordi Via, Terrassa, 26 de març de 2025 Pòdcasts amics: Via Miranda: https://go.ivoox.com/sq/2494621 The Sound Of Music: https://go.ivoox.com/sq/1788620 Sinfonautas: https://go.ivoox.com/sq/1317188 Marcianos Que Nos Tocan Las Guitarras: https://go.ivoox.com/sq/707397 Subterranea: https://go.ivoox.com/sq/17710 Entremixtando: https://go.ivoox.com/sq/1247719 La Capsa De Ritmes: https://go.ivoox.com/sq/1363038 Nostalgia: https://go.ivoox.com/sq/2574733

Der Podcast für junge Anleger jeden Alters
Song #62 (spoken): Rappers Delight

Der Podcast für junge Anleger jeden Alters

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 16, 2025 7:02


Sun, 16 Mar 2025 12:05:00 +0000 https://jungeanleger.podigee.io/2090-song-62-spoken-rappers-delight 5ed2aa05aeb4791662fb5139d71497d7 Der Super Me Sunday auf audio-cd.at mit einer weiteren Facette: Denn ja, im egoth-Verlag wird 2025 ein Buch über mich mit ca. 350 Seiten erscheinen. Dies zum Fanboy-Status in den Bereichen Wiener Börse, Sport, Musik (und mehr). Musik ist mir extrem wichtig, aktiv wie passiv und leider erlaubt Spotify das Publishen von reinen Songs und Eigenkompositionen nicht mehr so wirklich, da braucht man Musiker-Accounts. Daher erzähle ich nun einfach was zu den Lieblingssongs, verbinde mit Coming of Age, darf mich bei Markus Dressen wie auch fürs Buch inspirieren lassen und selbst mal ansingen. Heute geht es um Rappers Delight von der Sugarhill Gang, ich verbinde das mit meinem Nicht-Genügend- und meinem Auswendig-Lern-Rekord, dem Sampling, Nile Rogers, mit einem trashigen Video im Hallenbad sowie einem Personal Fixpunkt beim Karaoke. Rappers Delight @Top Pop (Hallenbad): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zer0tlE4zGQ Fanboy Buch to come: https://photaq.com/page/index/4142/ https://markusdreesen.de/featured-content/100malmusiklegenden/ Project Mike: https://open.spotify.com/artist/17xd2JUVuvg3paLtINRSkE - mehr Songs: https://www.audio-cd.at/songs - Playlist mit ein paar unserer Songs: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/63tRnVh3aIOlhrdUKvb4P Bewertungen bei Apple (oder auch Spotify) machen mir Freude: http://www.audio-cd.at/apple http://www.audio-cd.at/spotify 2090 full no Christian Drastil Comm. 422

Trax FM Wicked Music For Wicked People
Relax With Rendell Show Replay On Trax FM & Rendell Radio - 15th March 2025

Trax FM Wicked Music For Wicked People

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 15, 2025 120:00


**It's The Relax With Rendell Show Replay On Trax FM & Rendell Radio. Rendell Featured Soul & Boogie/Rare Groove/80's & 70's Grooves/Easy Listening Cuts From The Gap Band, Rick James, Johnny Kemp, Cheryl Lynn, Evelyn Champagne King, Sugarhill Gang, Spinners, France Joli, Michael Jackson, Shalamar, The Crusaders, Melba Moore, C Da Afro, Kool & The Gang & More. #originalpirates #soulmusic #disco #reggae #raregroove #easylistening #boogiefunk Catch Rendell Every Saturday From 8PM UK Time The Stations: Trax FM & Rendell Radio Listen Live Here Via The Trax FM Player: chat.traxfm.org/player/index.html Mixcloud LIVE :mixcloud.com/live/traxfm Free Trax FM Android App: play.google.com/store/apps/det...mradio.ba.a6bcb The Trax FM Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092342916738 Trax FM Live On Hear This: hearthis.at/k8bdngt4/live Tunerr: tunerr.co/radio/Trax-FM Radio Garden: Trax FM Link: http://radio.garden/listen/trax-fm/IEnsCj55 OnLine Radio Box: onlineradiobox.com/uk/trax/?cs...cs=uk.traxRadio Radio Deck: radiodeck.com/radio/5a09e2de87...7e3370db06d44dc Radio.Net: traxfmlondon.radio.net Stream Radio : streema.com/radios/Trax_FM..The_Originals Live Online Radio: liveonlineradio.net/english/tr...ax-fm-103-3.htm**

Soundside
How Seattle's rap scene got its start

Soundside

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 6, 2025 24:33


In the 1980s, Seattle's music scene was hooked on disco. The success of "Saturday Night Fever" meant venues opted for groovy vinyl over live band performances, and songs like Chic's "Good Times" were on constant rotation. That made room for a similar but modified version of the song's simple breakbeat by a group called The Sugarhill Gang, who quickly brought "rapping" to a nationwide audience. As Ben Camp tells the story, “Rapper’s Delight” – rap’s first hit – made an imprint in Seattle and kicked off a vibrant local scene connecting Sir-Mix-A-Lot to Macklemore. Camp, who writes under the name of Novocaine132, has been covering music in the city since the 1990s – and he recently published his first book, “The Birth of Seattle Rap.” Soundside producer Alec Cowan caught up with the writer to hear more about the book and Seattle’s pre-grunge music scene – starting with why it was disco that gave way to hip hop. Guests: Novocaine132, author of "The Birth of Seattle Rap." Related Links: The Birth of Seattle Rap: Novocaine 132 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Totally 80s and 90s Recall

Rap music in the 1980s was a groundbreaking and rapidly evolving genre that laid the foundation for modern hip-hop. It started as an underground movement in New York and transformed into a cultural phenomenon by the end of the decade. Early artists like the Sugarhill Gang and Kurtis Blow laid the foundation for artists like Run DMC, the Beastie Boys and LL Cool J to begin to bring rap to a larger audience. By the end of the 80s, rap was becoming big business and was very profitable for record companies. Rap was not without controversy throughout the 80s though, many political and other groups were against the style, sound and lyrical content of rap. Just like heavy metal, it did not conform to certain musical norms that many Americans had come to know. So this week, Dave and Rob will look back at the rise of rap in the 80s and reveal our favorite songs from the decade. From Grandmaster Flash to 2 Live Crew, we'll listen to the changing styles and subject matter of this once taboo art form. So get ready to get down with two white boys from Oregon, as they lay out the best songs they know from 80s Rap.   Pandora: https://pandora.app.link/iq8iShjXOLb Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/totally-80s-and-90s-recall/id1662282694  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/11dk5TUoLUk4euD1Te1EYG?si=b37496eb6e784408  Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1960c8f9-158d-43ac-89a6-d868ea1fe077/totally-80s-and-90s-recall  YouTube Podcasts: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLH9lGakNgCDZUkkHMUu88uXYMJu_33Rab&si=xo0EEVJRSwS68mWZ   Playlists: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1WwiWqtbL68ChjKPI4c0Yu?si=GHa1JQX2TDmdqfYZ7YOu_w  Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/80s-rap/pl.u-aZb0aL4IV4ar0B?ls Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/user-playlists/0daab3e36d4b42b6b26dc5b094da8519sune?marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER&musicTerritory=US&ref=dm_sh_rxwKMF1lw3AxNUoyDKzWQ8s2r   Contact Us: Website: https://totally80s90srecall.podbean.com/  Email: 80s90srecall@gmail.com LinkTree:https://linktr.ee/80s90srecall 

Soundside
Remembering Soul Radio-o-o-o-o-o-o 1250 KYAC

Soundside

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 18, 2025 19:20


Today, there is a Spotify playlist for any genre, mood, or activity you could ever think of. But, in the not-so-distant past, you’d have to tune your AM or FM radio until you found a sound you liked. If you wanted to hear soul music in Seattle circa 1970, there was one local station that would never disappoint. It was called KYAC, and it was a true rarity at the time. The station was Black owned and operated from 1965 to 1981. The small station has an outsized legacy in both our city and the country at large. It was the first station in Seattle to play a rap song — the iconic “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang. In fact, it was so beloved that when the station was eventually sold, listeners held a funeral for it. For Black History Month, producer Lauren Williams went back in time to 1970s Seattle to ask folks about what it was like to work at and listen to KYAC during its heyday. Guests: Vivian Phillips, founder of Arte Noir and former KYAC DJ Sheila Locke, event DJ and former KYAC DJ Jas Keimig, Seattle-based arts reporter. Related Links: How Seattle rap crashed the mainstream by swimming against the current — NPR For three decades, this Seattle DJ electrified the airwaves, paving the way for future Black radio personalities. — Black Arts Legacies Black History of the Northwest — KUOW Thank you to the supporters of KUOW. You help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes. Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Trax FM Wicked Music For Wicked People
Lynda Law's Soul Show Replay On www.traxfm.org - 18th February 2025

Trax FM Wicked Music For Wicked People

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 18, 2025 60:00


**Lynda Law's Soul Show Replay On traxfm.org. This Week Lynda Features Soul/Boogie/Dance Classics/Contemporary Soul From The Reddings, Riff, Ray Goodman & Brown, The Trammps, Slave, BB&Q Band, Charles Wigg Walker, The Ritchie Family, Ray Parker JNR, Sugarhill Gang, Billy Ocean, Peaches & Herb & More #originalpirates #soulmusic #contemporarysoul #70smusic #80smusic #disco #danceclassics Catch Lynda's Soul Show Every Tuesday From 4:00PM UK Time On www.traxfm.org Listen Live Here Via The Trax FM Player: chat.traxfm.org/player/index.html Mixcloud LIVE :mixcloud.com/live/traxfm Free Trax FM Android App: play.google.com/store/apps/det...mradio.ba.a6bcb The Trax FM Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092342916738 Trax FM Live On Hear This: hearthis.at/k8bdngt4/live Tunerr: tunerr.co/radio/Trax-FM Radio Garden: Trax FM Link: http://radio.garden/listen/trax-fm/IEnsCj55 OnLine Radio Box: onlineradiobox.com/uk/trax/?cs...cs=uk.traxRadio Radio Deck: radiodeck.com/radio/5a09e2de87...7e3370db06d44dc Radio.Net: traxfmlondon.radio.net Stream Radio : streema.com/radios/Trax_FM..The_Originals Live Online Radio: liveonlineradio.net/english/tr...ax-fm-103-3.htm**

Music History Today
SugarHill Gang Become First Rappers To Enter The Pop Charts: Music History Today Podcast January 5

Music History Today

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 5, 2025 10:03


On the January 5 edition of the Music History Today podcast, there's 2 Springsteen mentions, 2 opera mentions, the Wiz opens, & happy birthday to Deadmau5 For more music history, subscribe to my Spotify Channel or subscribe to the audio version of my music history podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts from ALL MUSIC HISTORY TODAY PODCAST NETWORK LINKS - https://allmylinks.com/musichistorytoday

The Richard Crouse Show Podcast
BETTE REYNOLDS + JOSHUA MILLICAN + ROBBIE WILLIAMS

The Richard Crouse Show Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 22, 2024 38:47


On the Saturday December 21, 2024 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we'll meet Bette Reynolds. She's Everyone's Favourite Granny and if you've been on line in the last few months—and who hasn't?—you probably saw her performance on The Voice UK. Earlier this year she became the show's oldest contestant ever when she did her rendition of The Sugarhill Gang's, Rapper's Delight in an effort to get coaches Sir Tom Jones, Will.i.am, LeAnn Rimes and Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones to turn their chairs. She became a sensation, and she joins me today top talk about being on the show, doing a duet to Black Eyed Peas, I Gotta Feeling, with the song's writer Will.i.am and her new Christmas single “Grandma's Christmas Escape.” Then, we'll take a deep dive into Christmas horror stories with author Joshua Millican. Over the past decade-plus, Millican has proven himself to be a horror expert of the highest caliber. He is one of the genre's premiere journalists, and today we'll talk about the best Christmas horror movies and his two new books, “All Through the House: The Novelization” and “Chopping Mall: The Novelization.” Finally, I'll share my conversation with one of the world's most successful music stars, Robbie Williams. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, launching his mega successful solo career in 1996. By 2008, he had sold more albums in the UK than any other British solo artist in history and right now his record sales stand at over 77 million worldwide, making him one of the best-selling artists of all time, and now his wide ride to fame has been captured in a new movie called Better Man, which comes to select theatres on Christmas Day before opening wide on January 10.

House of Crouse
BETTE REYNOLDS + JOSHUA MILLICAN + ROBBIE WILLIAMS

House of Crouse

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 22, 2024 38:47


On the Saturday December 21, 2024 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we'll meet Bette Reynolds. She's Everyone's Favourite Granny and if you've been on line in the last few months—and who hasn't?—you probably saw her performance on The Voice UK. Earlier this year she became the show's oldest contestant ever when she did her rendition of The Sugarhill Gang's, Rapper's Delight in an effort to get coaches Sir Tom Jones, Will.i.am, LeAnn Rimes and Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones to turn their chairs. She became a sensation, and she joins me today top talk about being on the show, doing a duet to Black Eyed Peas, I Gotta Feeling, with the song's writer Will.i.am and her new Christmas single “Grandma's Christmas Escape.” Then, we'll take a deep dive into Christmas horror stories with author Joshua Millican. Over the past decade-plus, Millican has proven himself to be a horror expert of the highest caliber. He is one of the genre's premiere journalists, and today we'll talk about the best Christmas horror movies and his two new books, “All Through the House: The Novelization” and “Chopping Mall: The Novelization.” Finally, I'll share my conversation with one of the world's most successful music stars, Robbie Williams. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, launching his mega successful solo career in 1996. By 2008, he had sold more albums in the UK than any other British solo artist in history and right now his record sales stand at over 77 million worldwide, making him one of the best-selling artists of all time, and now his wide ride to fame has been captured in a new movie called Better Man, which comes to select theatres on Christmas Day before opening wide on January 10.

Gear Club Podcast
#96: "Forget the Notes, It's Your Frequency": Doug Wimbish on Jaco Pastorius, Sugar Hill Records, and the Birth of Hip-Hop.

Gear Club Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 4, 2024 41:51


Our guest is Doug Wimbish, one of the most renowned bass players of all time, known for his work with a wide range of artists, including Living Colour, Tackhead, Sugarhill Gang, Mick Jagger, Annie Lennox, and many more. He is also the founder of WimBash, a series of community-based charity events supporting music education. In this episode, John and Stewart talk with Doug about his extraordinary journey through the music industry. They discuss topics such as his start at All Platinum Records, the birth of Sugar Hill Records, recording "Rapper's Delight", his life-changing encounter with Jaco Pastorius, and his experiences touring with music icons. Doug also shares his thoughts on mentoring young musicians, the evolution of bass playing, and the importance of giving back to the music community. 

Aleixopédia
Hip hop

Aleixopédia

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 16, 2024 4:54


Aproveitando a efeméride "45 anos do lançamento da primeira canção de hip hop", falamos da importância e da influência (em várias áreas) da música “Rapper's Delight” do conjunto “Sugarhill Gang”.

ZeitZeichen
"Rapper's Delight" der Sugarhill Gang wird veröffentlicht (16.09.1979)

ZeitZeichen

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 16, 2024


Der Song "Rapper's Delight" der Sugarhill Gang ist der erste Rap-Hit der Geschichte. Er bringt Hip-Hop aus New York in die Welt und prägt die Popkultur bis heute.

WDR ZeitZeichen
"Rapper's Delight": Wie Hip-Hop die Welt eroberte

WDR ZeitZeichen

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 15, 2024 14:32


Am 16.9.1979 erscheint "Rapper's Delight" der Sugarhill Gang. Der erste Rap-Hit der Geschichte bringt Hip-Hop aus New York in die Welt und prägt die Popkultur bis heute. Von Christian Kosfeld.

Music In My Shoes
E44 All These Things That I've Done

Music In My Shoes

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 8, 2024 34:32 Transcription Available


Send us a textRemember that unforgettable moment when you first heard "Mr. Brightside" on the radio? It's hard to believe that The Killers' signature anthem remains as vibrant today as it did. twenty years ago, This episode kicks off with a deep dive into why these early 2000s hits, like "Somebody Told Me" and "Mr. Brightside," continue to captivate new generations, especially college students. We unpack the elements that make these tracks timeless, from their infectious disco beats to Brandon Flowers' authentic emotional delivery.Step into the storied past of the Viper Room with us, a venue that's seen as many wild nights as it has tragic moments. From River Phoenix's heartbreaking overdose to the near-miss with Courtney Love, we explore the events that have cemented the Viper Room's legendary status. Plus, Jimmy shares a personal anecdote from his college radio days, including a candid moment with River Phoenix and his band, Aleka's Attic, that left an indelible mark on him.Then, we shift gears to discuss the impact of gothic rock and rap, spotlighting Bauhaus' game-changing single, "Bela Lugosi's Dead." This minimalist masterpiece became an anthem for aspiring musicians everywhere. Along the way, we reminisce about discovering music in the pre-streaming era, when record stores were treasure troves and radio was king. To wrap things up, we share an inspiring story of resilience and a heartwarming link to The Sugarhill Gang - "Rapper's Delight. Don't miss out—this episode is a treasure trove of nostalgia and inspiration!Please Like and Follow our Facebook page Music In My Shoes. You can contact us at musicinmyshoes@gmail.com.Learn Something New orRemember Something Old

Matin Première
Rapper's Delight du Sugarhill Gang et Good Times de Chic

Matin Première

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 6, 2024 5:25


Philippe BRIOT nous dévoile le lien entre le Rapper's Delight du Sugarhill Gang et Good Times de Chic. Merci pour votre écoute Matin Première, c'est également en direct tous les jours de la semaine de 6h à 9h sur www.rtbf.be/lapremiere Retrouvez tous les épisodes de Matin Première sur notre plateforme Auvio.be : https://auvio.rtbf.be/emission/60 Et si vous avez apprécié ce podcast, n'hésitez pas à nous donner des étoiles ou des commentaires, cela nous aide à le faire connaître plus largement.

Fresh Air
Best Of: Questlove's Hip-Hop History / 'Always Sunny' Actor Rob McElhenney

Fresh Air

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 22, 2024 48:10


Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson still remembers the first time he heard The Sugarhill Gang's 1980 hit "Rapper's Delight." It felt like a paradigm shift: "Suddenly they start talking in rhythmic poetry and we didn't know what to make of it," The Roots bandleader says. Questlove's new book is Hip-Hop is History. The Always Sunny in Philadelphia co-creator and co-star Rob McElhenney bought a Welsh football club during the pandemic. McElhenney says he and actor Ryan Reynolds bought the team to "bring hope to a town that had fallen on hard times." The FX series Welcome to Wrexham, now in its third season on Hulu, chronicles the team, its owners and fans.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Fresh Air
Best Of: Questlove's Hip-Hop History / 'Always Sunny' Actor Rob McElhenney

Fresh Air

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 22, 2024 48:10


Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson still remembers the first time he heard The Sugarhill Gang's 1980 hit "Rapper's Delight." It felt like a paradigm shift: "Suddenly they start talking in rhythmic poetry and we didn't know what to make of it," The Roots bandleader says. Questlove's new book is Hip-Hop is History. The Always Sunny in Philadelphia co-creator and co-star Rob McElhenney bought a Welsh football club during the pandemic. McElhenney says he and actor Ryan Reynolds bought the team to "bring hope to a town that had fallen on hard times." The FX series Welcome to Wrexham, now in its third season on Hulu, chronicles the team, its owners and fans.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

THE FLEX RADIO INTERVIEW SESSIONS
Bar Shon The Ethiopian King from Queensbridge

THE FLEX RADIO INTERVIEW SESSIONS

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 15, 2024 28:10


Dubbed The Ethiopian King and the first MC from Queensbridge, Bar Shon, currently tours with The Furious 5, Mele Mel and Scorpio, and The Sugarhill Gang.

Fresh Air
Questlove On Hip-Hop And History

Fresh Air

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 11, 2024 46:01


Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson still remembers the first time he heard The Sugarhill Gang's 1980 hit "Rapper's Delight." It felt like a paradigm shift: "Suddenly they start talking in rhythmic poetry and we didn't know what to make of it," The Roots bandleader says. Questlove's new book is Hip-Hop is History.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Switched on Pop
Freaking out about songwriting with Nile Rodgers

Switched on Pop

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 11, 2024 35:06


There is no contemporary pop music without Nile Rodgers. Born in 1952, Rodgers grew up playing classical music on flute and clarinet before picking up jazz guitar. And at age 20, alongside bass player Bernard Edwards, Rodgers formed the band Chic. They wrote the biggest disco hits of the 70s, like: “Dance Dance Dance,” “Everybody Dance,” “Le Freak," and "Good TImes," which formed the core of Sugarhill Gang's “Rapper's Delight”. In his music career spanning six decades, Rodgers has produced and played on some of the biggest pop songs in history, for artists like Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, David Bowie, Madonna, Daft Punk, and Beyoncé. He is also the chair of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, so with the Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony taking place this June, we invited him onto Switched on Pop to talk about the making of a great song. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fresh Air
Questlove On Hip-Hop And History

Fresh Air

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 11, 2024 46:01


Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson still remembers the first time he heard The Sugarhill Gang's 1980 hit "Rapper's Delight." It felt like a paradigm shift: "Suddenly they start talking in rhythmic poetry and we didn't know what to make of it," The Roots bandleader says. Questlove's new book is Hip-Hop is History.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Black Information Network Daily
June 7, 2024. BIN Weekly Recap - Bri Wood + Morgyn Wood

Black Information Network Daily

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 7, 2024 39:56 Transcription Available


News Anchors Morgyn Wood and Bri Wood join Host Ramses Ja to discuss this week's major news stories.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

10 Things We Hate About Your Movie
Leprechaun in the Hood (2000)

10 Things We Hate About Your Movie

Play Episode Listen Later May 25, 2024 93:04


Continuing May's theme of 5ths in a franchise, we have Leprechaun 5: in the hood. Starts off not too bad and nosedives immediately. It's like what a hollywood producer, who grew up in the 80's listening to Blondie and the Sugarhill Gang, thinks of the "hood" in 2000. Add Ice T, who was lining up his deal with SVU, and a green midget and that is this movie. The podcast we recorded about it is good though. That's not true.. But listen anyway.

Straight Outta Lo Cash and The Scenario
I Only Listen To 90s Music: How St. Louis Was The First To Put Hip Hop On The Radio w/ DJ Needles

Straight Outta Lo Cash and The Scenario

Play Episode Listen Later May 16, 2024 29:25


DJ Needles joins the I Only Listen to 90s Music to discuss the diverse hip-hop scene in St. Louis and the city's role as a melting pot for different styles and influences. They delve into the history of St. Louis rap, including the impact of artists like Chingy and Ebony Eyez. The conversation also touches on the early days of hip-hop radio in St. Louis and the pivotal role played by Needles father Gentleman Jim Gates who is credited as the first DJ and radio programmer to put Sugar Hill Gang's Rappers Delight In radio rotation. Which signaled hip hop being played on the radio for the first time. This episode offers a fascinating exploration of St. Louis' rich hip-hop culture.   Join the I Only Listen to 90s Music Facebook Group http://bit.ly/3k0UEDe        Follow I Only Listen to 90s Music on IG https://bit.ly/3sbCphv      Follow SOLC Network online Instagram: https://bit.ly/39VL542                         Twitter: https://bit.ly/39aL395                         Facebook: https://bit.ly/3sQn7je               To Listen to the podcast Podbean https://bit.ly/3t7SDJH                     YouTube http://bit.ly/3ouZqJU                     Spotify http://spoti.fi/3pwZZnJ                    Apple http://apple.co/39rwjD1 

All THINGS HIP HOP EPISODE #1
EP #411 SUGARHILL GANG - MASTER GEE

All THINGS HIP HOP EPISODE #1

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 16, 2024 48:03


THE VIBE with Kelly Cardenas presents SUGARHILL GANG - MASTER GEE O'Brien grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, where at an early age he was exposed to a steady stream of doo wop and rhythm and blues, and established himself as an energetic emcee in the pioneering Phase 2 hip-hop crew.[1] During the early infancy of the commercial hip-hop movement in 1979, Master Gee, Big Bank Hank and Wonder Mike were discovered by producer Sylvia Robinson[2] and brought together to form The Sugarhill Gang.[3] O'Brien stepped away from Sugar Hill Records in 1984, and established himself as a successful entrepreneur in the magazine industry. During the group's departure from the label, Joey Robinson Jr., son of Sugar Hill producer Sylvia Robinson, used the stage name Master Gee. O'Brien and Wonder Mike went to court over the use of the group's name and stage names[4] as documented in the film, I Want My Name Back.[5] In 2014, name usage was amicably resolved, and Master Gee has since re-emerged as a mainstay in the hip hop community and music industry.

Best Album For
Introducing Your Kids to Hip Hop

Best Album For

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 4, 2024 53:37


We go deep on a roadmap for getting your kids to rap music, from Sugarhill Gang to whatever is happening in the genre right now. How do you approach conversations about lyrical content, specific life experiences that aren't our own, and answer questions you never thought you'd have to answer (yikes.) Along the way we talk about A Tribe Called Quest's timeless masterpiece, The Low End Theory, and Jurassic 5's rap primer for white people, Quality Control. Plus, we build our rap album and artist hall of fame. Plus, what are we listening to this week? A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory Jurassic 5 - Quality Control Outkast - ATLiens, Aquemini, Stankonia Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly, Good Kid MAAD City Jay-Z - The Blueprint, Reasonable Doubt, In My Lifetime Vol 2 (Hard Knock Life), The Black Album Tupac - All Eyez on Me Notorious BIG - Ready to Die Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) Madvillain - Madvillainy  Nas - Illmatic Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, College Dropout, Yeezus Kali Uchis - ORQUIDEAS Sampha - Lahai

O'Connor & Company
Bret Baier on Super Tuesday, Hunter Biden, Lloyd Austin & Sugar Hill Gang

O'Connor & Company

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 1, 2024 6:39


WMAL GUEST: 8:35 AM - INTERVIEW - BRET BAIER - Fox News Channel anchor of Special Report on Super Tuesday, Hunter Biden's deposition, Lloyd Austin's hearing and Sugar Hill Gang coming to Cherry Blossom Festival. Where to find more about WMAL's morning show:  Follow the Show Podcasts on Apple podcasts, Audible and Spotify. Follow WMAL's "O'Connor and Company" on X: @WMALDC, @LarryOConnor,  @Jgunlock,  @patricepinkfile and @heatherhunterdc.  Facebook: WMALDC and Larry O'Connor Instagram: WMALDC Show Website: https://www.wmal.com/oconnor-company/ How to listen live weekdays from 5 to 9 AM: https://www.wmal.com/listenlive/ Episode: Friday, March 1, 2024 / 8 AM Hour  O'Connor and Company is proudly presented by Veritas AcademySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

O'Connor & Company
Jennie Taer, Mike Litterst, Bret Baier, Anti-Trump Judge A Traffic Violations Expert

O'Connor & Company

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 1, 2024 27:43


In the 8 AM Hour: : Patrice Onwuka and guest co-host Andrew Langer discussed: WMAL GUEST: 8:05 AM - INTERVIEW - JENNIE TAER - (pronounced tair like hair) – Immigration reporter - recapped the Trump-Biden border visits Biden-Trump make dueling border visits as immigration dominates 2024 race WMAL GUEST: 8:15 AM - INTERVIEW - MIKE LITTERST - -  Spokesperson for the National Mall and Memorial Parks in the National Park Service - Discussed the update about when we can expect peak bloom of the Cherry Blossoms in the DC area!  FAQ: What you need to know about the National Cherry Blossom Festival 2024 Cherry blossom peak bloom dates announced in Washington, DC WMAL GUEST: 8:35 AM - INTERVIEW - BRET BAIER - Fox News Channel anchor of Special Report on Super Tuesday, Hunter Biden's deposition, Lloyd Austin's hearing and Sugar Hill Gang coming to Cherry Blossom Festival. ON WEDNESDAY: Judge orders former President Trump removed from Illinois primary ballot, but puts order on hold Illinois Judge specializes in Minor Traffic Violations. Where to find more about WMAL's morning show:  Follow the Show Podcasts on Apple podcasts, Audible and Spotify. Follow WMAL's "O'Connor and Company" on X: @WMALDC, @LarryOConnor,  @Jgunlock,  @patricepinkfile and @heatherhunterdc.  Facebook: WMALDC and Larry O'Connor Instagram: WMALDC Show Website: https://www.wmal.com/oconnor-company/ How to listen live weekdays from 5 to 9 AM: https://www.wmal.com/listenlive/ Episode: Friday, March 1, 2024 / 8 AM Hour  O'Connor and Company is proudly presented by Veritas AcademySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Load Out Music Podcast
Season 5: A Visit with Rap Music Royalty in the Sugarhill Gang

The Load Out Music Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2024 47:11


Like any other art form, rap music or hip-hop has a defined, ever-evolving legacy. There are names etched in the walls of the greats industry founders ranging from Curtis Blow to Grandmaster Flash, LL Cool J to Run DMC, the Beastie Boys, Will Smith, Doug E. Fresh, the Fat Boys and Queen Latifah. As the genre evolved, rap developed more of an edge, telling painful stories of street life from performers like N.W.A., Ice-T, Public Enemy, Tupac Shakur, and the Notorious B.I.G. Rappers Jay Z, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg took rap to new heights of popularity, giving hip-hop a seat at the mainstream table. And others like Lauryn Hill,  50 Cent, Kendrick Lamar, Lil' Wayne, Eminem, Travis Scott, Nicki Minaj, Drake, DMX, J. Cole and others have kept rap going strong and made it a viable and highly profitable music style. But rap is incomplete without the group that coined the phrase “hip-hop” in their groundbreaking anthem “Rapper's Delight”—the Sugarhill Gang.  Indeed, any conversation about rap—which in 2023, celebrated 50 years as an art form—is incomplete without the Sugarhill Gang. Formed in 1979, it started outside an Englewood, New Jersey, pizza shop when singer and music executive Sylvia Robinson asked Henry “Big Bank Hank” Jackson—who would croon as he made pizza inside—to sing for she and her husband Joe in their car parked outside. Jackson was ultimately joined by Guy "Master Gee" O'Brien and the two of them went to the Robinson home along with Michael "Wonder Mike" Wright. The three young me thought they were auditioning against one another, but in the end, were assembled into a music act that would go on to become one of the first rap groups ever—the Sugarhill Gang—holding a legendary place in popular music history.  We sit down with the Sugarhill Gang including Master Gee, Wonder Mike, Hendogg and DJ T-Dynasty for the latest episode of the Load Out Music Podcast. 

MASKulinity
Sugar Hill Band? Capitalism and MASKulinity in Hip Hop

MASKulinity

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 25, 2024 52:44


Sugar Hill Gang or Band? This group's seminal single set the tone for our understanding of hip hop culture in the mainstream, but it sacrificed the culture's wholeness along the way… We're continuing our conversation pondering the performance of masculinity in music as an art form and in music as a business.Masculinity Scholar and Accountability Strategist Nalo Zidan joins the pod this week to talk masculinity and capitalism within hip hop and shares indispensable wisdom on what liberation may look like…Samantha offers a snapshot of the beginnings of commercial hip hop. How did we get from that DJ Kool Herc party that started it all to “Rapper's Delight”?We examine how the performance of masculinity thrives in commercial hip hop and why capitalism benefits from music upholding bravado over vulnerability.Thankfully, there are some artists disrupting the performance of masculinity, but why are they on the fringe of the mainstream?Listen to Nalo dive deep into how our classist system, capitalism, and the performance of masculinity helps hip hop moguls evade accountability. Acknowledging the impact of patriarchy connects us to the need for social justice.Nalo stresses how divesting from capitalism allows us to regain our imagination and think of a life beyond patriarchy…and how it's an individual choice we must consistently make. Listen to find out the most antipatriarchal, anticapitalist response you can have in the face of the status quo. Referenced on this episode:Mother of Rap: The Success & Controversy of Hip Hop's Sylvia Robinson, producer of the first commercially released hip hop track, “Rapper's Delight”Saba: ‘RAP CAN GET CLASSIST – I WANT TO BE THE OPPOSITE'Noname: Tiny Desk Concert featuring Ghetto SageThe Sound of Capitalism COMPANION PIECES:MASKulinity is Making Some People a Lot of MoneyNalo Zidan's TEDxLSU talk It's Time to Redefine MasculinityThe Roots of Jay-Z's ‘Black Capitalism'Black Capitalism Won't Save Us

InObscuria Podcast
Ep. 213: Sumthin' Smells Funky Vol. 8! - White Pepper

InObscuria Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 19, 2024 74:30


Welcome back my friends to Ep. 213 of the InObscuria Podcast! Last week one of your esteemed co-hosts mentioned that he was going to start a new funk rock band called White Pepper… We thought this week would pontificate about what that group will sound like! We will once again explore all things FUNKY! Let your body move and your asses groove as we get down with some badass funk rock! What is it that we do here at InObscuria? Besides eating pop-tarts, we exhume obscure Rock n' Punk n' Metal in one of 3 categories: the Lost, the Forgotten, or the Should Have Beens. In this episode, we take a listen to all 3, as we move n' groove our way through funk-infused rock n' roll. This genre has a special meaning to the hosts, as they have dabbled in this funkdafied landscape throughout their musical journeys. Songs this week include:High Fade – “Burnt Toast & Coffee” from Burnt Toast & Coffee - Single(2023)Electric Love Hogs – “Just Another Day” from Electric Love Hogs (1992) Osaka Punch – “How We Operate” from Mixed Ape(2023)Sinister Dane – “Ravens” from The Claws Of Time (2023)JonesWorld– “Feel The Groove” from Feel The Groove – Single (2016)KRUSH GROOVE – “K.G.” fromHAVE A BREAK(2002)Precious Death – “Shine” from Southpaw (1995)Visit us: https://inobscuria.com/https://www.facebook.com/InObscuriahttps://twitter.com/inobscuriahttps://www.instagram.com/inobscuria/Buy cool stuff with our logo on it!: https://www.redbubble.com/people/inobscuria/og-shopCheck out Robert's amazing fire sculptures and metal workings here: http://flamewerx.com/If you'd like to check out Kevin's band THE SWEAR, take a listen on all streaming services or pick up a digital copy of their latest release here: https://theswear.bandcamp.com/If you want to hear Robert and Kevin's band from the late 90s – early 00s BIG JACK PNEUMATIC, check it out here: https://bigjackpnuematic.bandcamp.com/

This Day in History Class
Elizabeth Cotten born / "Rapper's Delight" becomes first Top 40 hip-hop song - January 5th Flashback

This Day in History Class

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 5, 2024 13:59 Transcription Available


On this day in 1893, blues and folk musician Elizabeth Cotten was born near Chapel Hill, North Carolina.On this day in 1980, “Rapper's Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang became the first hip hop song ever to break into the Billboard Top 40.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

DJ Rhythm Dee's Black Magic Sounds
Episode 138: DJRD's Party Mix 6.2

DJ Rhythm Dee's Black Magic Sounds

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 4, 2024 49:46


Enjoy the latest party installment by DJ Rhythm Dee. This is a nice blend of urban party favorites from the 70s 80s, and the 90s.Featuring; Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock, Fatman Scoop, Young MC, The Sugarhill Gang, Kurtis Blow, Sister Sledge, Bobby Brown, Boyz II Men, and many more.Let's take this ride together!

The View
Friday, Oct. 20: Sunny Hostin's Birthday, Rob Base, Doug E. Fresh, The Sugarhill Gang, DJ Chill Will

The View

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 20, 2023 40:28


In today's Hot Topics, the co-hosts react to President Biden's Oval Office address on the Israel-Hamas and Ukraine wars, discuss Trump's lawyer Sidney Powell pleading guilt in the Georgia election case and weigh in on Gwyneth Paltrow's defense of "nepo babies." Rob Base, Doug E. Fresh, The Sugarhill Gang and DJ Chill Will perform for Sunny Hostin's birthday and share how their music expanded the audience for hip-hop on the genre's 50th anniversary. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

Many of you may know Angie Stone as a soul-singer. But before her singing career took off, Angie was an MC in a rap group called The Sequence, one of the first ever all-women rap groups. Angie Stone joins us for Rap Month to talk about her early years as a rapper. She also gets into how The Sequence was discovered backstage at a Sugar Hill Gang concert. Plus, she talks about having her first hit solo records later on in her career.

Fresh Air
Hip-Hop Week: Darryl McDaniels (DMC) / LL Cool J

Fresh Air

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 29, 2023 46:10


We continue our celebration of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop with Darryl McDaniels, co-founder of one of rap's oldest groups, Run-DMC. We'll also hear from LL Cool J, and from record producer Nile Rodgers, the guitarist and co-founder of the disco group Chic. He'll talk about coming up with the bass line for the song "Good Times" which was used in Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight."

Trapital
Motown Records: The Hit Factory That Changed Music Forever

Trapital

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 13, 2023 78:33


Few record labels have left their stamp on the industry quite like Motown. This assembly line churned out hit song after hit song in the ‘60s and early ‘70s. With a who's-who roster — Marin Gaye, The Jackson 5, Diana Ross, and Stevie Wonder, among others — The Hitsville U.S.A. sign Gordy put on Motown's front door became warranted. This episode is the story of Motown Records — it's formula for success, what led to its decline, and where it stands today under Universal. I'm joined by friend of the pod, Zack O'Malley Greenburg. Here's what we covered in this episode:0:38 Berry Gordy's origin story8:08 Motown museum in Detroit9:20 Cultivating a culture of creativity13:05 Shifting the sound of Black music20:12 Motown's knack for discovering talent 34:29 The beginning of the decline36:12 80's decade of transition39:48 Post-Gordy struggles45:51 Motown's uncertainty today53:59 Best signing?55:16 Best business move?568:45 Dark horse move?1:01:58 Biggest missed opportunity?1:07:13 Motown big-screen picture1:09:22 Berry Gordy won big1:10:41 Who lost the most?1:14:56 Zack's Jay Z indexListen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | SoundCloud | Stitcher | Overcast | Amazon | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | RSSHost: Dan Runcie, @RuncieDan, trapital.coGuests: Zack O'Malley Greenburg, @zogblogThis episode is sponsored by DICE. Learn more about why artists, venues, and promoters love to partner with DICE for their ticketing needs. Visit dice.fmEnjoy this podcast? Rate and review the podcast here! ratethispodcast.com/trapitalTrapital is home for the business of music, media and culture. Learn more by reading Trapital's free memo.TRANSCRIPT[00:00:00] Zack Greenburg: Berry Gordy created with Motown and sort of the Motown genre, which I think really like more than any label has become synonymous beyond just sort of like the name of label itself, you say Motown music, and a testament to the sound that he created,[00:00:13] Dan Runcie Audio Intro: Hey, welcome to the Trapital Podcast. I'm your host and the founder of Trapital, Dan Runcie. This podcast is your place to gain insights from the executives in music, media, entertainment, and more who are taking hip hop culture to the next level.[00:00:38] Dan Runcie Guest Intro: Today's episode is a deep dive into the one and only legendary Motown records. At its peak, Motown was the most successful black business in the country. It peaked at 30 million dollars of revenue in 1968 and Barry Gordy and his team assembled a sound. a unique genre of music that produced hit after hit after hit and Hitsville USA lived up to its promise.So in this episode, we take you through the origins of how Motown came to be. What are some of the business principles and strategies that worked in its favor? And then what are some of the challenges that Motown faced too? It's now been 50 years since the peak of Motown. And this record label has had plenty of ups and downs and plenty of journeys that we went deep on in this episode. And I'm joined by Zach Greenburg He is a biographer of Jay Z and several others, and he also wrote about Michael Jackson. And in that he talked about Michael Jackson's time with Motown, especially in the Jackson 5. So we had a lot of fun in this one. So come take a trip down memory lane with us. Here's our episode on Motown.[00:01:42] Dan Runcie: All right. Today we're back with another case study style episode, and we're going deep into Hitsville, USA. Motown, baby. Let's do this, Zack, I'm excited for this one.[00:01:53] Zack Greenburg: Thanks for having me as always.[00:01:55] Dan Runcie: Berry Gordy is so fascinating because At one point, this was the most successful black business. They're the most successful black entrepreneur in the country invented a genre.And it's so hard to be able to do that. And that legacy still lives on today. We know so many record labels that have taken inspiration from what Berry Gordy built with Motown records, but let's start from the beginning. What inspired Berry Gordy to even want to get involved with music in the first place?[00:02:23] Zack Greenburg: Yeah. So, you know, Berry Gordy, and his family were in the Detroit area, you know, a bunch of serial entrepreneurs, get a record shop early on, but he was actually like semi professional boxer coming up. And, think one thing led to another and you just kind of saw that, you know, there was a market that was not being served in music.you know, certainly like the business was concentrated, on the coast and particularly in New York at that time, you know, eventually more in LA, but. you know, there was some stuff going on in Chicago. there was some regional acts, regional labels, things like that. But, you know, I think he just basically saw an opportunity, to start something.And, you know, sort of in the way that if you look at, Richard Branson or Puffy or, you know, what are those types of entrepreneurs? It's almost It doesn't really matter what they get into. They find a way to make it work. and they're just always on the lookout for a new sector. That's, kind of, you know, right for some creative destruction, know, and some refreshing or some freshening, some revising, I don't know, whatever you would call it.And, you know, in the case of Berry Gordy. Kind of amazingly, when you think about music over the past half century, he looked around and he thought, well, this is actually, this is a sector that is very promising amongst all the sectors that I could possibly get into. So, that's how Motown came to pass.[00:03:36] Dan Runcie: That point about whether it's Diddy, Branson, Gordy, and I think a lot of the tech CEOs fall in this category as well. You're going to put them in any generation. And I do think that these people would have found a way to make things work. And that's the same point you're making, right? He saw an opportunity to music, but let's say he came 30 years later.It could have been another aspect. Let's say he came today, probably could have been trying to do something in AI or even figure it out, how to make AI, be transformative with his music. And I think a lot of his work, whether you think about how he built derivative work or how he had this process with artists that we'll get into so much of it taps into, okay, here's an opportunity to optimize things.Here's how we can make things work. And music just happened to be the format. He chose it.[00:04:21] Zack Greenburg: Absolutely. And even, you know, when you think about it, he got started sort of mid century 30 years later, he was looking into other things, getting involved in film and TV. And You know, moving the business out West, but, you know, we'll get there eventually, but, he certainly did, you know, find other ways to extend the Motown brand as time went on.[00:04:37] Dan Runcie: So he starts off, he has this record business and things go okay with that. specifically talking about the store. And that was a lot of it was connected a bit more from the family perspective, but then he ends up getting the job at Ford specifically working with that Lincoln mercury plant. And that's when he was only there for 2 years, but he then sees how the process works and the whole concept of Ford is, which is that assembly line process that Henry Ford has been famous for.He sees that and then he taps back into his opportunities with music and he's like, okay. Okay, there's an opportunity to do the same with music. So he sees this assembly line, essentially have all these parts go through the inputs. And then the output, you get this car, he wanted to be able to pull some kid off the street, bring them into the Motown and bring them into this record label facility.And then outcomes a star. And he felt like he had the ability to be able to create that type of dynamic. And it took some time to get there, but that's essentially what he did. And a lot of the creations of what we saw from Hitsville USA was that exactly.[00:05:48] Zack Greenburg: Absolutely. And, he'll tell you that, I've interviewed him a couple of times. Once for Forbes, once for my book, Michael Jackson Inc, where he talked a lot about that. And, you know, he really has a formula, for making a hit song. And, you know, it's sort of like the song has to have a clear beginning, middle at an end. The chorus has to have a sort of grand arc that summarizes the song every time it happens.And then there's a sort of like grand finale bridge ending thing that, brings it all together, always at the end you hear the artist shout out the song's name almost, you know, invariably one last time and you know, that's like pure marketing, right? And you think about it in those days, this great songs on, you're hearing it, but like, you know, maybe you're in the car, it's on the radio, maybe you're artist and a record player.It's not popping up on your phone. So you know what it's called when you hear Michael Jackson shout out, I want you back at the end and I want you back. what you're going to go out and buy, you know what, you're going to call in, you know, to the radio station and ask them to play. So, it's very calculated, it really works and it's proven and, you know, if it sort of seems like, gosh. You know, this is like a cliche. This is obvious. I think part of it is because he helped create this cliche, obvious thing, right? I mean, things become cliche or obvious because they're smart or necessary most of the time.So, you know, at some point it was novel and, you know, very corny, I think was part of, making that whole song structure novel. And, you know, really. When you look at how he executed it, you know, I think a modern day analog, we talked about this, you know, before on our bad boy episode, but so, you know, his role was very much like the Puffy role, or at least the early Puffy role in production. So, you know, he had a hand in songwriting and production, but, you know, mostly he figured out who he wanted to have producing his labels, songs and sort of who he wanted to be in charge of authoring that certain type of sound.So for Berry Gordy, it was a handful of, producers called the corporation, just like Puffy had the Hitmen. And, you know, then he would kind of come in and do his own little thing on top when he thought it was necessary. But, you know, in a way it kind of adds that whole assembly line aspect, right? Where, you know, that there's going to be a certain level of quality, there's going to be like a distinctive sound, whether it's a bad boy or Motown, or, you know, even going back to, you know, what a Ford car was, you know, in those days you had kind of an ideology to get.And I think that's one of the things that really set Motown apart.[00:08:08] Dan Runcie: Exactly. And I think with that too, you have him going through the process of starting this. So this record label started with an 800 with 800. That's what he had initially. And he uses that to then start Hitsville USA. So that's the location on Grand Ave in Detroit.Have you been to this museum by the way?[00:08:30] Zack Greenburg: I did. We did a special event there. One time we had the Forbes 30 under 30, Summit and we did this like, special, like one off private interview where I went there with Quavo and we sat in Motown studios, you know, where Michael Jackson and all them had recorded. and we did a little like video discussion on the state of the music business, I think it's floating around the internet somewhere, but, it's a really cool building. I mean, I think what strikes. Me the most, you know, like the first time I went in is like the fact that just a house.I mean, it really just looks like a house. the rooms are sort of like room size, you know, it's not some sprawling like, you know, I don't know, institutional type place like a lot of modern, recording studios, you know, it's just a converted house but you know, you kind of walk through each room and it's museum and everything now, so you can kind of get a feel for it. It's very different from the modern day glitz and glamour of the record business for sure.[00:09:20] Dan Runcie: Yeah, been there twice. it was really cool because just like you said, you feel like you're actually in a home and that's the vibe that the studio gives you. And I felt like the people that were the tour guides as well, they clearly knew their history in a way where it should sound obvious, but that could obviously be hit or miss with museum sometimes.So I felt like that piece of it was good. And it ties back to a few things that tap into the culture that it is. Gordy wanted to create that. I think make it work. He lived upstairs. Studio is downstairs. So he has everything there and he wanted to make this somewhere that creativity could spawn at any particular moment.So he wanted to create a 24/7. Set up where he had made sure the vending machines were always stocked. So people could stay there year, you know, day in day out. If creativity comes to you at 3 p. m. or 3 a. m. you can go right there and do what you have to do. And you could keep things moving there internally.And this is one of the things that I do think worked really well for them because. Although I think the music industry has gotten away from this, there was this era where the culture and the vibe that you could create from a label and all that continuity really helped things. So when you saw how deliberate he was from an assembly line perspective was essentially keeping his product in place and keeping all the materials in place so that it can produce outputs at any given moments to just increase the likelihood that you could have hits coming time and time again.[00:10:49] Zack Greenburg: Yeah, for sure. And, you know, I mean, he certainly spoke a lot about, quality control, which is, it's kind of funny, you know, given the eventual QC relationship, but, you know, I think that's a really big part of it. And when you're that hands on and, you know, in some cases you could say micromanaging, but it does enable you to really have a unified.We can also get into this, fact that at some point it can become a bit of a creative constraint for artists as they mature.[00:11:14] Dan Runcie: Right, because with quality control, there was someone on the team that listened to everything that came through Motown and they essentially picked the best. They brought it to this weekly meeting and most of the Motown artists weren't writing or producing their materials necessarily, but they were going in and you had all these artists that would essentially sing.The same exact song and then they would pick the best version that came out of that to then release the song. Sometimes they had multiple artists that would end up releasing a version. And we saw different versions of this where you had both Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye have their versions of Ain't No Mountain high enough.Granted it was a few years later in different songs, but a lot of that stems from that quality control aspect. And there's this one quote that, was here from One of the books that was written about, Berry Gordy and Motown, where they talked about quality control and they said, quote, the artists were a means to an end in a way, end quote.And that's exactly what we're talking about how the downside is that it could limit creativity, but the upside is that it gives you the opportunity to get the best polished diamond from all of the creations that come from this studio.[00:12:24] Zack Greenburg: Absolutely. And man, there were quite a few, right? I mean, when you look through, I mean, the heydays, Smokey Robinson, the Miracles, Diana Ross, the Supremes, Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, coming into, you know, Michael Jackson, the Jackson 5, you know, think we've talked about in our previous discussions about hip hop, you know, like sort of the staying power, of different labels and, you know, and how you can kind of keep identifying talent and keep it coming. I mean, that's quite a breadth You know, of like musical accomplishment that they've got, that you could say that Berry Gordy identified over the years.So, you know, I would really, obviously I'd put him up against any other, identify any A& R, any, you know, music mogul in the history of the business, for sure.[00:13:05] Dan Runcie: I agree. And I think the other thing that's interesting too, is This taps back into the whole process and quality management things. Berry Gordy really wanted to help shift the sound and direction of this label because at the time, black music and music that was made by black artists was quite segmented where people didn't feel like it could reach beyond a certain audience.And he experienced some of this himself. One of the reasons that his record stores closed was because he was focused primarily on jazz music. At the time, even Black folks weren't really into jazz at that particular moment. So he just didn't have the market to be able to continue this. So I think that helps Chase Motower.He says, okay, I want the music that's able to be listened to by everyone. I want Black people to ride with it. I want white people. I want anyone in America to be able to ride with the same way that people would listen to the Beach Boys. And he had a few more interesting things that were part of this process.One, everyone had an etiquette coach. And these are things that we're teaching them, essentially, how you have black people essentially speak to white people. Granted, I think there's a lot of that that is problematic. That probably wouldn't fly into the same ways today, just given some of the language there.but then additionally, he also had white salesmen that were essentially the ones that were promoting the records in different areas, going to different radio stations. And he would go as far to insert in records that he's promoting to not even show the artist on the cover because he wanted the record to reach.And he didn't want people to necessarily immediately see or relate it to a black artist, which I thought was interesting, but lined up with a lot of these things. So, even though some of the choices clearly were problematic, it probably wouldn't fly at the same way today. That's how he was about process and wanting to essentially be able to sell this talent anywhere in the country.[00:15:01] Zack Greenburg: Yeah, and it's especially remarkable when you sort think of the cultural context of, you know, of when this is all happening in the 60s. You know, I mean, this is a time of great polarization and social change and, you know, really like turmoil, in a lot of ways, disunity, but, what Berry Gordy created with Motown and sort of the Motown genre, which I think really like more than any label has become synonymous like a genre, you know, beyond just sort of like the name of label itself, you say Motown music, and you're talking about like a genre, as much as you're talking about a label, the fact that you'd be able to sort of create that it like in the 60s, even the late 60s, when things were really why we think we're polarized now.I mean, the late sixties, oh my gosh. Like what a testament to the sort of the sound that he created, which, you know, just like bridged all these divides and, you know, you obviously still go to any wedding, black, white, you know, at anything. And, you're gonna hear Motown all over the place.So I think that kind of goes back to what he created, you know, even at the time. being so accessible to so many different audiences and, you know, one of the things he told me, when I interviewed him, he said that, Martin Luther King came to see him, in Detroit, at the peak of the civil rights movement.And apparently, according to Gary Gordy, MLK said, he said, what I'm trying to do politically and intellectually, you're doing with your music. I love the feeling people get when they hear your music. And so maybe we can make a deal. And they made a deal to actually put out some of MLK's greatest speeches.They put out three albums on Motown and Gordy kind of summed it up by saying, if you do the right thing will come to you. So I thought that was such a cool. Little nugget that people don't necessarily realize. and, you know, I think people don't, think of Berry Gordy as like avant garde, you know, civil rights activist or anything, but, he kind of approached it in his own way, which was to make this music that could, you know, that could really bring people together.They could also get black culture, you know, into the mainstream us culture, at the same time. And, you know, I mean, we saw that, you know, decades later with hip hop, but. Berry Gordy, you know, he made that blueprint, you know, very, very, very early on.[00:17:03] Dan Runcie: It's a great story because I think it highlights the complexity and that people just aren't in these corners. And as you mentioned, Berry Gordy wasn't known for his civil rights activism. In many ways, people would often point to things that he may have shied away from, where I remember, especially in the 70s when you started to hear a bit more of a pacifist and things like that, there was a push and people wanted Motown to lead more into this and he necessarily wasn't as eager at the time and I remember even Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, one of the biggest records that was ever made.There was tension leading up to that because Gordy was like, wait, what is this? you want to do this? Like, what are we doing here? And then it eventually gets made. And then you see how I feel like every time that one of these publications has one of the greatest songs ever made, I'm sure it's come up on number one, or at least on several, one of these.So you see that, and you've seen other areas where he clearly has leaned into this, but I do think that his. Place in his role at that time, often highlighted some of that ongoing tension that we've seen from black leaders over the years about people want progress, but what's the best way to agree with this?And you date back to some of the more public debates between folks like Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Dubois about what is the best way for black progress and group economics and things like that. And I feel like Berry Gordy clearly was on a Particular side of that, that not everyone may have agreed with, but he clearly still wanted to be able to help progress things in a particular way.So he's a very fascinating figure as we look at this progression, especially in the 20th century.[00:18:42] Zack Greenburg: Well, that's right. And, you know, I think there's a reason you see him put out MLK speeches. I don't, think he put up Malcolm X's speeches, you know, but that was just sort of his approach, right? He was more Martin than Malcolm.And, you know, obviously you could speak to the merits of either method, but, Berry Gordon definitely, had his preference there.[00:18:59] Dan Runcie: The other thing that I want to talk about, you mentioned it earlier, but the talent and the breadth of talent that was in this place is such a constraint and such a valuable time.It's one of those things where just imagine walking through on a, some day in, let's say 1964, you're just walking through Motown and all of the names that you could just see there making music on a Wednesday afternoon. It's crazy to think of the names and also how he found folks because. Look at Smokey Robinson and Smokey Robinson, the miracles essentially end up releasing shop around, which I do think ends up becoming the first true hit that, or the first, hit single that comes from Motown.He found that he found Smokey on a street corner performing almost, and in many ways, it feels similar to. What we see decades later with Sylvia Robinson driving around the New Jersey tri state area, finding hip hop artists for Sugar Hill Gang. This is how these early entrepreneurs did it. They were the talent development.They saw things and granted it was a much less crowded market. So the people that were pushing music onto folks had a little bit easier time breaking through, but it was still tough, especially at the time. And he was able to make it work in that way, which was, cool.[00:20:13] Zack Greenburg: Yeah, I mean, he actually did. And, you know, of course, like the one group that we haven't talked about too much yet is Jackson and sort of the way that, different groups were signed in those days, you know, they're all the stories about, well, you hear, you see somebody busking and you sign them and this and that.And, sort of some of the stories, though, if you talk to a lot of different people, you get, you talk to 3 people, you get 3 different stories. Right? So, I think for my book on MJ, I talked to. His dad, I talked to Berry Gordy and I talked to the guy who signed them to this little record company called Steel Town in Gary, Indiana.And they all had three different versions of, you know, how it went down, right? And so, there's that old saying, basically that the winners get to write history and, you know, Berry Gordy won. So, you know, whether his version is a hundred percent, accurate or not, that's kind of the version that, you know, we tend to hear I think his version is usually correct, but there's definitely some, you know, embellishment or some showmanship from time to time.So, you know, I think, for example, with the Jackson 5, Berry Gordy decided to put out, I think it was their first album as Diana Ross presents the Jackson 5 and, you know, she had this little thing where she's like, I discovered this group from Gary, Indiana and like blah, blah, blah, and that wasn't really how it happened at all.And it was really, you know, depending on who you ask, but I think what happened is Suzanne DePasse, who was one of Berry Gordy's lieutenants, had discovered them, and I think it was, there's another band who heard them, like sent them along to Suzanne DePasse that like, she kind of did the legwork for Berry Gordy.And it was like many times, many. Kind of connections later that Diana Ross, you know, became connected, to the group. but, you know, it's such a better story, right? Like Diana Ross has found these kids from, from the Midwest and, you know, bringing them out, onto Motown. So. I always think that's, kind of funny how, the stories end up getting presented and, you know, when you hear it from everybody else involved, I mean, and Diana Ross, of course, did become, really instrumental and especially Michael's life, as time went on, moved to LA and I think she, he actually lived with her for a little while while they were, you know, making the move and all this stuff, but, you know, it, didn't exactly start out that way.[00:22:18] Dan Runcie: Right. And the Jackson 5 is interesting because they, in many ways were the last group that came through in the heyday of Motown because the heyday we're really talking about is that 50 to 60s run that we've been talking about with a lot of the groups and the artists that we mentioned, especially young Marvin Gaye, young Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and the Supremes.And then Jackson 5 comes along. But they come along towards the end of the decade. And just for some context setting, in 1968, Motown is doing 30 million in revenue. And they at one point had a 65% hit rate on the songs that they released in terms of actually being able to chart. So the highs were quite high and they were, killing it.The thing is, though, in the early 70s, this is where things start to shift a little bit, because at this point, Berry has his eyes set much bigger, and he wants to move beyond things in Detroit, because of course he was in the Hitsville, U.S.A. house, solely, after the riots that happened and there was some damage there, they ended up expanding things closer.they ended up expanding further in Detroit to just get a bigger size studio there as well. But then, he eventually wants to go to Hollywood so that he could get more into film. He wants to get into production for plays. He wants to bring these artists on the big screen. And it makes sense. We see why this is a huge medium.You saw how much, popular this talent is. And if you can get people to see them and buy into this, visual image that he's clearly curated, no different than we saw someone like Diddy decades later curating things, he wanted to do that. And I think that in many ways, this was one of those big challenges that any leader can have.Do you stay with the thing that's working really well? Or do you try to expand? And when you do expand, how do you find out? How do you make sure that you have the best talent around you? How do you make sure that you're well equipped? And I think that bowtie really started to strain because as things started to grow for the label, a lot of the artists started to feel like they were getting neglected because of these broader ambitions.And that in many ways, now we're dating 50 plus years ago to like 1972 timeframe. That's when a lot of ways was the beginning of the end, at least in terms of the Motown that a lot of people grew up with and knew.[00:24:41] Zack Greenburg: I think so for sure. And, you know, I think as an entrepreneur, you have to seek the next thing, right? I mean, you don't want to stagnate and you kind of have to take the risk and go for the next big thing and maybe you succeed and maybe you don't, and I think that's at least the way we've been conditioned to think. On the other hand, there could be an argument for like, we don't need to have this growth at all costs mindset as a society, you know, what's wrong with having a really awesome business that's just like constantly, you know, successful has happy employees, you know, that kind of thing. But, I guess that's, you know, this is, you know, Trapital not, you know, Trapsocialism, I dunno, we're talking within a certain realm of, you know, of economic, styles and systems.So that's what's gotta happen. And that's what Berry Gordy decided to do, you know, by moving everything to LA but we talked, a while ago about John McClain, and his role in kind of in, in the past few decades as an executive. He's somebody who rarely talks, but somebody interviewed him at some point.He said that he thought that moving to LA was, kind of the beginning of the end for Motown, because it, kind of changed Motown from being a trendsetter to being a trend follower. And, I think I agree with that. And, you know, that's not to say that there wasn't additional success, especially, you know, beyond the recorded music business that occurred. And that moving to LA kind of, you know, like supercharged some of that, but yeah, you know, I mean, I think when Motown was in the Motor City, in its namesake place, like, You know, it was sort of like, I don't say the only game in town cause there were other labels, but I think it was sort of, the main game in town and, being in a place that, you know, wasn't sort of the epicenter of the music business allowed it to have kind of its own unique style and not sort of be influenced as much by what else was going on.And, you know, don't forget in those days, it wasn't like everything was, you know, it wasn't like we were all tuning into the same social media channels. you know, we weren't even like really tuned into cable TV or anything like that, you know, there wasn't the same kind of like national culture that there is today that, you know, where trends just kind of like fly across in a second. And things did kind of take time to move from one place to the other. throughout the country. So, you know, there was like a certain regionalism to it that I think set Motown apart and, you know, maybe you lose a little bit, you know, once you're out in LA, but, you know, certainly around that time, you really start to see some of the artists who wanted more creative freedom, leaving, you know, some others pushing back, you know, I think even within, a few years of moving to LA, the Jackson 5, we're kind of, having some issues with Motown and in terms of, you know, can we make some of our own types of music? You know, do we really have to stick to quite the assembly line? So, yeah, I do think it was a mixed bag for Berry Gordy to head west.[00:27:20] Dan Runcie: And this is where things really started to struggle because a lot of what worked for Berry Gordy was so perfect for. The Hitsville USA West Grand Ave mentality of building everything there and not to say that he was only an early stage founder that couldn't necessarily progress. But I think a lot of the processes he had were more fit for that era. So naturally, you see the growing success of the Jackson 5 and Michael is no longer 9 years old.He is at this point now a full on teenager, but unfortunately, it just didn't quite. Progress in a few things, as you mentioned, you wanted more, they wanted more creative control. They also wanted to have a bit more ownership. There were disputes about royalties. And I remember reading something that said that the Jackson 5 had calculated how much they got.And it was only a 2.3% stake of how much revenue was either coming through or would be coming through in the future. And they see this and they're like, okay, well how can we see our opportunity to get more of that? So then they leave for Epic. And then you also saw a handful of artists at this point were already on their ways out and things were definitely starting to look a little bit more bleak because by the time you get to the end of the seventies, the beginning of 1980s, The music industry was already, granted things are cyclical, but they were starting to sour a bit on black music.This was the end of disco and people wanted nothing to do with that genre. And even though Motown wasn't disco necessarily, there was vibes of the types of artists they were trying to naturally capture in the 70s. So then that had all of black music taking a hit in a lot of ways and there were groups like the barge and others that I think they tried to make work. Obviously, I think Stevie Wonder was a mainstay during all this and that worked out really well for them, but he was really just 1 mainstay. You did have Marvin Gaye, but again, still, it just wasn't necessarily. The same, and I think that they definitely started to struggle even more at that particular moment.And even as early as the 80s, you start to see more of that narrative that honestly, you still hear today about recapturing that Motown magic or recapturing that Motown journey. People have been saying this now for 40 years.[00:29:40] Zack Greenburg: Yeah, for sure. And I think one thing that people forget is that even though the Jackson 5 moved on to Epic, you know, and that's where MJ ended up, you know, Epic and CBS, and, that's where MJ ended up launching a solo career, people forget that Jermaine actually stayed at Motown initially. He had married Berry Gordy's daughter and, you know, they had this whole wedding with like, you know, 150 white doves were released and, you know, they had this, you know, kind of fairytale situation. And apparently, Berry said to Jermaine, like, Hey, you can go with your brothers and stay with me, whatever you want.And, you know, knowing Berry, I think he maybe didn't put it that delicately or, you know, that was kind of a huge break from Motown because you know, he had really taken the Jackson 5 under his wing. They used to have, Gordy versus Jackson family, baseball games. Michael Jackson would play catcher. It was very So, you know, I think Tito was like the big power hitter, is what I heard. but yeah, for, you know, I mean, these were two families that were really intricately linked. And I think ultimately it kind of came down to, you know, there was some creative control issues, but, you know, Joe Jackson was, pretty controlling, Berry Gordy was pretty controlling and at some point, you know, it just, I think it became impossible for them to coexist.And so, Joe kind of guided them over to Epic to get that big deal, but, you know, Jermaine. It wasn't obvious that Michael was going to be, you know, by far the superstar of all the Jacksons. And, you know, Jermaine did seem at the time to be like the one who had the most promising solo career, or at least it was, you know, pretty close.And, you know, he never really found his niche is a solo act and eventually it would go on to get back every night with his brothers and go on tours and that sort of thing.[00:31:22] Dan Runcie: I think that's a good distinction because people will often point to and think about what are the big nine and then he drops off the wall. This isn't what happened. There's a pretty big difference between those few years. No difference than anyone where naturally there's a difference between a 15 year, but there were others that experienced.So many of the artists that ended up leaving at that particular year old artist and a 19 year old artist. You're a completely different person at that point. And that's exactly what we ended up seeing with Michael. So missed opportunity for sure missed opportunities that Motown had, we'll get to miss opportunities in a minute, but you often hear people talk about them not being able to keep Michael, but to your point, the Jackson 5 leaving Motown in 1975, 76, isn't the same as.Them leaving in 1970 time ended up having greater,success once they were able to have a bit of freedom after leaving Motown, which was a bit unfortunate because obviously, I think it would have been great to see them continue that success under Berry Gordy's umbrella and continue to see them grow.But not everyone is going to be Stevie Wonder. Not everyone is there to say, Hey, I'm with you until the end. And I'm going to be riding with you during this entire journey. It just doesn't work that way. People have careers. No different. You see them today where people see a bigger opportunity and the grass is greener.They want to take advantage of that, especially if they don't feel like they are being put in the best position to thrive. So in the 80s, Motown is now officially in its transition recovery mode, trying to recapture what was there and we see a few things happen.So they start leading in on debarge. And a lot of people, DeBarge did have a pretty big hit with Rhythm of the Night, but I do think that they tried to make the DeBarge family replicate some of this Jackson family, where you had El DeBarge, and you had all of these others, but it just didn't quite click, at least in a mainstream way to that perspective, but then you did have Lionel Richie, who did end up having a pretty big career, especially with everything he had done since the, Commodores and, but then you also had Berry Gordy's son that they were also trying to work into the mix, who performed under the name Rockwell, who had had that song, somebody's watching me that Michael had sung the hook on.So you had a few things there, but just didn't exactly click because again, it's stuck in two models. Berry wanted to continue to have complete control over it. And the artists just didn't want that anymore. I think that worked when you were literally giving artists. No giving artists in a region of the country like Detroit a platform and opportunity, but they had no other options.But now they had leverage. Now they could go talk to mca Now they could go talk to CBS Epic and some of these other labels. So Berry's mentality just didn't work as much. And then by 1988 is when we see him transition on from the label, at least as the CEO level. And then we start to see the new blood come in to run the record label.[00:34:30] Zack Greenburg: Yeah. I mean, I think it is important to note that, you know, although you could characterize the 80s as sort of like musical decline era for Motown, you know, in the way that many artists are entrepreneurs, like, seem to be in a period of delays over some decade or whatever, they actually get much richer during that period of malaise, because what they had built before was so good.And there's still kind of like, they're finally cashing in on it, whereas maybe they didn't cash in on it when it first happened. But like, enough of the sort of like older, wealthier decision makers who can pay them more are like, finally getting hip to the fact that, you know, this is a big deal.So, I would definitely think about Motown that context and that, you know, when Berry was able to sell, you know, a huge chunk, of the company kind of like step back from it, that was after like a a period of time when Motown was not as hot as it had been.But you had things going on, like Motown 25 in 1983, that special. Put together, where MJ came back and reunited, with his brothers and the whole Motown crew and he had, you know, all these other artists, but that was actually the first time I think that MJ moonwalked, you know, sort of in public, like you know, he sort of like the popular debut of the moonwalk and it just really kind of, Created, so much buzz around that, that then kind of rubbed off on Motown and didn't really matter whether he wasn't on Motown anymore, but it just kind of gave a little more shine to the label and gave it sort of like, a relevance, I think that helped kind of carry through to the end of the 80s and helped get Berry Gordy, this really big payday.So, I wouldn't discount like You know, I don't know the sort of like delayed reaction that sort of the half life of fame or whatever you want to call it. But, there were still some of these moments that were created, that kept paying dividends as the time went on. I think[00:36:13] Dan Runcie: That's a fair point because he also sold at this smart time when right as we're seeing in this current era that we're recording, it's a very hot time for music asset transactions as were the late 80s and early 90s too. That's when you saw Geffen do many of the deals that he had done and Gordy. Did the same where I believe he made 61 million from the sale, or at least his portion of the sale in 1988, which is huge.You didn't see people, especially black business owners that fully owned everything being able to cash out at that level. So that's a good point. I'm glad that you mentioned that. And with this is when we start to see the transition of leadership. And we start to see a few things that do ring true.Where the first person that takes over is Gerald Busby, who was leading black music at MCA at the time. And even though Motown had had a bit of its malaise in the 1980s, MCA did not, in many ways, it was seen as the leader in black music. And Bubsy was able to. Have quite a good amount of success there with all of the work that he had done.the thing is though, he had started to run into some issues because he was in this weird dynamic where this company, Polygram had owned part of the label, as did Boston Ventures, his private equity group, and Bubsy was at odds with the folks at Boston Ventures about. some creative control. And he had this quote where he says he'd rather quit Motown president than see the label become a cash cow for a huge corporation trafficking off of nostalgia.And that was a quote that was said back in the 90s just thinking about how. Similar, some of those quotes now come to today. And this was someone who was largely credited from helping to say blast black music from that disco era. But unfortunately, I think a lot of those tensions that he had had, at the time just made life a little bit more difficult for him at Motown.So he eventually we Left. And while he was there, he was able to at least get a few things under. Like he was the one that had brought in voice to men. He had Queen Latifah there. He had Johnny Gill, who was another artist at the time that was quite popular, but maybe hadn't necessarily lived on in the way.And his dreams were, he wanted to have Motown cafes, the same way you had hard rock cafes. He wanted to have the young acts going and touring around at different places to recreate that vibe. And this is something that we'll get into. I think we see time and time again, where these leaders have all these dreams and visions for what they see.Motown can be, but because of the powers that be because of other things, they just can't quite get there to make it happen.[00:38:51] Zack Greenburg: Yeah. And I think that one of the things that set Motown apart early on, you know, as sets many startups apart early on, and many record companies are early on is that they were independent and they could do whatever they wanted.And, you know, Berry Gordy was, sort of like the unquestioned leader and, you know, things kind of, in the way that things kind of get done, let's say more efficiently, if not, more equitably in dictatorships, like he could just get shit done, move things around, have it happen immediately. And so when you started to have, you know, these corporate parents, parent companies, you know, you'd have to go through all these layers of approval to do anything.And, kind of like stop being able to be agile. and I think that's especially important in the music business when, you know, you have to. Not be reactive, but proactive, right? You have to be ahead of things. So, you know, if you're getting to a point where you're having to wait on approvals and things like that, you've already lost because you should have been out in front to begin with.[00:39:48] Dan Runcie: And this is something that I think plagued Motown time and time again, because Gordy didn't necessarily operate in this way. He had so many people that wanted to replicate what he did, but they didn't have the same parameters and the same leeway to make those decisions. As you mentioned, they're now working for corporations that now have their own vested interest.And to be frank, one of the tensions that we see often in music is that these brazen, bold leaders want to be able to take big swings and do things that are innovative and off the cuff. And these corporations are hard set pressed on efficiency. They don't want to see overspending. They don't want to see over commitments, or they want to be able to feel like this is being run in a strategic way.This is something that in the Interscope episode that we talked about, Jimmy Iveen struggled with this as well, even as recently as his tenure with Apple music. But this is one of those frequent tensions that happens with music executives. And we saw that continue with the person that replace Busby, which is Andre Harrell.We talked about him a bit in the Bad Boy episode, but Andre, of course, at this time was coming fresh off of Uptown Records where he was working in collaboration with MCA and he was able to build a little bit of his own fiefdom there where granted he still had people he had to answer to, but I think he had a pretty good relationship with the folks at MCA up until the end there.Then he goes to Motown and he sees this opportunity. And there's a few things that stick out about this because. As early as a year ago, he was starting to get rumored as to be the next person to then take over. But then he gets 250k as an initial announcement. He takes out this full page ad, New York Times.And then he has this ad that essentially says from Uptown to Motown, it's on. And it's him sitting in the back of the chair and you see a sweatshirt in the back. And people hated it. People grilled him. The way that they talked about him, the trades and even Russell Simmons and others coming in and giving him shit about it.He had pretty verbal flight fights with Clarence Avon, who was pretty powerful at the time. And Clarence even said he had swung on him at one particular point and was quite critical of him as well. There's this one quote that I think was really funny here, where this was from the Netflix documentary that was, The Black Godfather, which was about Clarence Avon.And, or actually, no, this is before this summer variety interview, but they talked about this as well. The doc, Clarence says, Andre and I didn't get along. And then he pointed to an image of the Motown boy band, 98 degrees. And Avon says, Andre wanted to send these white boys to Harlem to make them sound black.And I was like, you're out of your fucking mind. And it's a funny quote, because I do think that 98 degrees. Maybe didn't exactly have as many hits as they probably would have thought, but in Andre Harrell's defense, and sadly, but true, the mentality wasn't necessarily wrong because of the 90s, the most successful Motown act that you had was Boyz II Men, and we saw at the end of the decade that, what's that guy's name, the con artist that had the boy bands, Lou Pearlman, like, he literally modeled Backstreet Boys and NSYNC after How can I find white boys to men and make them see modern contemporary and make this happen?And that's how he was able to have success there. And that was before, what's his name? That was before Andre Harrell was really getting going. So he saw where things were going. But it just didn't click at the time. It just wasn't right. And obviously 90 degrees ends up having some decent success, but that's well after Andre Harrell had left the label.So he ended up leaving and the press was not kind to him. Literally headlines were. Andre Harrell gets fired from LA Times it's a type of headline that we probably don't see now when record label execs get fired in the same way. I think the industry is much more controlled in its PR sometimes to a fault, but it was very interesting to see that, come through. And another interesting quote from that, Lucian Grange had called the Andre Harrell at Motown relationship, an organ rejection. In terms of the relationship there.[00:43:56] Zack Greenburg: Yeah, no, I mean, and it's kind of interesting if you think about, you know, around that same time. What was going on in the music business, what would have been a great fit at Motown that didn't happen, would have been to sign Eminem, right? I mean, rather than try to do it with 98 degrees, if you really want to go and sort of like figure out what the kids are listening to, and do the thing where you have a white guy making black music, like. Holy shit. There's Eminem from Detroit, you know, doing his thing. But, you know, I think it took different kind of Andre to pull that one off.So, you know, in a way well played, you know, I mean, in a way it was like Andre was maybe Andre Harrell was taking some risks, but he wasn't taking quite enough. Like, he wasn't going far enough. He wasn't going way out enough on a limb. So, if you were really going to try to read that Motown, then that then go all the way at the same time, though, I would argue.I mean, if you look back, it's sort of like what worked with Motown and what did it, I think one of Motown's greatest attributes is also a limiting factor. And that's the thing we talked about before it, it's a label, but it's also a genre. And so if you have Motown making hip hop, it's like, wait a minute this isn't Motown. Like this isn't the genre of Motown. Like this is not the thing that I heard at my aunt's wedding, you know, this is something different. So, I think that they got kind of caught in between and I know that they've done all this stuff in hip hop over the years and, whatever, but it still doesn't feel like quite a fit because Motown, I mean that, you know, Motown was Motown, Motown wasn't hip hop and, you know, maybe if it had started getting into hip hop in the early days of hip hop.you know, it would have felt a little bit different about that, but, you know, hip hop is Def Jam, hip hop is is Roc-A-Fella hip hop is Bad Boy, and I just, you know, for all the efforts that Motown has made to get into hip hop, I think, it, has had a hard time, you know, fully sticking in the way that it would need to for Motown to replicate its, early success.[00:45:51] Dan Runcie: And one of the things that I think that a lot of these post Berry Gordy leaders struggled with was... As you mentioned, yeah, with Andre Harrell or others, there was the desire and opportunity to be able to do more, but the combination of the corporate structures in place that just didn't give them the same freedom that a Berry Gordy himself would have had.And then secondly. The business structure of how Motown itself as a company was set up didn't necessarily allow that because even things like radio or promotion and things like that, they still relied on other labels under the corporate umbrella, even to this day to get some of those things in place.So it really wasn't. Given the same freedom, even though their name, especially in the late 90s early two thousands was used in, especially back then it was the whole universal Republic Motown group or whatever the amalgamation was at the time. It really wasn't given the same freedom as some of those other record labels were.And I think we saw those challenges come in from time with some of the other leaders as well, because. Afterward, after, Harrell left, you had George Jackson who was there, felt like a bit more interim there for a couple of years. And then you had Kedar Mazenberg who was there late 90s early 2000.And that was a bit more than Neo soul vibe. You had India, Ari and a few others, but he has this quote that he gave to the independent, 2000 where he says, but we're not going to dominate the pop charts. Like we used to, how can we, there are too many other companies out there for that. So please don't compare it to the Motown of yesteryear.This is someone that is in the leadership role saying that exact quote. like How do you get past that? And then he talks again. I think they made a comparison to Def Jam where he said, you know, Def Jam, it took 10, 20 years to get to this established guidance, the way that you did with someone like a Lyor Cohen.And you essentially had that with Berry Gordy. But again, Lior was doing this before Def Jam ended up, you know, becoming under the whole Island Def Jam group and everything happened there. After that, you have Sylvia Roan, who was rising up the ranks herself. Still one of the most successful Black women in media and music right now.She's currently at Epic, but she had her time at Motown as well. And I'm going to get into her because I have something I want to say for missed opportunities there. And then you get more recently to the era of Ethiopia Habtamirian, who was there from 2011. Up until 2022, and she's 1 of those that I do feel like was put in a pretty hard spot because on 1 hand, she was able to essentially double the market share.Thanks in part to the partnership that she had made with hip hop through quality control to be able to help. them succeed And this is especially when the Migos are first starting to pop off, and then that transitions into the success of artists like Lil Yachty and Lil Baby and City Girls and others. But I think that also some of the overspending and things like that were quite critiqued.And especially from a PR perspective, the same way I was mentioning earlier when. Andre Harrell's challenges were bright front and center for the entire industry to read. Ethiopia's necessarily weren't in the same way. And even in some of the aspects of her leaving, the media had they called it a bit more reflective of, oh, Ethiopia has chosen to step down.When, yes, that's true, but there was also a pretty large severance package from Lucian and others at UMG. And again, I don't think she was necessarily given as much leadership either, because Motown was kind of, and still is kind of under capital, but now they've essentially moved it back. They had announced that she was solely the CEO back in 2021, but that was a pretty short lived.And to be honest, it felt like. Yeah. 1 of those announcements that the industry made in this, like, post George Floyd era to try to highlight and support black CEOs, which was great to see, but she's someone that's talented. You don't want to see her just become a tokenized person to have this. So, even though, like any CEO, I think there was things you could point out that she probably could have done differently.Still wasn't given the most leeway to begin with it. Now we're back in this point where what is Motown who's leading Motown. It's essentially the subsidiary under capital, but it's now a brand. And who knows where things are going to be. And it's quite unfortunate, but given everything that we've said up into this point, it also, isn't that surprising just given the dynamic.[00:50:21] Zack Greenburg: Yeah, a hundred percent. And I think, you know, like you mentioned the the partnership with quality control. I mean, I think. That was a smart way to get more involved in hip hop because that was a brand that did have roots in hip hop more that, kind of resonated. and so when you sort of like, build as a partnership and look at it that way, it seems a little more credible than like,you know, Motown is doing hip hop now. so it's too bad that, you know, things kind of turned out the way they did, but, it's an interesting asset, right? I mean, it's a brand that has a lot of value. But it's not exactly clear, you know, how to sort of monetize it. And I think with Motown right now, it's like, it's probably about more, than the music, right?Like that's maybe where most of the monetization opportunity would be, whether it's, you know, Motown branded, you know, I don't know, films and, you know, I don't know, products, whatever the case may be. It resonates more, I think, than it does, as a record label. And people don't care so much about record labels anymore.Like we've talked about this, you know, in prior episodes, but it's not the same. You're not going to put on your record on a record player and see that big Motown logo on it, you're having something pop up your ear. And there, there's no visual, like, you don't know whether it's on Motown or Def Jam or Universal or Sony or, and you don't probably don't care.Right. I mean, and I think as things have kind of blurred together, genres are blurring together, you know, different, labels are gobbling each other up over the years, you know, people have just kind of like lost track and, you know, sort of like the idea of a label just isn't as important anymore.So, I do think that it's. a valuable piece of IP and, you know, there's things to do with it still. But, you know, I think, Berry Gordy certainly like squeezed, you know, all he could out of it and, did a great job of sort of ultimately profiting off of what it was that he built.[00:52:04] Dan Runcie: Right. Because what you have right now is this brand where they do have Motown the musical, which I do think has been pretty successful, both in the US and in Europe and elsewhere that it's traveled. but that's it. I mean, quality control partnership doesn't exist in the same way since they've been now bought by hive.Hopefully, Ethiopia and those folks were able to at least retain some type of revenue for helping to set the framework to make that deal possible, but we'll see I, where I landed with this is that. The way to quote unquote, I don't want to say save Motown because that can just seems like such a blanket statement, but if you were trying to improve it from its current inevitable state, it would be finding a way to spin off the asset and the catalog from Universal and having it be in the hands of someone else who can make it work.The challenge is Universal isn't going to want to give that asset up. That's one of their most valuable back catalogs that they have. So. I was thinking through it in my mind, the same way that you have someone like a Tyler Perry, who are these modern moguls that have a bit of that Berry Gordy vibe to them.The way that Tyler Perry is, we'll see whether or not he ends up buying BET, but could that same mentality be applied to a record label? And then with that, you're able to then build up your own promotion. You're able to build up your own talent, and then you take things in a slightly different way. I still don't think that guarantees success, but at least you shake things up in a particular way and you still give it that black ownership mentality.You give it a bit more of that independence and the autonomy and you could potentially see what happens because. We all know what the continued fate is as a legacy entity of a catalog holder that it would be under the UMG umbrella.[00:53:50] Zack Greenburg: Yeah, a hundred percent. Totally agree.[00:53:52] Dan Runcie: And with that, I think it would be a good time to dig into some of these categories here. So what do you think is the biggest, this will may be obvious, but what do you think is the biggest signing that they've done or that Motown ever did?[00:54:04] Zack Greenburg: Yeah, I think I'd go with the Jackson 5 I mean, you know, although Motown did not ultimately profit off of MJ's solo career, in the way that it would have if it had retained him for a solo career, Motown did profit off of the association as he became the biggest musical star, but basically entertainer of any kind in the world.and, you know, going back to the Motown 25 moment, you know, other kinds of associations. So I would say like good process. Not really a bad outcome, but like signing the Jackson 5 could have been the path to also signing Michael Jackson as a solo artist. And then, you know, just because that didn't work out in the end, does it mean that that wasn't a huge signing for them?[00:54:47] Dan Runcie: Yeah, I was going to say Jackson 5 or Stevie Wonder, which is the one that I had and I say him because of the longevity because even when times were rough, Stevie Wonder still had arguably his best decade in the 70s But, he had a number of them that were there, especially in the seventies. I think that was his strongest run and he stayed through. And I think that in a lot of ways helped bridge the gap during some of those low moments when other artists did come and went. Did come and go. So that was the one I had there.What do you have as the best business move?[00:55:18] Zack Greenburg: Well, okay. This is something we haven't talked about and maybe we should talk about it but more, but here we are, we'll talk about it more now. I think it was Berry Gordy setting up, his publishing company. So, I mean, maybe that's cheating a little bit because it was outside of, Motown itself but of He set up Joe bet, publishing, you know, pretty early on. And he didn't realize, you know, his big payday for it until later 1997, but he sold it for 132 million for just for half of it. so the EMI, and then he sold another 30% for I think 109 million. And then he sold the rest of it for, something like 80 million in, what was that?It was like 2004. So, you know, we're talking like over a quarter billion dollars and that's not inflation adjusted. you know, for the publishing and that, you know, that dwarfed whatever he got for Motown itself. So, and, you know, think about if he held onto it until, the recent publishing Bonanza, I mean, I mean, it could have been close to a billion dollar catalog, right?I mean, you know, there's nothing, really like it out there. So. He was always very smart about ownership and I think Michael Jackson knew that and, you know, studied him as a kid growing up. And that's kind of what convinced Michael to want to own his own work, and also in the Beatles work, which then became the basis of Sony ATV.And that was another massive catalog. So, yeah, I think the publishing side of it definitely gets overlooked and, you know, was ultimately the most, financially valuable part. But, even though it was sort of a separate. Company, you know, I would argue it, for sure it wouldn't have happened without Motown happening.[00:56:51] Dan Runcie: That's a great one. And I'm glad you mentioned that. Cause definitely could get overlooked and doesn't get talked enough about in this whole business. I think publishing in general is something that people don't understand. And so they just don't, dig into it, but he wrote it. I mean, he owned everything.And obviously when you own the value. When you own something that valuable, it has its assets. And I think why publishing continues to be so valuable in the industry i

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Small Town Murder
#374 - The Man In The Box - Kankakee, Illinois

Small Town Murder

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 31, 2023 68:59


This week, in Kankakee, Illinois, a phone call from the police, telling a man that there's been a burglary at one of his properties send him out of the house in the middle of the night. The next call that comes to the house will be a ransom call, demanding $1 million for the man's safe return. These kidnappers also tell the family that the kidnapped man is being kept in a box, buried in the ground, with 48 hours of oxygen. Either come up with the money... or he dies! A real white knuckle kind of episode!Along the way, we find out that at least some members of The Sugar Hill Gang are still alive, that you probably don't want to kidnap a personal friend of the governor, and that it's hard to estimate how much oxygen a PVC pipe can deliver to an underground box!!Hosted by James Pietragallo and Jimmie WhismanNew episodes every Thursday!Donate at: patreon.com/crimeinsports or go to paypal.com and use our email: crimeinsports@gmail.comGo to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder & Crime In Sports!Follow us on...twitter.com/@murdersmallfacebook.com/smalltownpodinstagram.com/smalltownmurderAlso, check out James & Jimmie's other show, Crime In Sports! On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Wondery, Wondery+, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.