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Rap Pioneer Sylvia Robinson Dies


Carl

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Buried in the Amanda Knox verdict was news that Sylvia Robinson died at age 75. Robinson did something no one had done before: Created a Top-40 Rap hit. She was a singer by trade, scoring a hit in 1956 as part of the duo Mickey & Sylvia with Love Is Strange (later revived in the movie Dirty Dancing) and as a solo artist with with 1973 song "Pillow Talk."

She became co-owner of the All Platinum record label, where she produced the hit Shame Shame Shame for Shirley & Company. This led to Sugarhill Records, a label she created to bring rap to the masses. In this male-dominated world, she became the queenpin, assembling three rappers for the sole purpose of creating a breakout hit that would become "Rapper's Delight." Sampling "Good Times" by Chic, she had the guys lock a steady flow that anyone could understand. What it lacked in street cred (she found "Big Bank" Hank Jackson in a pizza parlor, and he boosted the Superman rhyme from Grandmaster Caz), it made up for in fun, not only cracking the Top-40 at #36, but enduring as an old school favorite and nightclub crowd pleaser.

Sylvia also brought Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five to Sugarhill, releasing White Lines and The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel, which she produced.

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but the woman who gave them a voice remains mostly overlooked, maybe because of shady business dealings that are fairly common in the industry. Sylvia was hard to reach in these later years (we tried), and kept a low profile. I thought her death would bring her more accolades and attention, but those who have made their fortunes in rap have been mostly silent despite the avenues she opened.

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