Today In Black History: Sylvia Robinson
The "Mother" of the Hip Hop Genre
Issue #832 Today In Black History, Monday, March 31, 2025
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Sylvia Robinson, born Sylvia Vanderpool on March 6, 1935, in Harlem, New York, was an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Due to her instrumental role in bringing this revolutionary genre to the mainstream, she is often called “the mother of hip-hop.”
Sylvia's musical career began in the 1950s when she was part of the duo Mickey & Sylvia. Their 1957 hit single "Love Is Strange" put her on the map, highlighting her talent as a singer and dynamic performer. This track was later featured in various films and continues to capture new generations.
Sylvia Robinson's influence extended through her work with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. She produced the groundbreaking track "The Message," one of the most influential tracks of all time, a testament to Sylvia's understanding of hip-hop's potential for storytelling.
In 1960, she produced "You Talk Too Much" by New Orleans singer Joe Jones, a song that soared to Number Three on the Billboard chart. As noted by Dan Charnas in Billboard, she could have been recognized as "the first-ever Black and female independent record producer to achieve a Top Ten pop hit"—if only she had received proper credit for the session.
The following year, she took on the roles of arranger and producer for Ike and Tina Turner's "It's Gonna Work Out Fine." Reflecting on her contributions in a 1981 interview, she revealed, "I paid for the session, taught Tina the song; that's me playing guitar." Despite the track's Grammy nomination, Robinson once again went unacknowledged for her work.
Perhaps Sylvia Robinson's most monumental contribution came in 1979 when she founded Sugar Hill Records with her husband, Joe Robinson. At a time when hip-hop was a burgeoning underground movement, Sylvia had the foresight and entrepreneurial spirit to envision its potential as a mainstream force.
This vision led to the production of "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugar Hill Gang in 1979, a track widely credited with bringing hip-hop to a broader audience. The song's success marked the first time a hip-hop track became a commercial hit.
The six-and-a-half-minute song reached Number 36 on the pop charts, making it the first hip-hop single to become a Top 40 chart hit. A single in an unknown genre on a new independent label was selling fifty thousand copies a day on its way past a million copies.
In a predominantly male-driven industry, Sylvia's success as a female producer and record executive broke down significant barriers, empowering women in music and beyond.
Sylvia Robinson died of heart failure in 2011. In 2022, she was inducted posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Today In Black History
In 1870, New Jersey freedman Thomas Mundy Petersen became the first Black person to vote after the ratification of the 15th Amendment.
In 1931, Cab Calloway recorded “Minnie the Moocher,” the first jazz album to sell a million copies.
In 1949, the first grand opera composed by an African American and produced by a major company, “Troubled Island,” written by William Grant Still with the libretto by Langston Hughes, premiered in New York City.
In 1960, Laurian Rugambwa of Tanzania became the first Black Roman Catholic Cardinal.
In 1988, Toni Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel “Beloved.”
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