R.I.P. Sylvia Robinson

Via Dangerous Minds blog... "Sylvia Robinson, 75, the founder and CEO of the Sugarhill Records label in the 1970s, died died this morning from congestive heart failure at Meadowlands Hospital in Secaucus, New Jersey, Sister to Sister reports.

It was Robinson’s idea to “sample” the sinewy bass-line of Chic’s “Good Times” and turn it into “Rapper’s Delight,” the first mainstream hip-hop hit. Robinson also produced “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five and was part of soul duo Mickey & Sylvia.

Hip-Hop Happens (a 2005 profile of Robinson from Vanity Fair magazine by DM pal Steven Daly)."

That story mentions that Rapper's Delight was selling 50,000 copies a day at its peak.

via Prefix Mag... "Robinson had a music career of her own as Sylvia. Her biggest solo hits include "Love is Strange" and "Pillow Talk," the latter of which topped the R&B Billboard chart for two weeks in 1973. It also received a mini-boost in recent times when it appeared on the soundtrack to 1998's 54. Hip-hop heads will recognize another of her songs, "Sweet Stuff," for its use in J Dilla's "Crushin'."

ADDED New York Times obit for Sylvia Robinson.

You can watch Robinson perform "Pillow Talk" on Soul Train below.