Singer Sylvia Robinson and her husband Joe Robinson founded Sugar Hill Records, hip-hop’s first record label, in 1979 with financial backing from Morris Levy, owner of Roulette Records. The Sugar Hill Record Label’s first release was Rapper’s Delight by The Sugarhill Gang, which released the same year the label was founded. Rapper’s Delight was recorded in one take and was “first” for a lot of things in hip-hop. Sugar Hill Records signed The Sugar Hill Gang, The Sequence, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, Treacherous Three, and many more.
Sugar Hill Records ended in 1986 and in 1995, Rhino Records purchased all the released and unreleased Sugar Hill Records masters. The record label is now owned by its parent company BMG Rights Management.
Purchase our 100 Hip-Hop Facts (1973-2000) Book
Read: “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang was the first rap song to enter Billboard’s Top 40 Chart
Read: The Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” was the first rap song to use a sample
Read: “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang was recorded in one take
Read: The Sugarhill Gang “Rapper’s Delight” was the first hip-hop music video
