Atlanta Artists was a sub-label of

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it is ...

founded by

Larry Blackmon Larry Ernest Blackmon (born May 24, 1956) is an American vocalist and musician who gained acclaim as the lead singer and founder frontman of the funk and R&B band Cameo. Musical career Starting the band "East Coast", Blackmon formed the "N ...

of the group Cameo.

Origins

After Cameo's seventh album, '' Knights of the Sound Table'' (1981), Blackmon reduced the group from ten members to a five-member unit. This change was made due to the economics of the music industry at that time. Blackmon relocated the group from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. With their core of five members, they released the album '' Alligator Woman'', a fusion of

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

, new wave and a synthesizer-driven sound (compared to their previous albums which had more horn arrangements).

Atlanta Artists history

The album ''

Style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...

'' followed in 1983 as the first release for Atlanta Artists. This release continued their new musical direction by adding electronic drums to their production. This new sound was a blueprint for their following albums. The funk group Ca$hflow and solo artist

Barbara Mitchell Barbara Mitchell (4 October 1929 – 9 December 1977, Kingston Upon Thames) was an English actress who became a familiar face on British television in the 1960s and 1970s, best known for her work in many classic sitcoms of the period. Care ...

(formerly in the female group

High Inergy High Inergy was an American R&B and soul girl group who found fame on Motown Records in the late 1970s. They are best known for the hit song, " You Can't Turn Me Off (In the Middle of Turning Me On)". History High Inergy started in 1976 when the ...

) signed and released for the label, while Blackmon produced also artists on other labels: * Tomi Jenkins - 1989 / Elektra *

Bobby Brown Robert Barisford Brown (born February 5, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter and dancer. Brown, alongside frequent collaborator Teddy Riley, is noted as one of the pioneers of new jack swing: a fusion of hip hop and R&B. Brown started h ...

- 1986 / MCA * The Reddings - 1985 /

Polydor Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...

* George Howard - 1990 / GRP During Cameo's popular concert tours in the UK around the mid-1980s, Ca$hflow traveled along with them as a supporting act. In 1991, after Cameo's move to

Reprise In music, a reprise ( , ; from the verb 'to resume') is the repetition or reiteration of the opening material later in a composition as occurs in the recapitulation of sonata form, though—originally in the 18th century—was simply any repea ...

, Atlanta Artists was absorbed into

References

Contemporary R&B record labels Soul music record labels American record labels Record labels established in 1982 1982 establishments in the United States {{US-record-label-stub