B-Boy Records was an American independent hip hop record label formed by Jack Allen and William Kamarra in 1986, and situated at 132nd Street and Cypress Avenue in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Its most notable signing was

Boogie Down Productions Boogie Down Productions (BDP) was an American hip hop group originally composed of KRS-One, D-Nice, and DJ Scott La Rock. DJ Scott La Rock was murdered on August 27, 1987, five months after the release of BDP's debut album, '' Criminal Minde ...

, and it released Boogie Down Productions' first singles, "South Bronx" (1986) and " The Bridge is Over" (1987), and the group's landmark debut album, ''

Criminal Minded ''Criminal Minded'' is the debut studio album by hip-hop group Boogie Down Productions, released on March 3, 1987 by B-Boy Records. It is considered a highly influential hip hop album and one of the first in the gangsta rap genre. Since its rele ...

'' (1987). Other acts that recorded for the label included

JVC Force JVC Force (also rendered J.V.C. F.O.R.C.E) was an American hip hop group from Islip, New York. Background and history Composed of DJ Curt Cazal (Curtis Andre Small) and the emcees AJ Rok (AJ Woodson) and B-Luv (William Taylor), JVC Force is be ...

Cold Crush Brothers The Cold Crush Brothers are an American hip hop group that formed in 1978 in the Bronx, New York City., ''Vibe Magazine'', December 1994 - January 1995, Vol. 2, No. 10, p.68 They were especially known for their memorable routines which included ...

, Levi 167 and Jewel T. The label's output was a mix of new names and old pioneers, and documents a period in which self-assertive lyrics begin to detail street life even as the music moved from hardcore drum-machine-based tracks to the horns and drum sounds of sampler-based hip hop. B-Boy Records folded in 1988, though Nate Patrin of

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

reports that, "both Allen and Kamarra have set about reviving the B-Boy Records name independently of each other, and there seems to have been a number of bridges burned between the two men."

Foundation

B-Boy Records was founded by Jack Allen and William Kamarra in 1986, with one act on its roster. Allen, Kamarra, and Ray Wilson, calling themselves Rock Candy Records and Filmworks, advertised that a record label was seeking new musical talent in a newspaper. (Steve Huey of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

reported rumors that it was seeking to establish a front for a pornography business.) The ad was answered by the then-unrecorded

, now the most famous of the acts that were to be associated with the label. By request, the group recorded an anti-drug song called "Crack Attack" and was signed to the newly formed B-Boy Records. The label's

graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

-style logo was designed by the group's lead emcee,

KRS-One Lawrence "Kris" Parker (born August 20, 1965), better known by his stage names KRS-One (; an abbreviation of "Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone") and Teacha, is an American rapper from New York City. He rose to prominence as part of ...

Notable releases

The first official B-Boy release was Boogie Down Productions' "South Bronx" (1986). A forcefully delivered oral history of hip hop written in response to

MC Shan Shawn Moltke (born September 6, 1965) better known by his stage name MC Shan, is an American hip hop and R&B recording artist. He is best known for his song "The Bridge" produced by Marley Marl, and for collaborating with Snow on " Informe ...

's "The Bridge." It generated considerable New York interest and became part of hip hop history (see

the Bridge Wars The Bridge Wars was a hip hop music rivalry during the mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990s, that arose from a dispute over the true birthplace of hip hop music and retaliation over the rejecting of a record for airplay.sampler. The Brothers' "I Got Rhythm", Wax Master Torey's "Duck Season", Jewel T's "I Like It Loud" and Levi 167's "Something Fresh to Swing To" (all 1987) are further examples. By contrast, the same year's "Just Saying Fresh Rhymes" by Castle D relies on a relatively quiet percussive accompaniment based around the

hi-hat A hi-hat (hihat, high-hat, etc.) is a combination of two cymbals and a pedal, all mounted on a metal stand. It is a part of the standard drum kit used by drummers in many styles of music including rock, pop, jazz, and blues. Hi-hats consist o ...

, and a disorienting

synth A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

melody reminiscent today of

G-funk G-funk, short for gangsta funk, is a sub-genre of gangsta rap that emerged from the West Coast scene in the late 1980s. The genre is heavily influenced by 1970s psychedelic funk (P-funk) sound of artists such as Parliament-Funkadelic. Characte ...

. Other notable, but more sampler-influenced, 1987 releases include The Busy Boys' "Classical," "Feel The Horns" by old school pioneers

, and Sparky D's "Throwdown." After its first album, the landmark ''

'' (1987), Boogie Down Productions was supposed to sign with

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

and the label folded soon afterward. According to writer Peter Shapiro, B-Boy's best release besides those by Boogie Down was Levi 167's aforementioned 1987 single. They did however have late success with "Strong Island" (1988) by

, which Shapiro calls "one of the most kinetic records in hip-hop history". After the murder of Scott La Rock, however, BDP ultimately signed with

Jive Records Jive Records was an American independent record label founded by Clive Calder in 1981 as a subsidiary to the Zomba Group. In the US, the label had offices in New York City and Chicago. Jive was best known for its successes with hip hop, R&B, an ...

. B-Boy Records’ discography is now controlled Traffic Entertainment Group, under exclusive license from Phase One Network Inc.

Retrospectives

A 2002 retrospective of the label, ''The Best of B-Boy Records'', is available on Landspeed Records (not to be confused with Boogie Down Productions' 2001 compilation, '' Best of B-Boy Records'', on the same label). In 2007 the two-disc ''B-Boy Records: The Archives Rare & Unreleased'' was released through Traffic Entertainment Group, the successor of LandSpeed. In 2008, again through Traffic, came a four-disc MP3 collection of the label's complete official output, ''B-Boy Records: The Masterworks'', featuring short-lived B-Boy Records acts such as Soul Dimension, Incredible Two, Crazy 8 Posse and Wacky Rapper, as well as a late release from Spyder-D (of " Big Apple Rappin'" fame), and ''B Girls Live and Kicking'' (1987), a collection of B-Boy's female MCs (Sparky D, Five Star Moet, Baby Doll, and L.A. Star). Not on the release was that the group BDP was to produce "Gotta-Rock" (G-Supreme & K-Rakeem), but Scott La Rock was killed before any work was done. Nate Patrin, writing for

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

, observes that in B-Boy's recordings, "you can divine the beginnings of independent, street-level hardcore rap lyricism during the key transitional point that shifted the dominant production style from the

808 808 may refer to: Music * Roland-808, Roland TR-808, a drum machine * 808 (film), ''808'' (film), a documentary about the Roland TR-808 * 808 State, British electronic group * ''808s & Heartbreak'', the fourth studio album by American Hip hop artis ...

drum machine to the SP1200 sampler." He describes the label's roster as "a dizzying array of past icons, future legends, coulda-beens, never-weres and more than a few acts you probably haven't heard of that caught lightning in a bottle for one 12" record".

References

Bibliography

* {{Authority control American record labels Record labels established in 1986 Hip hop record labels 1987 establishments in New York City Underground hip hop

Foundation

Notable releases

Retrospectives

See also

References

Bibliography