Delicious Vinyl

Delicious Vinyl
Founded	1987
Distributor(s)	self-distributed
Genre	hip-hop, dance music, jazz
Country of origin	US
Official Website	http://www.deliciousvinyl.com/

Delicious Vinyl is an American independent record label founded by Matt Dike and Michael Ross in 1987 and based in Los Angeles. Throughout its history, the label has had distribution deals with [Island Records/[PolyGram]], Warner Music Group, EMI, Red Ant, Rhino and Universal Music Group.^[1]

History

Early years

UCLA student Michael Ross met New York City transplant Matt Dike while Dike was DJing at a Hollywood club called Rhythm Lounge in the mid 1980s. The pair discovered they were both members of Impact Record Pool, a service that provided new 12" records to club DJs, and that they shared a taste in soul, funk, and hip-hop. Soon Dike became the top DJ at the legendary downtown Los Angeles club Power Tools and Ross followed suit. In 1987 they founded their own independent record label Delicious Vinyl. Almost immediately the label was a success. Delicious Vinyl's first release was the "On Fire"/"Cheeba Cheeba" 12" by Tone Loc (real name: Anthony Smith), a Los Angeles gang member with an endearingly deep voice. "Cheeba Cheeba" got played on L.A.'s legendary rap radio station KDAY, setting the stage for Tone Loc's "Wild Thing" single which sold three million copies, helped immeasurably by the low-budget but super-memorable video (a parody of Robert Palmer's "Addicted To Love") directed by Tamra Davis (later to direct CB4 and marry Beastie Boy Mike D). Tone Loc's follow-up smash "Funky Cold Medina" an ode to an aphrodisiac beverage, sampled Foreigner and Kiss and cemented the Dike/Ross approach of recasting rock riffs into hit rap songs. Meanwhile the pair had discovered clean-cut brainy USC student Marvin Young, who, dubbed Young MC had his own million selling hit single "Bust A Move." These were arguably the first truly credible rap songs to hit the upper reaches of the pop charts, and gave the label a lasting place in hip-hop history. Def Jef (real name: Jeffrey Fortson) was the most lyrical rapper in the label's early years, and although his two albums Just A Poet With Soul (1989) and Soul Food (1991) never achieved the crossover success of Tone Loc and Young MC, they are rated highly by hip-hop connoisseurs based on Def Jef's sociopolitical rhymes and an allegiance to classic funk sounds a la James Brown. The label's third release was a single by Mellow Man Ace that is one of the earliest instances of recorded rap in Spanish. But the label was not strictly a rap label, as they signed London-based rare groove group The Brand New Heavies, who with diva N'Dea Davenport had the 1991 hit single "Never Stop." And it's worth noting that in 1991 Delicious Vinyl reissued the self-titled stoner rock pioneers Masters of Reality (originally released on Def American in 1988), an album now acknowledged as a direct influence on Queens of the Stone Age.

Second Phase

As the 1990s dawned, Delicious Vinyl signed The Pharcyde, the group who changed the way west coast hip-hop was perceived. The quartet of Bootie Brown, Imani Wilcox, Slimkid Tre and Fatlip neatly subverted the gangsta rap archetype that then dominated the west coast. Their first single 1991's "Ya Mama" highlighted the group's sense of humor via mama-centric snaps ("Ya mama's got a glass eye with a fish in it" etc.) and their debut album Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde (1992) featured the hit single about getting dissed by girls ("Passing Me By"). Produced by J-Swift, the album's music featured jazzy loops and head-nodding beats and sold half a million copies. Friction between the group and J-Swift led to the producer's departure before the Pharcyde's 1995 album Labcabincalifornia, a sprawling testament to disillusionment that represented an about-face akin to De La Soul Is Dead. However Labcabincalifornia did spawn the hit single "Runnin'" about facing up to personal problems produced by Jay Dee (before he became known as J Dilla). All-time great New York rapper (and Juice Crew veteran) Masta Ace joined the label delivering two strong albums, 1993's Slaughterhouse and 1995's Sittin' On Chrome (under the group moniker Masta Ace Incorporated) which in addition to the title track included the notable singles "The I.N.C. Ride" and "Born To Roll" (the latter of which was the remix version of the 1993 single "Jeep Ass N****" from the Slaughterhouse LP, specifically tailored for the West Coast audience, which Ace was attempting to tap into during the height of early-90s "gangsta rap" popularity). Other significant acts on the label in the mid '90s included pop-friendly dancehall reggae act Born Jamericans (a duo consisting of the smooth-voiced Mr. Notch and rough ragga rapper Edley Shine), whose two albums Kids From Foreign (1994) and Yardcore (1995) spawned the hit singles "Boom Shak-A-Tak" and "Send My Love" respectively. The Whoridas were the most hardcore rap group the label had signed to date, and their 1997 album Whoridin' spawned three minor but memorable hit singles: "Talkin' Bout Bank", "Shot Callin', Big Ballin'" and "Taxin'."

Current

Although co-founder Matt Dike departed the label in 1992, Michael Ross has retained ownership of Delicious Vinyl, making it one of the longest-running independent labels in hip-hop history. In 2005, Fatlip from The Pharcyde released his solo album The Loneliest Punk (which he had been working on for close to a decade) including the memorable lead single "What's Up Fatlip" (a documentary on Fatlip by Spike Jonze came packaged as a DVD along with the album CD), the follow-up single "Today's Your Day" (featuring Charlie 2na from Jurassic 5) as well as the song "Writer's Block" which artfully explained the delay in finishing the album. In 2007 the label kicked off its 20th anniversary celebration with the release of a high-profile reunion album Get Used To It from Brand New Heavies, featuring original lead vocalist N'Dea Davenport (the group toured to rapturous reception while opening for Macy Gray). Summer '07 saw the long-awaited release of the previously shelved 1993 album by The Wascals, a four member J-Swift-produced rap group that was to be the label's successors to the Pharcyde (instead the group combusted before the album's original release date). Meanwhile dancehall artist Mr. Vegas watched his new album Hot It Up spawn two hit singles, the lascivious "Hot Wuk" and "Tek Weh Yuh Self." In addition an ambitious remix project Delicious Rmxxology was curated by DV's Rick Ross with some of today's most revered electronic and hip-hop artists (including Peaches, Breakbot, Mr. Flash, Cory Nitta, Aaron LaCrate & Samir, Hot Chip, Don Rimini, Diplo & Philippians) reworking classics from the Delicious Vinyl catalog; the first single from the remix project was Peaches' version of Tone Loc's "Wild Thing" celebrated by a performance by both artists at the Avalon in Hollywood on November 4, 2007. In 2008, Michael Ross, Executive produced the debut album by Illa J, with beats produced by Jay Dee aka J.Dilla. The album "Yancey Boys" featured previously unheard instrumentals created by J.Dilla while working on earlier projects for The Pharcyde and The Brand New Heavies in the 90's for Delicious Vinyl.

Discography

Albums

Main page: :Category:Delicious Vinyl albums

• 1999: Waxing Off: The First Decade^[2]
• 2000: Delicious Vinyl Presents...Prime Cuts Vol. 1^[3]
• 2007: Jay Deelicious: The Delicious Vinyl Years
• 2008: RMXXOLOGY

Notable Singles

Includes Billboard Hot 100 peaks.

• Tone Loc: "Wild Thing" (#2)
• Tone Loc: "Funky Cold Medina" (#3)
• Young MC: "Bust a Move" (#7)
• The Pharcyde: "Passin' Me By"
• The Pharcyde: "Drop"
• The Pharcyde: "She Said"
• Masta Ace: "Sittin' on Chrome" (#84)

Artists

Further information: Category:Delicious Vinyl artists

• Born Jamericans
• Brand New Heavies
• Bucwheed
• Def Jef
• Duce Duce
• Fatlip
• Frank Nitt
• The Pharcyde
• Jesse Jaymes
• Tone Loc
• Masta Ace
• Young MC
• Mr Vegas
• Mellow Man Ace
• The Wascals
• Machel Montano

References

1. ^ "About Delicious Vinyl". http://www.deliciousvinyl.com/about.html. 
2. ^ Various - Delicious Vinyl - Waxing Off: The First Decade
3. ^ Various - Delicious Vinyl Presents... Prime Cuts Vol. 1

External links

• Delicious Vinyl Official Website
• Delicious Vinyl Records on Myspace