Sylvia Robinson

Pioneering Hip-Hop Producer and Sugar Hill Records Co-Founder

Sylvia Robinson, singer, songwriter and producer, (born 6 March 1936; died 29 September 2011). She was born Sylvia Vanterpool in New York. As a 14-year-old student at Washington Irving high school, her vocal talent led to her first recordings, singing blues with a band led by the trumpeter Hot Lips Page. Between 1956 and 1962, she worked as a duo with her former guitar teacher, the virtuoso instrumentalist Mickey Baker. In 1962 Baker moved to Paris, bringing their partnership to an end. Sylvia married the musician Joe Robinson, Sr. in 1964. She immersed herself in the music business and ran a club in the Bronx before the couple moved to Englewood, New Jersey. There, they opened Soul Sound Studio (2), an eight-track recording studio which, like Motown and Stax, had its own house band of backing musicians. The Robinsons formed the All Platinum Record Co. in 1968, and Sylvia became one of the few female record producers at the time. By the late 1970s, All Platinum was in financial difficulties, caused in part by the Robinsons' purchase in 1975 for close to $1m of the rights to the Chess Records catalogue, which included recordings by Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters. They intended to record new material under the Chess banner, but found they could not afford to. In 1979 the company was thrown a lifeline. Sylvia was alerted by her teenage son Joey to the new sounds developing in the Bronx. The resulting track, Rapper's Delight, was soon selling 50,000 copies a day. It became a top 40 hit in the US and reached No 3 in the UK. The single launched the Robinsons' Sugar Hill Records label and Sylvia became a leading figure in the rapid proliferation of hip-hop music worldwide. Mother of Joey Robinson, Jr., Leland Robinson and Rhondo Robinson