Afinity Recordings: The Up And Coming New Mecca In Hip Hop

A f i n i t y R e c o r d i n g s: T h e U p A n d C o m i n g N e w M e c c a I n Hip Hop

(Taken from deep in the nooz"TM" Spotlight #1) T h e H i s t o r y Never ever before in history have people, especially recording artists, decided to push forward their own destiny in music by forming their own record labels as much as people do now. Frank Sinatra took the crowning of "The Chairman Of The Board" to heart as he formed Reprise Records, which he sold to the hands of Warner Bros. Records a LONG time ago. Then, of course, there's George Harrison of The Beatles, who came up with Dark Horse Records, who was first distributed with A&M (would you believe that The Stairsteps, four of the five people who made the trademark song "Ooh Child" [Buddah, 1969] actually recorded for this label at this time?) and then later, of course, with (yes, again) Warner Bros. In these (last) days and times, it seems like every Tom, Dick, and Harry has a label, especially when it comes down to Hip-Hop music. The point I'm trying to make is that there's ALWAYS ROOM for another one, especially a PHAT one that IS going to make its mark in this industry--I assure you. That label is called Afinity Recordings, formed by the minds of Sylvan "Sylva Shadow" Sargeant (otherwise just known as Sylv for short) and Charles "Herc" Butler (not to be mistaken with one of the legendary founders of Hip-Hop, Kool Herc). The careers of these two individuals create the legacy of Afinity Recordings, like the story of the first name mentioned. Most of you might not know of Sylva Shadow (that's a name I gave him, by the way--it just clicks like that), who has been a colleague of mine for many, many years. But if you've really been digging into the underground, you will remember a group called Y'all So Stupid, one of the first three groups signed to super-producer Dallas Austin's Rowdy Records back in 1992, which, since it started then, is distributed by Arista-BMG (the other two groups were Da King And I and Illegal, the first two teenage Hip-Hop artists [Jamal and Malik, both of whom have gone solo] to say ABSOLUTELY WHATEVER they wanted). Y'all So Stupid got a little bit of a buzz at the time, but no further than that. On their first and only album, Van Full Of Pakistans [Rowdy~Arista-BMG, 1992/1993], Sylva Shadow, under his real name, produced one track called "On And On", along with its interlude. Aside from the complete flop of the LP, Sylv ended up getting the worst end of the deal as the first of his troubles in this music biz (which should naturally be expected). He tells CUP that he originally produced MORE than one track for that album and that , down the line, the people at Rowdy didn't want to use his production (at least 4 or 5 songs), which eventually got redone by Spearhead X, the top-billed producer on the album. Plus royalties hardly ever came in for The Awesome One, and they got cut short eventually due to Sylv being forced to pay for sample clearance. (Rowdy Records now, by the way, was part of Freeworld Entertainment, the result of a partnership merger with BMG's Volcano Entertainment distributee as of September 1997. The company is supposed to now be defunct and Volcano is supposed to have returned under the name Volcano Entertainment II). Sylva Shadow tells another story of when he used to produce tracks for Mobb Deep way back in the beginning when they were known as the Poetical Prophets, before they were signed to the 4th & B'way division of Island Records (a PolyGram company) and how he got jerked in the game again. Sylv says that at that time, when they were preparing for Mobb Deep's debut album, Juvenile Hell [4th & B'way-Island~PolyGram, 1993], from where the song "Peer Pressure" got a little buzz, he produced most of the original tracks for the time--almost like the last story. He tells deep in the nooz"TM" that when the original tracks were done, Prodigy and Havoc (obviously the East Side Prodigy and Havoc, not to be mistaken with South Central Cartel) took the tracks to Island and claimed that the tracks were their production. When Sylv found out about this, let alone the fact that they wanted to bill Sylv as "co-producer", the relationship between him and Mobb Deep had severed and it turns out Prodigy and Havoc had to redo the tracks themselves, as well as the other producers featured on the album such as The Large Professor, formerly of the group Main Source, and DJ Premier of Gang Starr. And if the facts serve correct, these are the tracks you heard on Juvenile Hell, which now, of course, is the name of their publishing company. Sylv has even been working hard at putting his own record label (Awesome Records) together. No releases have been made from the Awesome label; however, Sylv has brought the Awesome element to this new-found label as A.S. 1 Productions. Now with Afinity Recordings under way, it's on!! His inevitable production work will knock the socks of the biggest record label executive!! Don't sleep--just watch! On the side of Herc, he was an MC, but he didn't exactly think of pursuing a career as an MC. He tells me of the times of when he was around the DJs at the outdoor Hip-Hop jams way back in the days of the breakdancing/scratching era (1982-1986). Herc definitely was thinking of the music business, however. In fact, he was Vice President of the Protect Ya Neck Management division of The Wu-Tang Organization. To add a little more weed to the blunt, Herc and Sylv are heavily associated personally with The Wu-Tang Organization. Just like my Chandell Over- ground Logo Design division, Herc does his little dirt with the artwork as he heads Herc's Art Wercs, and so far, I have come to see some of his work on the promotional preview from the upcoming first album for Afinity Recordings called Unda Nvestigation, performed by the cliques of Internal Affairs & Serial Killaz. As far as the six tracks on this preview are concerned, best believe the Daddy when I say we are looking at the next mecca in Hip-Hop.