Liquid Liquid's "Cavern" and the Fall of Sugar Hill Records
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This one is a little different than my usual sound design work. It's a short video essay about one of my favorite episodes in music history: the "Cavern/White Lines" lawsuit, where hip hop, punk, and disco collided with disastrous results.
In 1983, Sugar Hill Records released Melle Mel's "White Lines." The track, based around an uncredited interpolation of Liquid Liquid's "Cavern," became a major hit for Sugar Hill. Liquid Liquid's label, 99 Records, brought Sugar Hill to court and, by the end of 1986, both labels had closed.
In this video, I trace the decade-spanning musical threads that led up to "White Lines"-from the 1950s (Chess Records, Mickey & Sylvia) to the 1980s (Def Jam, ESG).
Пікірлер: 30
The Beastie Boys re-released early Liquid Liquid stuff on their Grand Royal label.
This is a solid exegesis of a sliver - abeit critical - of multiple such parallel moments in NYC (I dunno - alt/club/dance/d'town/outer borough - u pick 'em) cultural colisions. It was head-spinning. By a certain point in the mid-ish '80s, pretty much every club (NYC, East Coast, US, UK, Europe) was playing the same batch of records regardless of their foundational identity. Straight, gay, gritty, uptown, rock, disco/house, 'Black White Puerto Rican - everybody was just a freaking'. This really happened, tho it didn't - couldn't possibly have - last before resplintering into our respective tribes. But, boy, was it glorious and grand while it did. Trust me, wuz there. Props to professor uploader. Seriously.
@DJKevvyKevCoolBreeze
6 ай бұрын
All Fax. It's one of the reasons Hip-Hop EXPLODED.
Excellent work. Brilliant reading list suggestions. Thank you !!
Great work man. You deserve way more views!
That beat! Thank you so much. Incredible work, really enjoy your content
hey this was a delightful watch! well done and informative. i've never seen your channel before today. in the video you say this is way different than what you usually do. i recommend you do more of this.
Great video. Very informative. I’d always wondered if there was any fallout from Melle Mel’s use of Cavern’s Liquid Liquid. I naively assumed 99 might’ve received some retro publishing royalties when the song took off, but had no idea it went to the courts. Naive is the right term to use, because I’ve since learnt that Sugar Hill weren’t particularly ethical in their dealings with some of their own artists, so why would do the right thing by a small label with little money/backing to prosecute. I’d wager that Sylvia had money in other places and the bankruptcy was only a cop out to avoid paying 99…. but that’s just a guess.
This is great! I would take it from video essay to full documentary with relevant footage and images like Disco Demolition Night and album covers and pictures of these people. I have an image in my head of what the Sugar Hill offices look like, but I want to see it all.
@G.Man-
Жыл бұрын
Great idea
Very informative. I read somewhere that Liquid Liquid got 85% of publishing rights to White Lines, also.
Good vid. It was a magical era.
Nice job!
Very well done video!
Really good video
Awesome
Thanks for the video
Suuuuuck a sick music history lesson, you’re a beast 🙏🏻
Love both labels very influential to me in my youth, but Sylvia's greed ruined both. Sad.
Would have liked the Liquid, Liquid story to finish with Duran Duran.
@michaelrmurphy2734
Жыл бұрын
DD, still on the go today! And Nile Rogers played Halifax here a few years ago.
OMFG!!!!!! @ 9:09 That book was written by someone I know! Gillian McCain! She was here in Halifax at King's College University. When I met her. AND... She is the youngest daughter of Harrison McCain. The McCain family are a well off (understatement-they are RICH!) bunch of people who made their money in food processing. Potatoes and later precooked foods. A famous name and a real sweetheart! I always worried about her. A truly kind soul in a hard edged family.
This was a very good video You CANNOT Mention DEF JAM Without mentioning RUSSELL "RUSH" SIMMONS. (NOTE) The Book Can't stop Won't stop is FULL OF INCONSISTENCIES HISTORICAL ERRORS AND FLAT OUT LIES.
Moral of the story: Stop using other music artists' music and passing it off as your own. A fatal flaw of rap.
@DJKevvyKevCoolBreeze
6 ай бұрын
Next time, you can just say you're an idiot that doesn't understand much of anything. Shorter; more useful.
@seraphimprince
5 ай бұрын
Not a fatal flaw. Sometimes it introduces a song to a new generation of listeners. "Sweet Green Fields" was sampled for "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See" and it introduced a lot of people to Seals and Crofts. Also, "Black Cow" was sampled for "Deja Vu" but it introduced listeners to Steely Dan.
What about Blondie? Punk/rap.
It’s just a guy playing records.