Sleeping Bag Records
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Sleeping Bag Records is a defunct New York City-based hip hop, freestyle, and dance music independent record label that operated from 1981 to 1992. The label's roster included Mantronix, Just-Ice, Nice & Smooth, T La Rock, EPMD and Stezo; freestyle vocalists Nocera and Kariya; and R&B singer-songwriter Joyce Sims.
History
Sleeping Bag Records was founded by avant-garde cellist, composer, and underground disco artist Arthur Russell and William "Will" Socolov. In 1983, Juggy Gayles began promoting singles for the company. Later, he became a partner. The label's corporate logo was a drawing of a koala.
Sub-label Fresh Records was founded in 1985.
Kurtis Mantronik, in addition to being the musician of the hip-hop duo Mantronix, worked for the label in an A&R capacity.
After folding in 1992, the Sleeping Bag catalog sat in limbo for several years. In 1996, the label and its catalog were purchased by Warlock Records, which has since been re-releasing its titles with the Sleeping Bag and Fresh logos alongside the Warlock Records logo. The building in Manhattan where the label had its headquarters was torn down in the 1990s, and a luxury apartment building now stands in its place.
In 2006, the label became one of many imprints’ catalogs that became Traffic Entertainment Group, which has been releasing new versions of the classic albums in Sleeping Bag’s catalog with their original artwork intact.
In popular culture
- EPMD rhymed about its record-signing experience with sub-label Fresh Records in the song "Please Listen to My Demo" from its 1989 Unfinished Business album.
- Label partner Juggy Gayles was crank-called by the Jerky Boys on "The Hucklebuck" track from 1999's Stop Staring at Me! album.
Gayles was the publisher of the original version of "The Hucklebuck," released by Paul Williams and His Hucklebuckers in 1949.
See also
