I called up Tyrone Williams, the founder of Cold Chillin' and spoke to him a little on the label. We're going to meet in a couple weeks so he can give me more insight, but I thought I'd share a little snippet of what I learned:
At the time that he got involved in the business, hip hop music was primarily a New York thing - some states had it, but "the" scene was in NY. Tyrone, along with Marley Marl and Mr. Magic, started the first rap radio show on WBLS, called the Mr. Magic Rap Attack - Tyrone was the producer, Mr. Magic hosted and Marley Marl was the DJ. Kids would bring songs that they made and they would play it on the air. The three of them saw this as an "exclusive" on unreleased music, so they would air the song, record it, and then they would send the artist to Tyrone's roommate, Russell, who would manage them. As time went on, the age of the artists dropped, and parents wanted Tyrone as their child's manager. So that's how Tyrone transitioned into artist management. Len Fichtelberg had his own label, Prism Records, but when Tyrone started signing artists including Roxanne Shante, Big Daddy Kane, and MC Shan, he realized that it was more beneficial to have his own label - and Cold Chillin' was born.
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