Refusing to be
phased by this setback, Tom released his first 12inch
single - "Havin' Fun" by Cotton Candy, produced
by Ted Osaze -
a dance record that featured a short rap by Afrika Bambaataa
with Soul Sonic Force. "When I started Tommy Boy,"
says Silverman, "I started it so there would actually
be a place in case somebody like Ted would come in and
bring a tape, try to get a record released." Running
Disco News (now updated to a new identity as Dance Music
Report) and the new record company, Tommy Boy Records,
out of his own apartment, Silverman found the non-stop
work connecting him with a lot of music people also
looking for their first break.
Arthur Baker was one of them. A Boston DJ who had grown
up listening to rock and Philadelphia soul, Baker had
produced a few dance tracks, borrowed money and already
experienced his first music business rip-off. When Silverman
played him the In The Red demo he had recorded with
Bambaataa, Baker's response was, "Let's do it!"
Their first collaboration was a version of Gwen McCrae's
"Funky Sensation", retitled "Jazzy Sensation",
one side by Afrika Bambaataa & the Jazzy 5, the
other side by Kryptic Krew featuring Tina B, with a
remix by one of the hottest club DJs of the time, Shep
Pettibone. "It was done in the same studio where
we did 'Planet Rock', Intergalactic," says Tom.
"We paid $25 an hour and it included a Fairlight
and a Roland 808. No-one had used anything like that
on an urban record yet."
Falling heavily into debt despite the cheap studio rates,
working 100 hours a week for $50 a week, running two
new companies for typesetting and disco publicity alongside
Dance Music Report and Tommy Boy, Silverman started
to believe the venture capitalist who had advised him
to forget the whole thing. Holed up at his parent's
house and suffering from pneumonia he was on the brink
of returning to graduate school. Then "Jazzy Sensation"
took off in New York, selling 35,000 copies and repaying
his debts.
With the future looking healthier, he advertised in
the Village Voice classifieds for a Guy/Gal Friday.
The most promising response came from a 25 year old
woman named Monica Lynch, now the president of Tommy
Boy. "My background," says Monica, "was,
well, I went to a lot of discos and I worked as a go-go
dancer and a waitress and I had been in a punk rock
band in Chicago. Done all those goofy, fun things. I
went for the interview, then I got called back for a
second interview. Then on the third interview he asked
me if I wanted to drive out to the pressing plant in
Queens, Long Island City, to pick up some records. I
helped load the records into the car and demonstrated
that I wasn't afraid of doing some physical labour.
That's really when I got the job."
Monica began at Tommy Boy in December 1981, a month
after "Jazzy Sensation". Working out of Tom's
two-bedroom apartment in the Yorkville section of New
York, she wrote a column for Dance Music Report, as
well as handling the manufacturing, billing and money
collection for both businesses. "Everything was
coming out in generic 12inch sleeves at that time,"
she recalls. "I'd been there for like three, four
months. It was April, well March of that year when the
promotional copies came out, but when 'Planet Rock'
came out it exploded. One of the clearest memories I
have about that was driving round with Tom once on a
Friday night and bringing test pressings of 'Planet
Rock' to Mr. Magic at WHBI, over on Riverside Drive
here on Manhattan. That was an amazing spring because
that record just exploded. I was so new but it was amazing
to walk around Manhattan and that record was coming
out of every window, every car. That was really the
record that put us on the map."
"Planet Rock" not only put Tommy Boy on the
map; this was the record that changed the sound of hip-hop.
"When we came out with electro-funk - 'Planet Rock',"
Afrika Bambaataa remembers, "I was looking at all
the other rap records. Everyone was talking the same
thing, talking about theyself, talking about how bad
he is, how many girls they could get. I said, we need
something differ
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