In the dance and hip-hop field,
record labels come and go as quickly as the music trends
they promote. Just to stay in business is a major achievement.
For Tommy Boy to survive for so long, releasing music
that managed to be both revolutionary and incredibly
successful, is a miracle. "I feel very fortunate
to have played a part in bringing a culture to the forefront,"
says Monica Lynch. Staying on top of the constant changes
in hip-hop style and music technology, pushing the boundaries
of sampling practice or using small budgets to create
groundbreaking videos and marketing campaigns, Tommy
Boy has nurtured some of the most significant artists
of the past 20 years.
Having come this far, Tom Silverman is looking to the
future by learning from methods his company used in
the past - methods that threaten to become endangered
species in the corporate atmosphere of the late Nineties.
"We used to put records out really fast,"
he says. "We used to put out answer records. There
were a lot of things we used to do that were fun to
do. We're looking for things that are gonna be significant.
They have to stand out. Whatever genre they're in, they
should push the envelope, they should have an edge."
At Tommy Boy, home of the greatest beats, music has
always had the edge.
TOMMY BOY 2001:
IT'S WORKING
http://www.tommyboy.com
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