Sweet highs of a rap empire

The spot on West Street in Englewood, New Jersey, where hip hop history was made is marked by a “for sale” sign. A chain-link fence blocks the entrance to what is now an empty lot, and a few cars are parked inside.

That’s all that is left of the Sugar Hill recording studio, where the song that introduced rap music to a mainstream audience was recorded in 1979, sweeping Englewood – and the enigmatic members of the Robinson family who ran the company – into the centre of a burgeoning music craze with the now-iconic riff, “hip hop and ya don’t stop”.

For a time, anyone who wanted to make a name in rap music came to Englewood to get noticed – not the clubs of Harlem, Brooklyn or the Bronx – and the Robinsons, with their collection of expensive sports cars, legendary parties and up-to-the-minute wardrobe, brought a taste of the superstar lifestyle to their quiet, suburban city.

The founding members of the record label – Sylvia, the former teen star with the sultry voice and the ear for a hit, and her husband, Joseph, the onetime Harlem nightclub owner with the often-whispered but never confirmed mob ties – are dead now. The building where they recorded most of their music – including the 1979 Rapper’s Delight by The Sugarhill Gang – was destroyed in an electrical fire in 2002.

But the family is back in the news. Sylvia and Joe’s three sons pleaded guilty recently for failing to pay a combined US$1.3 million in taxes. Joseph Jnr and Leland were sentenced to three years of probation last month, and Rhondo is awaiting sentencing.

The family’s detractors, many of whom have complained for decades that the Robinsons shortchanged their artists, say they are not surprised by the brothers’ misfortunes and they’re far from the first recording artists who’ve underpaid the IRS. But Joe Robinson Jnr, known as Joey, the eldest brother, who played the most direct role of the three in his parents’ business, brushed off the family’s recent ill fortunes as typical troubles for anyone who reaches a certain status in the business.