Cold Chillin' Records

Parent company	Traffic Entertainment
Founded	1986
Status	Defunct
Distributor(s)	Warner Bros. Records (1988–1993) Epic Street/SME Records (1995–1997)
Genre	Hip hop Contemporary R&B
Country of origin	USA
Location	New York, New York

Cold Chillin' Records was a record label that released some important music in the golden age of hip hop from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. A producer-and-crew label founded by manager Tyrone Williams and run by Len Fichtelberg (d. November 4, 2010), most of the label's releases were by members of the Juice Crew, a loosely knit group of artists centered around producer Marley Marl.

History

Initially, Cold Chillin’ was a subsidiary of Prism Records, but label head Tyrone Williams and Fichtelberg decided to merge their companies, and Prism was absorbed by Cold Chillin’. In 1988, it signed a 5-year distribution deal with Warner Bros. Records, which remained intact for its full duration. However, since Kool G. Rap & D.J. Polo's third album, Live And Let Die, was rejected by Warner Bros. on behalf of parent company Time Warner because of the anti-gangsta and anti-Time Warner sentiments that followed in the footsteps of the Cop Killer controversy involving hip hop artist Ice-T. Cold Chillin' opted to distribute the album independently, and, as such, it did so with various projects throughout the remaining years of activity, including its short-lived distribution deal with the Epic Street division of Epic Records, which released two albums by the label: the second album by Grand Daddy I.U. and the debut solo effort by Kool G. Rap.

Cold Chillin' also formed a sub-label named Livin’ Large, which released Roxanne Shanté's and YZ's second albums along with several titles by other artists, and was distributed by former Warner Bros. Records subsidiary Tommy Boy Records as part of its deal with Warner.

After it closed down in 1998, rights of the Cold Chillin' catalog (including the Prism catalog) were purchased by Massachusetts-based LandSpeed Records, now known as Traffic Entertainment Group. Along with Ruthless Records, Death Row Records, and Rap-a-Lot Records, Cold Chillin' Records is widely respected for serious contributions to hip hop music during its formative years. In 2006, LandSpeed started releasing new versions of the classic albums in Cold Chillin's’ catalog with their original artwork intact.

Discography

Albums

1987

• M.C. Shan—Down by Law

1988

• Big Daddy Kane—Long Live the Kane
• MC Shan—Born to be Wild
• Biz Markie—Goin' Off
• Marley Marl—In Control Volume 1

1989

• Big Daddy Kane—It's a Big Daddy Thing
• Kool G Rap & DJ Polo—Road to the Riches
• Roxanne Shanté—Bad Sister
• Biz Markie—The Biz Never Sleeps

1990

• Grand Daddy I.U.—Smooth Assassin
• Master Ace—Take a Look Around
• 2 Deep—Honey, That's Show Biz
• Kool G Rap & DJ Polo—Wanted: Dead or Alive
• Big Daddy Kane—Taste of Chocolate
• M.C. Shan—Play it Again, Shan

1991

• Big Daddy Kane—Prince of Darkness
• Kid Capri—The Tape
• Diamond Shell—The Grand Imperial Diamond Shell
• Biz Markie—I Need a Haircut
• Marley Marl—In Control, Volume 2: For Your Steering Pleasure
• The Genius—Words from the Genius

1992

• Kool G Rap & DJ Polo—Live and Let Die
• Roxanne Shanté—The Bitch is Back (released on Livin’ Large)
• Nubian M.O.B. - Nubian M.O.B.

1993

• Big Daddy Kane—Looks Like a Job For…
• Biz Markie—All Samples Cleared!
• TBTBT—Too Bad to Be True
• YZ—The Ghetto’s Been Good to Me (released on Livin’ Large)
• T.C.F. Crew—Come & Play with Me

1994

• Grand Daddy I.U.—Lead Pipe
• King Sun—Strictly Ghetto (released on Livin’ Large)

1995

• Kool G Rap—4,5,6

Non-album singles

• Juice Crew All-Stars—"Juice Crew All-Stars"
• Big Scoob—"Suckaz Can't Hang"
• Madame Star—"Looking for a Dame"
• Big Scoob—"Champagne on the Block"
• Juice Crew All-Stars—"Cold Chillin' Christmas"

See also

• Roxanne Wars
• The Bridge Wars

References