Sleeping Bag Records

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sleeping Bag Records

Founded	1981
Founder(s)	Arthur Russell William Socolov Juggy Gales
Genre(s)	Various
Country of origin	USA
Location	New York City, New York

Sleeping Bag Records is a defunct New York City-based old school hip hop and dance music independent record label that operated from 1981 to 1992. The label's artist roster included acts such as old school hip hop groups Mantronix, Just-Ice, Nice & Smooth, and EPMD; freestyle vocalist Nocera; and R&B singer-songwriter Joyce Sims.

1 Founders
2 Re-releases
3 Trivia
4 External links
5 See also
6 References

[edit] Founders

Sleeping Bag Records was founded by avant-garde cellist, composer, and underground disco artist Arthur Russell, William Socolov, and Juggy Gales. The label's corporate logo was a drawing of a koala bear.

Sub-label Fresh Records was founded in 1985.^[1]

[edit] Re-releases

After closing its doors in 1992, the catalog sat in limbo for several years. In 1996, the label and its catalog were purchased by Warlock Records, which has been rereleasing its titles with the Sleeping Bag and Fresh logos alongside the Warlock Records logo since. The building in Manhattan, where the label had its headquarters was torn down in the 1990s and a luxury apartment building stands in its place.

The catalogs of Warlock, Fresh, and Sleeping Bag were purchased by the Traffic Entertainment Group in 2002.

[edit] Trivia

Kurtis Mantronik, in addition to being the DJ for the rap duo Mantronix, did A&R for the label.
EPMD rhymed about their record signing experience with sub-label Fresh Records in the song "Please Listen to My Demo" from their 1989 Unfinished Business album.
Label founder Juggy Gales was prank called by The Jerky Boys on "The Hucklebuck" track from 1999's Stop Staring at Me! album.