Music of Life
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Music of Life is a groundbreaking British independent dance music label formed in 1986 by two influential DJ remixers, Froggy and Simon Harris. Following several successful productions, one of which reached No3 in the UK pop music charts (The Real Thing's 'You to me are Everything') Harris and Froggy decided to launch their own label, they were offered a label deal by Morgan Khan (Streetwave) and the first release was a remix by the duo of Cerrone's 'Supernature' (his 'Music of Life song was the inspiration for the label name). Within a few months Froggy left the label and Streetwave went out of business. Harris decided to re-launch as a British rap music label along with manager Chris France and independent distributor Pinnacle. Music of Life opened an office in London's Soho and Harris financed the label with his remix income.
At first the label licensed new rap music from US production company Powerplay for the first compilation album 'Def Beats 1' but as an addition to the US material Harris produced an extra track, recorded in London by the label's A&R man Derek Boland. 'Rock the Beat' by Derek B created a demand for British hip-hop and the demo tapes started to arrive, Music of Life signed the best artists instead of licensing more US material and Harris would produce many new songs featuring artists including M.C Duke, The Demon Boyz (Million Dan), Thrashpack, Asher D and Daddy Freddy, CJ Macintosh & Einstein, She Rockers (Betty Boo), Hijack and many more.
Many of these recordings broke ground and are still considered to be highly innovative, the first reggae/hip-hop combination (Asher D & Daddy Freddy's 'Ragamuffin Hip Hop) and Derek B's album would be licensed to US label 'Profile' (Run DMC), Hijack would be signed to ICE-T's Rhyme syndicate label and many more.
So far the catalog of recordings and copyrights have exceeded 2000 titles and include music videos and documentary TV shows ('Kings of Rap' - MTV).
Now in its 22nd year, Music of Life is one of the UK's longest running independent dance music labels (1986 - present day) and the catalog has been licensed and released in over 70 countries with many chart hits including the UK, Germany, Japan, France and the USA (Harris's 'Bass' how low can you go? was a No1 Billboard US chart hit) and many Grammy award winning artists (Luthor Vandross, REM, Beastie Boys, Beck) have licensed from the Music of Life catalog.
Harris also produced the world's best selling series of 'Breakbeat' albums used by DJ's and producers, 'Beats Breaks and Scratches' in 12 volumes and worked with top artists Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim), Paul Oakenfold, Afrika Bambaataa and George Clinton to produce and release similar albums that are part of the Music of Life catalog.
Sister label 'Living Beat' was launched in 1989 and would release many dance music, house and pop recordings with chart success including 'Supermarioland' reaching No6 in the UK pop charts with Harris's 'Ambassadors of Funk' in association with Nintendo, Samantha Fox's Song for Europe entry 'Go for the Heart' and the Prince's first UK No1 pop single 'The Most Beautiful Girl in the World'.
The Music of Life catalog includes songs from:
M.C Duke Thrashpack She Rockers Daddy Freddy Asher D Tenorfly Nitty Gritty Derek B Hijack 3 Knights DJ Daddy Lezlie Lyrics Norman Cook Paul Oakenfold George Clinton Simon Harris Einstein Ambassadors of Funk Afrika Bambaataa Demon Boyz
