Sugar Hill Records

The Los Angeles-based unit of MCA Inc. issued a statement saying it was "outraged" that small, New Jersey-based Sugar Hill Records had accused it of fraudulent activities in a $240-million suit filed this week. MCA called Sugar Hill's action "frivolous" and said it was a "bad faith effort" to avoid facing MCA's claims that Sugar Hill had engaged in "massive fraud and material breaches in its dealings with MCA Records."

The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" was the first hip-hop single to break into the national Top 40 pop charts, although anyone listening to it now for the first time probably would have a hard time picking up on what made the 1979 recording such a rap milestone. "Rapper's Delight" offers little of the adventure, aggression or spectacular beats of the most compelling rap. It seems little more than a novelty with its goofy party-time talk, such as "bang bang the boogie to the boogie."

The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" was the first hip-hop single to break into the national Top 40 pop charts, although anyone listening to it now for the first time probably would have a hard time picking up on what made the 1979 recording such a rap milestone. "Rapper's Delight" offers little of the adventure, aggression or spectacular beats of the most compelling rap. It seems little more than a novelty with its goofy party-time talk, such as "bang bang the boogie to the boogie."

The seeds of the Austin Lounge Lizards were sown when two Princeton students shared a startling revelation: "Hey, our forthcoming history degrees aren't exactly suited for gainful employment." So in 1976, soon-to-be singer-songwriter-guitarists Hank Card and Conrad Deisler started playing together while attending law school at the University of Texas. Soon the twosome recruited string player Tom Pittman and started a real band.

A small New Jersey record company specializing in black "rap" music is being investigated by two of the ongoing federal grand juries looking into suspected organized crime infiltration of segments of the record business, The Times has learned. Grand juries in Los Angeles and New York are interested in Englewood, N.J.-based Sugar Hill Inc.

Reputed mobster Salvatore J. Pisello has told government investigators that his initial contact with MCA Records in 1983 was through MCA Music and Entertainment Group Chairman Irving Azoff, according to papers filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. It was the first time that Pisello had made any statement to investigators about his dealings with MCA.

A small New Jersey record company specializing in so-called rap music filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Newark on Tuesday charging that it was defrauded and forced into near-bankruptcy in a racketeering scheme engineered by executives of MCA Records and reputed organized crime figure Salvatore J. Pisello. Englewood-based Sugar Hill Records claims in the civil suit that executives of Los Angeles-based MCA and its distribution arm, MCA Distributing Corp.

Marion "Suge" Knight, Sean "Puffy" Combs and all the other hip-hop moguls owe their careers to a former disco queen's taste for pizza. It was at a New Jersey pizzeria one afternoon in 1979 that Sylvia Robinson heard a club bouncer named Henry "Big Bank Hank" Robinson rapping some lyrics he had heard in a club. Dazzled by her first taste of rap, she arranged to record him and two friends. The result was the landmark "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang. America's first hip-hop label was born.

The seeds of the Austin Lounge Lizards were sown when two Princeton students shared a startling revelation: "Hey, our forthcoming history degrees aren't exactly suited for gainful employment." So in 1976, soon-to-be singer-songwriter-guitarists Hank Card and Conrad Deisler started playing together while attending law school at the University of Texas. Soon the twosome recruited string player Tom Pittman and started a real band.

* Michelle Shocked, "Deep Natural," Mighty Sound. Miles from her old epistolary folkiness, but her passion, vision and appeal galvanize and unify what may be her most ambitious album. Also: Apex Theory, "Topsy-Turvy," DreamWorks Doc Watson and Frosty Morn, "Round the Table Again," Sugar Hill Records Tami Hart, "What Passed Between Us," Mr.

Marion "Suge" Knight, Sean "Puffy" Combs and all the other hip-hop moguls owe their careers to a former disco queen's taste for pizza. It was at a New Jersey pizzeria one afternoon in 1979 that Sylvia Robinson heard a club bouncer named Henry "Big Bank Hank" Robinson rapping some lyrics he had heard in a club. Dazzled by her first taste of rap, she arranged to record him and two friends. The result was the landmark "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang. America's first hip-hop label was born.

Reputed mobster Salvatore J. Pisello has told government investigators that his initial contact with MCA Records in 1983 was through MCA Music and Entertainment Group Chairman Irving Azoff, according to papers filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. It was the first time that Pisello had made any statement to investigators about his dealings with MCA.

The Los Angeles-based unit of MCA Inc. issued a statement saying it was "outraged" that small, New Jersey-based Sugar Hill Records had accused it of fraudulent activities in a $240-million suit filed this week. MCA called Sugar Hill's action "frivolous" and said it was a "bad faith effort" to avoid facing MCA's claims that Sugar Hill had engaged in "massive fraud and material breaches in its dealings with MCA Records."

A small New Jersey record company specializing in so-called rap music filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Newark on Tuesday charging that it was defrauded and forced into near-bankruptcy in a racketeering scheme engineered by executives of MCA Records and reputed organized crime figure Salvatore J. Pisello. Englewood-based Sugar Hill Records claims in the civil suit that executives of Los Angeles-based MCA and its distribution arm, MCA Distributing Corp.

A small New Jersey record company specializing in black "rap" music is being investigated by two of the ongoing federal grand juries looking into suspected organized crime infiltration of segments of the record business, The Times has learned. Grand juries in Los Angeles and New York are interested in Englewood, N.J.-based Sugar Hill Inc.

Sometimes retirement can be a good thing. It's not that these old-school legends of "The Message" fame aren't still good rappers. But they demean themselves by surfing current misogynistic trends with such songs as "Sex You" and "On the Down Low." The "Sugar Hill Records Story" boxed set is more representative of these artists' capabilities. * Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four (excellent).

A federal appeals court Thursday upheld the conviction of Salvatore Pisello, a reputed organized crime figure convicted of failing to pay taxes on more than $300,000 he earned from a series of business deals with MCA Records and Sugar Hill Records. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Los Angeles said the evidence justified the conviction on two counts of tax evasion and also concluded that Pisello had not been unfairly required to prove his contention that the money had been a loan.