Delicious Vinyl

Delicious Vinyl is a record label from Los Angeles founded by Matt Dike and Michael Ross in 1987. The two met at a party in the mid-eighties. Both were active as DJ in Los Angeles, so they talked about music and they realized that they had the same passion for soul, funk und hip hop. In 1987 they founded together Delicious Vinyl Records. Their first release was the 12inch »On Fire/Cheeba Cheeba« by Tone Loc. This was once the basis of the subsequent single hits »Wild Thing« (3 million sold singles) and »Funky Cold Medina«. Both songs showed also the penchant for guitar riffs in hip hop tracks Dike and Ross had at that time. Marvin Young supplemented the duo and shortly thereafter he, the young MC, had with »Bust A Move« himself a hit. With Mellow Man Ace one of the first logged rap attempt in Spanish followed and with Brand New Heavies, a British downbeat formation, and Masters Of Reality, the stoner rock pioneers, strong evidence, that Delicious Vinyl wanted be understood not only as rap label. In 1992 Matt Dike left the label and Michael Ross meticulously carried on the label. The releases of The Pharcyde, De La Soul, J-Swift and Masta Ace made the label in the following years one of the hallmarks of the »conscious rap« and the sound of the »golden era of hip hop«. These period was concluded in Fatlip’s solo album »The Loneliest Punk«, on which the member of The Pharcyde had worked almost ten years. End of the last decade the record label played a decisive role in the popularization of the »Baltimore sound«. The lettering and logo of Delicious Vinyl (including variants) is a world-popular T-shirt design.