So the foundation was laid, and each subsequent release was another brick in the house that Tommy built. Tom Silverman has been pioneering change in the biz for 25 years be it through his New Music Seminar, or DJ Bible, Dance Music Report; or with his involvement with the RIAA, NARM, NAIRD, the Dance Music Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and now the American Association of Independent Music (AAIM ). Tommy Boy has always stayed one step ahead of its imitators. Throughout the 80’s, Tommy Boy released popular electro-funk tracks by the Jonzun Crew, Planet Patrol, and Whiz Kid, as b-boys and b-girls in Adidas track suits and shell-tops, pop-locked and kept it fresh on the dance floor. Tommy Boy was also pivotal in introducing the R&B-heavy hip hop that is so popular today, with the signing of the Force MD’s, which predated Teddy Riley’s popular New Jack Swing sound. Tommy Boy coined the term and was the first label to ever place bonus beats on records, they created the Maxi format for cassettes and CDs and they were the first label to bring hip hop international.

Currently hip-hop is the pop music of the day, available for mass consumption, but that was not always the case. Early on, Tommy Boy’s hip-hop artists received heavy video support from music industry gatekeepers, MTV, during a time when MTV played little hip-hop. Before Eve, Foxy Brown, Lil’ Kim, and Missy there was Queen Latifah, a politically and socially conscious rapper who gained success without exploiting her sexuality. Tommy Boy Music nurtured her early career, leading to the enormous, eventual success she is today as a recording artist and executive, cover girl, and an Academy Award Nominated film actress.

Fellow New Jersey residents, Naughty by Nature also had great success with Tommy Boy. O.P.P. quickly ran through the underground and became a mainstream hit, leaving many people wondering what those three little letters really stood for. In fact, subsequent singles from Naughty almost guaranteed video rotation, a tremendous feat considering the rawness of Naughty’s sound and the conservative climate of the time.

De La Soul are perhaps one of the most influential hip-hop groups of all time. Never pretending to be “gangsta,” De La’s innovative sampling techniques and complex rhymes proved great MC’s could be adventurous and individualistic. Three Feet High and Rising was a commercial success and remains a seminal hip-hop classic.

Way before Eminem, there was House of Pain, probably the first white rappers to receive any amount of respect. Two-thirds of House of Pain is still active today with DJ Lethal now in Limp Bizkit, and Everlast having already established a successful solo career. But it doesn’t end there… Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise, “ broke sales records planet-wide, made Coolio a household name and earned him a virtually permanent spot on the game show, Hollywood Squares. Tommy Boy also introduced the world to Oakland, California’s Digital Underground with their smash hit the “Humpty Dance, “ as well as exposing Tupac Shakur to many fans for the first time as a dancer for Digital Underground.

Tommy Boy has remained in touch with a singular vision on unique high quality music, and is more than the sum of its parts. Even markets other labels wouldn’t touch, Tommy Boy crashed headlong into.

Never one to be complacent, during the 80’s, Tommy Boy Music soon branched off into other genres, and kept on course with a series of pioneering dance music releases . Tommy Boy was responsible for launching electronic dance music with acts like 808 State, Information Society, Coldcut, and LFO. Tommy Boy launched free style with INSOC, and Planet Patrol and the legendary TKA and K7.. Information Society and K7 arrived during the peak popularity of the “heavy metal hair bands.” Information Society straddled the line between post-new wave, industrial, and electronic dance music, with two songs reaching the mainstream top ten. TKA was on the other side of the dance music spectrum, tapping into the NYC Puerto Rican freestyle scene, with sex-laden raps, and soulful, high-energy hip-hop beats. With all of the diverse record releases and a proud tradition of innovations and of being “first,” Tommy Boy is a record label not easily labeled.

Tommy Boy has consistently produced hits, it took five years after Planet Rock exploded internationally for Tommy Boy to score their next smash with De La. Those that slept on the label got sideswiped by what followed. Just check the statistics: Numerous top-ten hits, seventy-seven, we repeat, SEVENTY-SEVEN combined Gold, Platinum, and Multi-Platinum certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America, including gold singles from Afrika Bambaataa, Club Nouveau, De La Soul, and Digital Underground.

Albums from Information Society, Naughty by Nature, K7, and Everlast all went gold. Singles like The Humpty Dance by Digital Underground, Jump Around by House of Pain, and Fantastic Voyage by Coolio went platinum, while Naughty By Nature garnered multi-platinum sales for O.P.P. Both House of Pain and De La Soul released platinum albums on Tommy Boy, while Coolio, and Everlast, with Whitey Ford Sings the Blues, went multi-platinum.

On the compilation front, Jock Jams Volumes 1 and 2 went multi-platinum, while Volumes 3 and 4, as well as MTV Party To Go Vol.2, received platinum certificates. MTV Party To Go ’98, ’99, Vol. 1 and Volumes 3 through 10, all went gold. But more importantly, over 3 million dollars were donated to the AMC Cancer Research from the sales of the MTV Party To Go compilation series.

Recently, compilations like the extremely popular NOW series and others like it that advertise heavily on late night television, are moving millions of units, but Tommy Boy was again here first. We created the model for the successful modern compilation, and the difference is, we make original music too, not just licensing other people’s work. Just another innovation among a long list of many that Tommy Boy has pioneered and others have followed. Tommy Boy has had hits not only with hip-hop, but also with dance music and other hybrid forms that defy classification. Yes, we are the greatest, and we’ll say it again…Tommy Boy is a label that cannot be labeled, but it is quite frequently imitated.

There was a time when communications companies stayed within their own respective spheres of influence. The motion picture industry stayed away from television, network television stayed away from cable, newspapers kept out of TV news, and so on. But the last two decades saw the fractionalization and segmentation of the media. There was no more mass media or mass culture to speak of, so the media became more specialized, and in the ever pursuit of expanding of their profit margins, they began targeting smaller, heterogeneous markets and niches.

Despite the split in the market, ironically, the trend in the communications and media industry of the last two decades has been towards the consolidation of ownership, where seven or so, mega-media giants own everything from film studios, book publishing companies, to television networks, magazines, and music labels. In essence, they dictate what we see, hear, read, and talk about. They are the New World Order with a vertical strangle hold on the marketplace. Naturally, all of Tommy Boy’s success has not gone unnoticed by the mega-media conglomerates. In 1986, AOL Time Warner, then the largest media corporation in the world, purchased fifty- percent of Tommy Boy, while the remaining half was enthusiastically snatched up in 1989. Meanwhile Tommy Boy remained independent in distribution and operation. Virtually self-funded, self-distributed both domestically and internationally, Tommy Boy continued on in the spirit of independents, even developing its own distribution network.

However, the more complex any organization becomes, the more levels of control there are, and thus, more levels of bureaucracy. An absolutely revolutionary idea can suddenly become diluted and prosaic after running through the hoops of a large chain of command to get final approval. The suits upstairs, did their job well: keeping shareholders happy with rising stock prices, but ultimately there were conflicting visions of the “bottom line” vs. art. Tommy Boy chose art.

Tom Silverman, founder and CEO of Tommy Boy Music, is Tommy Boy Music, and in January of 2002, he issued the Declaration, becoming fully independent again under the slightly more accurate moniker of Tommy Boy Entertainment. Even though Tommy Boy remained largely autonomous, and independent in spirit during its successful tenure with AOL Time Warner, it is certainly good to be free again. And the future looks bright, as Tommy Boy will continue to do what it has always done: pioneering and producing influential music. In 2006, Tommy Boy will bring major label quality with independent ethics and vision with artists like Cantankerous, Daniel Cirera, Roy Young and a long diverse list of other cutting-edge acts. Recently, Tommy Boy Music has become a two-headed monster with the new name of Tommy Boy Entertainment. We are going “beyond the music,” as we continue to expand. Look for more innovative television programming like Kung Faux, where old Kung Fu matinee classics are re-dubbed with the voices of the biggest MC’s. History is a precursor to the future and with Tommy Boy Entertainment’s consistent batting average, we’re sure to lead the creative charge of the new music business. Stay tuned 2006 is our 25th Anniversary, and once again people will be watching as we make the planet rock...