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NERVOUS Records [ New York City ]
In the American music industry, New York City is famous for its multitude of underground independent record labels that emerge whenever a new musical trend hits the streets. In the early 80’s, disco labels ruled, then came hip hop, then house. Techno, tribal, ambient and drum n bass had a run, and recently trance has become the hot new genre for entrepreneurs trying to break out with new independent labels that specialize in these fields. Often a new label will release a few decent tracks, make a name for itself, and just as quickly disappear back into the upper, hard-to-reach section of the 12″ stores, or worse yet, disappear into a corporate conglomerate.
Nervous Records has defied that tradition by achieving massive success in all the various genres of underground music. The label was famous almost immediately when it started back in 1991 because of its eye-catching, very distinctive cartoon character logo which immediately lead to merchandising licenses in Europe and Japan. In addition the first three releases were produced by Roger S., Kenny Dope, and Todd Terry respectively, representing the three most important house producers of that time. By 1992 Nervous was enjoying the title of label of the moment, having been featured as such in articles in magazines like Billboard, DJ Magazine (cover story), Mixmag, ID, Ministry of Sound, and Spin. After achieving worldwide status as a leading dance label, Nervous decided at that point to focus its energy on expanding. The label’s first step outside the house music arena was with the Brooklyn, NY-based rap group, Black Moon, whose single “Who Got The Props” virtually put Brooklyn back on the map as a center of hip hop. At the same time, the label decided to launch a new Nervous cartoon character for this release, giving it specific hip hop characteristics, and calling the hip hop label Wreck Records. Massive success followed with the Wreck imprint, as hits soon followed by Smif-N-Wessun, and Funkmaster Flex. Black Moon eventually went gold and was sampled by Mariah Carey, New Edition and was featured on a Spike Lee movie soundtrack. Funkmaster Flex went on to become the best known hip hop DJ in the country. Smif n Wessun recorded a duet with Mary J. Blige. Nervous decided to continue to expand its musical boundaries in 1993 by signing Mad Lion, from the camp of the hip hop legend KRS-One. This was the first artist on the Nervous’ Weeded imprint which featured a new cartoon character. Once again, there was huge success as Mad Lion’s single “Take It Easy” sold over 250,000 units. Meanwhile, the Nervous merchandise continued to produce massive sales numbers as it established itself as one of the most favored t-shirts for the club and DJ set. In 1994, the label decided it was time to move into the electronic genre, and started an imprint called Sorted. The first artist on that label was Josh Wink. While Winx’s debut release was a critical success although not a major seller, Winx’s follow-up release “Don’t Laugh” became the American dance community’s most talked about single, and ended up selling over 600,000 units worldwide. Subsequently Nervous released Winx’s debut album, “Left Above The Clouds.” This album was one of the first “electronica” albums to be released in the US, and lead to Josh Wink being signed to Sony as an artist. Nervous also released an album by two Long Island based DJs, DJ Micro and Vicious Vic. The album, entitled “Progress Into Our Future,” since became a seminal album for the crew of Long Island DJ’s that currently dominate clubs with their hard trance sound. In 1996, Nervous virtually single-handedly created a garage house music revival by releasing the debut solo artist album by house music legend Byron Stingily. Byron was formerly the lead singer of gold-selling group Ten City. His second single on Nervous, “Get Up,” went to number one on dance charts around the world, including the Billboard Magazine club chart in America, and sold over 300,000 units worldwide. For his album, “The Purist,” Nervous assembled an all-star cast of legendary House producers, including Frankie Knuckles, Masters At Work, David Morales, Basement Boys, Maurice Joshua and MK. As the musical trends have continued to evolve, Nervous has continued to create new imprints to remain at the cutting edge of all independent labels. Nervous Dog was created to accommodate the emerging harder-edged house sound of New York; Strapped is the home for uptempo, club oriented hip hop party tracks; Nervous Chill, releases down tempo, jazzy grooves for the lounge set; Disco Dolly is the sublabel for the underground vintage New York disco that made clubs like Paradise Garage so famous. In the past 12 months, Nervous has given America’s club-goers three of its most dominant anthems, “Skin” by Charlotte, “Ssst…Listen” by Jonah, and “Unspeakable Joy” by Kim English. The label has also created many successful compilation series, among them “Hip Hop Independent’s Day,” “Future Progressive,” and “Club Nervous.Ó As the hits have grown in number, so has the value of the catalogue for sampling purposes. Nervous songs have been sampled by Mariah Carey, Vanessa Williams, New Edition, Coolio, Flip Squad, Basement Jaxx, and others. Nervous has proved its underground credibility and longevity by out-lasting all other record labels with respect to merchandising, and has established itself as America’s largest and most innovative supplier of DJ Record Bags. Nervous also designs a graphics based line of club wear that is represented not only in music stores but in streetwear boutiques internationally. Each year, two original lines are launched through the Nervous catalog, website and at The Edge at Magic Show in Vegas. By releasing over 40 singles a year on vinyl, as well as major compilations and artist albums, Nervous constantly discovers and blows up new club talent. Whether it’s producers or artists, Nervous has become America’s major supplier of music to DJs in all underground dance genres, and has been instrumental in bringing more attention to this specialized field.
NERVOUS Records.
363 Seventh avenue 16th Floor New York NY 10001
Telephone: 212.273.1135 Fax: 212.273.1148David Liam 38047,2573032407
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