Sylvia Robinson
March 6, 1935 - September 29, 2011
In 1954, she began teaming up Mickey Baker, the duo was now known as Mickey & Sylvia and recorded "Love Is Strange," song featured in the Dirty Dancing Soundtrack. She pursued a solo career recording several hits including “Pillow Talk”. Sylvia later became founder/CEO of the hip hop label Sugar Hill Records. She is credited as the driving force behind two landmark singles in the genre; "Rapper's Delight" (1979) by the Sugarhill Gang, and "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five; which dubbed her as the "Mother of Hip-Hop". Sylvia died of congestive heart failure on September 29, 2011 at age 76.