At the Hotel Victor on December 11, Miami’s leading record label celebrated a decade and a half of not just survival, but of helping expand and expose the sound of the South. From the three-piece suits to the chocolate fondue, the event showed how the city’s music scene has evolved since the days of bikinis and block parties – yet how it remains indelibly da Bottom.
“I think it’s been hard work and determination, as a label, to stick together and stay strong, and fight for what we believe in -- that’s what I think we’ve done,” said Katrina “Trina” Young. The self-proclaimed Diamond Princess has been part of the SNS family since Lucas first formed the company with her boyfriend Hollywood, who was subsequently killed. At the Vic, the onetime pole dancer looked like a movie star, with her hair in thick braids and inch-long lashes. “Artists that Ted has put on his label, we all have become successful in our own ways and branched out into different things. That’s a blessing; everybody’s stayed close and been more of a family.”
Trina appears at the Slip-N-Slide Records 15th Anniversary Party
Since he founded SNS as a concert promotion agency, Lucas has built a steady stream of artists – from Trick Daddy to Trina to Rick Ross to Plies. His biggest-selling names were MIA in MIA last night: Trick left Slip last year to form his own label, Dunk Ryders. Ross didn’t show and Plies reportedly arrived extremely late.
But a couple hundred others were there, and more crowded on the sidewalk outside trying to get in. Trina, Pit Bull, Kevin Lyttle (looking sharp in a white blazer), Kevin Liles, producer Jim Jonsin, and Keith Sweat (who performed) set the star quotient. But there was a who’s who of South Florida’s hip-hopoisie in the house, including DJ Laz, Poe Boy CEO Elric “E-Class” Prince, SNS VP Jullian Boothe, Cedric Hollywood, and Circle House’s Abebe Lewis. People were dressed to the nines, and not in thongs and baggies; this was a classy event, a celebration of a cleaned-up Dirty Dirty.
Jim Jonsin and Ted Lucas
As the label’s name implies, Slip N Slide was born while booty music was still hot. Early acts included CO and Money Mark (who were at the Victor). He also dabbled in the sort of soft-core blaxploitation records and films that made Luther Campbell once the king of Miami. On tracks like “Phone Sexx” from her last album Still Da Baddest, Trina can still out-raunch Lil Kim.But with Maurice “Trick Daddy” Young, Hollywood’s brother, Lucas showed the world that Miamians had more than sex on their minds. On his 1997 release Based on a True Story, and his six albums afterward, Trick rapped about thug life, repping the hard-edged streets in Miami’s inner-city neighborhoods, not the glamour of Miami Beach.
“We opened up a lot of doors,” Lucas said. “When Trick Daddy first came out, a lot of rappers weren’t able to rap about being thugs, and tell their stories of what the world is about. There was a lot of dancing and partying going on.”
Lucas signed Trick and Trina to Atlantic, and helped give Miami hip-hop a cred it had never had. But he struggled for a few years to establish another act, until finally Def Jam signed Rick Ross, and “Hustlin’” blew up. This year, SNS struck gold again with ladies’ man and current VIBE cover star Plies. The label also got a considerable windfall when it won $9 million in a suit against TVT Records over the right to release Pitbull material.
“For anything in the game to be here 15 years, that’s a big message on its own,” said Pitbull at the Vic. “I just want to tell Slip N Slide congratulations, way to work hard, way to grind with it and hustle. We fought hard to beat TVT so I appreciate y’all, heavily.”
There was something wonderfully, well, grown-up about the Victor event. For a South Beach showbiz soiree, the vibe was a strangely sincere celebration of staff and supporters – a really, really nice holiday office party, with tigers. “Trick was a great loss,” said SNS VP Julian Booth. “He was our rock. But our label is able to keep going. At the end of the day, it’s about the staff.”
In this climate, a 15-year successful entrepreneurial venture is nothing to snark at. “Not a lot of people get to be around for 15 years in the music industry,” said Lyttle. “It’s always good to support the fellow worker in the industry.”
Of course, being the beach and SNS, the party did put the sin in sincere.. The usual scantily clad paid party girls had been stunningly painted head to toe by event co-sponsor Miskeen. One was a tiger, another a leopard, one a pair of pink flamingoes, another a tree. Sweat tried pulling his best R. Kelly by chatting up a pair of young ladies who could have been his daughters and probably had no idea who he was. Move on!
James “Qwote” Leonard, a handsome Haitian-American wearing braids and Sean John, said that he’s beginning to feel like part of the family. “Think about it: You’ve got Rick Ross the hustler, Plies the goon, Trina da baddest bitch. So where does Qwote fit in as the pop R&B artist? I’m finding my place. I’m definitely getting comfortable with the whole situation. I’m ready to show what I’ve got. They need that pop taste. I’m the new bad boy of pop.”
That R&B rooting – along with hip-hop’s slipping and sliding record sales – may be why his new signings are singers like Qwote. Lucas says he is trying to take SNS in new directions, including film, pop, and rock: “It’s time to spread our wings. After 15 years, it’s time to go into other genres of music.”
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