Hey Folks,
En Vogue, Levert, Brandy, YoYo, MC Lyte, Miki Howard, Tracy Chapman, Yolanda Adams, Metallica, Fabolous and Gerald Albright (just to name a few) have the amazing Sylvia Rhone to thank for advancing their careers and making them household names.
Born in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania on March 11, 1952, and raised in Harlem, Rhone has cited her early exposure to seminal R&B shows at the Apollo Theatre as pivotal to her belief in music as an inspirational force.
Sylvia Rhone graduated from the Wharton School at the University of
Pennsylvania with a B.S. in Economics. her first job in music was in 1974 as a secretary for Buddha Records. As time went on she held positions at ABC Records and Ariola Records; later joining the Elektra family and advancing onto Atlantic Records where she would eventually become the senior vice president and general manager of Atlantic Records.
Sylvia Rhone is the reason Billboard Magazine named Atlantic Records the #1 Black Music Division in 1988. She became the first African American woman to head a major record company in 1990 and she is still hitting them HARD.
In 1994 she went on to become the chairman and CEO of Elektra Entertainment and was named by The Los Angeles Times “the most powerful woman in the music business”. She further advanced her career by guiding the merger of Elektra, EastWest and Sire Records into one of the Warner Music Groups most diverse and competitive labels. Sylvia moved on to become president of Motown Records, executive vice president of Universal Records. Ms Rhone re-energized the Motown label and made it a more savvy digital music business platform.
Music is a forever changing game and in 2006 the Universal Music Label split; becoming Universal Republic Records and Universal Motown Records. Ms Rhone became the president of Universal Motown and was able to raise awareness of Cash Money Records which is a subsidiary of Universal Music Group and Record Label home of Lil Wayne.
Sylvia Rhone has won a plethora of awards, honors and recognition from the music industry and the greater community. She was awarded the 2010 Lexus Pursuit Of Perfection Award as a trailblazer for African American women everywhere. In 2008, she was honored by the Black Women In Entertainment Law Foundation for her work as a pioneer in African American Music. In 2007, she was awarded the Black Girls Rock Corporate Award. In 2004, Rhone was awarded the Turner Broadcasting Trumpet Award which recognizes the accomplishments of distinguished African Americans from around the world. In 2001, Ms. Magazine named Rhone Woman Of The Year, along with Jane Fonda, Yoko Ono, and Venus and Serena Williams, among others. Rhone was one of only four women recognized in Jet Magazine‘s 50 Years Of Progress issue which chronicled the business achievements of prominent African Americans in the previous half-century.
Other honors include an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of Adelphi; the Herbert H. Wright Award from the National Association of Market Developers; Sony’s Soul of American Music Excellence Award; The Urban Network’s Executive Of The Year Award; The Boy Scouts of America’s Whitney M. Young Service Award; the New Music Seminar’s Joel Webber Prize for Excellence in Music and Business Award; and the Legacy Life Member Award from the National Council of Negro Women. Rhone is a member of the Board of Directors of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Sylvia Rhone is truly a woman behind the music and we salute her.
Keep Jammin,
MrsDeveter
