Jive Records was a British-American independent record label founded by Clive Calder in 1981 as a subsidiary of the Zomba Group. In the US, the label had offices in New York City and Chicago. Jive was best known for its successes with hip hop, R&B, and dance acts in the 1980s and 1990s, along with teen pop and boy bands during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
DJ Jazzy Jeff pictured in 2002. The hip hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince sold over 5.5 million records with the label, and became the first hip hop act to win a Grammy award for "Parents Just Don't Understand" in 1989.
Aaliyah pictured in 2000. Her debut studio album Age Ain't Nothing But a Number sold over 6 million copies and became a multi-platinum record for the label.
An independent record label is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented by trade associations in their country or region, which in turn are represented by the international trade body, the Worldwide Independent Network (WIN).
MF DOOM, one of the pioneering artists of the underground hip hop scene, whose success helped bring attention to independent hip hop releases and influenced many musicians.
