The Building Blocks of Ghetto Fabulous
Andre Harrell built Uptown Records from this ethos of Black glamour with a street edge. It permeated everything he touched to take on a lifestyle of its own: Ghetto Fabulous. Harrell had a knack for disseminating the fullness of Black culture to a mainstream pop audience. He helped bridge R&B and hip-hop and created the blueprint for urban lifestyle labels to come.
Uptown Records was built on the fantasy of aspiration. Injected in its veins was an ethos of Black glamour with a street edge, spawned from the distinct vision of Andre Harrell. Uptown delivered entertainment to a Black audience with an authentic fullness that was missing from the mainstream.
The label bridged soul music of the 60s/70s with the fearless hip hop of the 80s. It made room for Teddy Riley and New Jack Swing. The brand extended its reach to film and television and, more notably, birthed the lifestyle dubbed Ghetto Fabolous. This was music, fashion and culture the Harrell way.
In New York, Uptown was a local name for Harlem. Dating back to the Renaissance, the Black metropolis was fertile ground for rich artistry and entrepreneurship. The area, dotted with live music venues, lounges and restaurants, drew near the flyest, the flashiest and most lavish of them all. Something about the party scene. Harrell himself was a showman. In the early 90s, he gave eight or nine a year, a few at his New Jersey mansion Mohawk Stadium. And so, from top to bottom, Uptown Records was intentional about the culture it looked to build on. A kaleidoscope of Blackness and sophistication.
The brand’s success hinged on Harrell’s ability to create different touchpoints for Uptown’s music and brand culture with his audience. As an ex-ad man who knew a lot about music, Harrell was good at creating fresh opportunities for his brand to impact and be seen. These are the building blocks that turned Uptown into a lifestyle movement.
Ushering in a New Pop Sound
In its prime, the label ushered in sounds of mainstream R&B and rap. At the time, the music industry was clear on the lines between rap music and R&B. They stayed in their own lane. Uptown came to shake up those norms as a bridge between the two genres. It gave us Hip Hop Soul with Mary J. Blige and Jodeci. There was also New Jack Swing, created by producer Teddy Riley. Music that was authentically “uptown” yet appealing to a larger pop base.
What the charts made clear was that Harrell was building a Black pop entity. Many compared Uptown to Motown, in its influence and model. In 1992, Uptown and MCA Music Entertainment Group entered into a $50 million label distribution deal. It was a groundbreaking partnership at a time when hip hop was replacing rock & roll in popular culture. The deal brought Uptown to Hollywood, fueled on the very same culturals insights as the music. A spectrum of Black lifestyles represented in the entertainment across touchpoints makes for pop culture.
The other exception was Harrell’s audience-centric approach to building the brand. He knew exactly the people he was talking to and what they needed, some escapism. Harrell had many lives before founding his label. He was part of the rap duo, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, balancing the roles of artist and manager. He was an ad man, working in the advertising department at 1010 Wins News station after college. He was an A&R executive. These experiences converged into Uptown Records, built on style and attitude.
A Lifestyle Called Ghetto Fabulous
There’s a certain magic in Harrell’s work of building Uptown through the intentional curation of lifestyle and entertainment. First, you show them what it’s like. Then, you invite them into the fantasy — through music and film and television. The parties were a clever piece of marketing that established Uptown’s attitude and aspiration.
The music was the soundtrack of the times, reflected in the sound and also the singers and producers who were the essence of that era in New York City. Ghetto fabulous was the lifestyle, embodying the flavor and flair that comes from being around the way with the luxuries of the high life. Who better to provide a crash course than Mr. Champagne & Bubbles himself.
Harrell’s gift was in thinking through all of the parts to a great entertainment experience. He connected those dots to the Black experience. In the landscape of the time, there were lots of different subcultures missing out. A spectrum of Black lifestyles that just weren’t portrayed. Harrell envisioned Uptown as the solution in a world where Black culture eventually becomes popular culture.
Thus, Uptown was the first urban lifestyle label and Harrell’s was the blueprint for labels to come: So So Def, Roc A Fella, Bad Boy. He took the same hands on approach as Berry Gordy with Motown, prioritizing artist development through camps that included styling, media training and choreography. It wasn’t just the artists, either. Harrell developed a reputation for curating executive talent in a similar way, with brand in mind.
The impact of Harrell’s vision created a blueprint for coming labels to follow that merged lifestyle with entertainment in unprecedented ways. With the label as the nexus, Uptown was able to extend into other aspects of entertainment fueled by a strong brand ethos of glamour and edge. It’s such a savvy case study on getting clear on the culture components of your brand and then learning how to translate those for context.
