it was an area that made sense for us because we hadn't done anything in that genre and music and sports are so closely tied together. We weren't into being provocative at all, and Tommy Boy was totally the opposite. To give you an idea of what it was like, the products and services we worked on are now entire divisions within the company.Īnd ESPN was kind of straight-laced and Tommy Boy Records was not.
I remember having a fantasy football meeting with the NFL. We didn't even have to seek out that many opportunities you just had to sit back and see what people brought to us. We worked on dot-com, The Magazine, video games, fantasy sports, merchandise and music. ESPN2 had just started and there was talk of ESPN News and Classic, and we wanted to start licensing the ESPN brand to products and services. Sharyn Taymor, former director of ESPN Enterprises: In the 1990s, the ESPN brand was starting to be everywhere. An independent record company in the mid-'90s, we were doing our own thing, running fast and loose, and didn't have to answer to anyone. Monica Lynch, former president of Tommy Boy Records: Culturally, very different operations. What Lynch and Tommy Boy needed was a business partner that could help with the sports side. She already had the anthem part figured out. "It was a very simple idea, but sometimes those are the best," Lynch says. Inspired by childhood nostalgia for her hometown Chicago Blackhawks, and encouraged by Ray Castoldi, MSG's director of music and hybrid organist/DJ, Lynch set out to create the ultimate compilation of sports anthems - a collection that would expand the genre beyond old-timey organ music and yacht rock. And it was in that luxury box, watching - and listening to - the Knicks and Rangers, that the idea for Jock Jams was born. Four years later, after developing De La Soul, Digital Underground, Queen Latifah and others, earning her the title "The High Priestess of Hip-hop," in 1985 Lynch became president of Tommy Boy, which earned her access to the company's luxury box at Madison Square Garden. Released on July 25, 1995, the collection opened with Michael Buffer's now ubiquitous "Let's Get Ready To Rumble" boxing howl and was overstuffed with an infectious, borderline-obnoxious mix of arena earworms such as "Get Ready for This," "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" and "YMCA." And while many sports and music fans are familiar with the carrot-colored CD case covered in airborne cheerleaders, or the seminal collection of stadium anthems once described as an "orgy of chantable hooks" and "adrenaline-fueled schmaltz," few know the actual creation story behind the project, the vision of the two women executives who made it all possible, or the stories behind the songs that have been echoing inside arenas and our collective sports brains for decades.Īnd so to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the original Jock Jams release, ESPN tracked down the key executives and artists and asked them to retell inspirations behind the greatest - and strangest - compilation of sports anthems in music history.Īfter gigs as a model and go-go dancer in her hometown of Chicago, Monica Lynch moved to New York, where she answered a want ad in The Village Voice in 1981 to become the first employee of the fledgling Tommy Boy record label. "But I don't think I've ever been at a sporting event and not heard our Jock Jams song." "Not to toot my own horn," says KayGee, while locating Naughty's "Hip Hop Hooray" (Track 11) on the original compilation of stadium anthems. It doesn't occupy the same prestigious wall space as the group's other hit records or even the large custom portrait of former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison, but after all this time, Jock Jams remains nearly impossible to ignore - no matter how hard we all might try. TWENTY-FIVE YEARS LATER, the commemorative platinum-record plaque awarded for "Jock Jams, Volume 1" still hangs inside the New Jersey recording studio of KayGee from Naughty By Nature.
Espn presents jock jams volume 1 gridiron groove upgrade#
You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browserįrom 'Hip Hop Hooray' to 'YMCA,' the untold stories of Jock Jams, 25 years later
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