Metropolitan Recording Corporation is an independent record company founded in 1988 by Jerry R. Salerno and Vincent J. Politan. Salerno & Politan met while both were undergraduates at Stanford University in the eighties.
In 1988 Metropolitan released 2 singles - Deniz's freestyle jam "You Were The One" (the first ever metropolitan release) and the double sided House jam "Say Rayo" by The Brooklyn Boyz Choir. Politan produced these tracks along with his childhood buddy Joe Campbell a.k.a. Joey Gold. Gold would go on to write and produce several of Metropolitan's early singles.
1989 saw the addition of artists such as April, Sebastian, Laissez Faire & Cheree to the growing Metropolitan roster. The initial releases by these artists are today considered "Freestyle Classics" . Sebastain was brought to Metropolitan by the Bronx's MKG, Michael Kidd Gomez, who had written and produced the freestyle classic "Tearshed" on Dance City Records.
By 1990 the artist roster was solid and Metropolitan scored their first semi-national hit with April's "Someone To Hold" (MRC 4462) the label's 13th release. The song received major station airplay in NY, Philly, San Jose, Chicago, Texas, etc. Her follow up "You're The One For Me" went on to achieve even greater success at year's end. A steady flow of hot singles kept Metropolitan at the forefront of the freestyle movement. New York City based MicMac records and Cutting Records were the other dominant forces at the time.
In 1991 Metropolitan revamped the group Laissez Faire by pairing 3 teenage Italian beauties Gina, Jennifer and Marlo to sing Gold's latest creation "In Paradise". This release became the label's greatest success to date.
By late 1992 the musical mood began to change as NY's Hot 97, a long time supporter of freestyle, shifted formats and eventually became a hip hop/rap outlet.
For almost two years Freestyle disappeared from the nations airwaves. During this time Metropolitan entered into a deal to create a new imprint with artist/producer Adam Marano. A compilation entitled "Metropolitan presents Viper's Freestyle Hit Parade" containing the song "I'll Be Loving You" by Collage unexpectedly 'blew up" out of station KHQT "Hot 97" San Jose and returned Freestyle back to national prominence. The song spread like wildfire and eventually spent 10 weeks on Casey Kasem's "Weekly Top Forty". This success sparked the release of an onslaught of Freestyle product to the market - all hoping to capture some of the Collage success.
From 1994 through 1997 Metropolitan released over 50 full-length albums, mostly compilations to satisfy the consumer demand. Metropolitan engineered numerous deals during this time. Each one sparred new releases and several break through hits. In two years Metropolitan charted no less than 7 Hot 100 Pop singles.
The primary deals included the signing of the Freestyle legend "Lil Suzy" whose "Take Me In Your Arms" on High Power/Warlock achieved gold status prior to the genres dark period. Suzy's first release was the blockbuster "Promise Me" Produced by Victor Franco. Subsequent releases "Now & Forever", "When I Fall In Love" and "Can't Get You Out Of My Mind" kept Suzy on the pop forefront. Her albums "Life Goes On" and Paradise" are Freestyle treasures.
The Ti Amo label of Canada headed by Ben Calcaterra found a home in the Metropolitan camp and produced several hits the biggest of which was "Died In Your Arms" by Intonation Featuring Joee. Other singles such as Elissa's "Show Me How You Love Me" and Tribe's "So In Love" also made national waves.
The Tazmania Records label also joined Metropolitan during this time. The Taz guys, Anthony Ponzio, Mike Ferullo and Pete Cerrone, locked up every Philly area Freestyle singer available and churned out such groups/artists as Miguel Reyes, Pure Pleazure, Joe Zangie, Stephanie Bennet and Chicago's Rhythmcentric.
The Metropolitan catalog now contains over eighty full-length albums available on CD and cassette as well as several hundred singles available on 12", cassette and CD.