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Tommy Boy is a US label that was established in 1981 by Tom Silverman when the entrepreneurial trade mag publisher began releasing the best of the demos crossing his path. He struck gold with the label's revolutionary debut, Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force's Planet Rock. One of the only 12" singles ever to sell 600,000+ copies, it laid the foundation for the genre-defining house that Tommy built. Tommy Boy and its stable of stars led the way as the first wave of hip-hop's artistic translation of urban street culture became a mass-appeal phenomenon. With repeated high-charting crossover success, Tommy Boy earned almost 80 gold and platinum citations, and the label's groundbreaking grooves are essential pillars of hip-hop, as evidenced in this new collection of many of their greatest early tracks.