She was born as Sylvia Vanterpool in 1936 in New York City. Her first successful record was the 1956 hit, "Love Is Strange", written byBo Diddley (but credited to his then wife, Ethel Smith) and guitarist Jody Williams, who had developed the distinctive lead guitar riff, and released as part of the duo Mickey & Sylvia with guitar player Mickey Baker.

She married Joe Robinson in 1964 and continued working in the music industry, being involved with several more successful releases and forming the successful All Platinum Records label in 1968, which released records for soul artists such as Donnie Elbert and Shirley Goodman (e.g. "Shame, Shame, Shame", credited to Shirley & Company). She is also credited as the producer of the song "Love on a Two Way Street", a hit for the Moments in 1970.

As a solo performer and billed as Sylvia (not to be confused with the country singer of the same name) she recorded and released the single "Pillow Talk" on the Vibration label in 1973. She had originally hoped "Pillow Talk" would be recorded by Al Green, but he turned it down, because it was too risqué and against his religious beliefs. The drums on the recorded version seem to have been influenced by the productions of Willie Mitchell for Green.

"Pillow Talk" reached number one for two weeks on the R&B chart and number three on the pop chart, and is an early example of prototypical disco music. It sold over two million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in May 1973. The vocals are replete with moaning and heavy breathing, predating Donna Summer's orgasmic moans on "Love to Love You Baby". The drumming rhythm would reappear in 1985 on Kate Bush's "Running Up that Hill", then again in 1987 on Fleetwood Mac's "Big Love".

In the 1970s, the Robinsons, along with Milton Malden, founded Sugar Hill Records. The company was named after the culturally rich Sugar Hill area of Harlem, an affluent African American neighborhood in Manhattan New York City, known as a hub for artists and performers in the early and mid 1900s.

She was credited as a guiding force behind Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five's most successful single, "The Message", which is credited as the rap song that brought socially conscious lyrics into hip hop. She persuaded the group to record the song while it was still an estranged demo recording, surprisingly created by a studio percussionist for the Sugar Hill Gang. By commercializing the market for rap records, Robinson is credited as the mother of modern hip-hop. The song "Rapper's Delight" brought rap into the public music arena, and revolutionized the music industry as it introduced the idea of re-using existing compositions, a practice that later became known as "sampling".

Sylvia Robinson is survived by her sons Joey, Leland and Rhondo and 10 grandchildren. Mr Robinson died of cancer in 2000.

Robinson died on the morning of September 29, 2011, aged 75, at Meadowlands Hospital in Secaucus, New Jersey from congestive heart failure.

Wikipedia

BBC.com