Chung King Studios

The studio was founded by John King in 1979 in New York City’s Chinatown under the name “Secret Society Records”. John King seems to be quite a mysterious figure. He has little information to be seen and no personal Wikipedia page. The only evidence of the band he fronted, predating the studio, is one rare 7" single recorded some time during the 70s under the name “John King and the Cats”.

The studio quickly overtook any other ventures King could have been considering at the time as just around the corner at Sugar Hill Records, Joe and Sylvia Robinson and the Sugar Hill Gang were laying down the record that would make Hip Hop a household name.
The success of “Rappers Delight” hooked on to King and his contemporaries, who happened to be the likes of Run D.M.C, LL Cool J and Russell Simmons, and dragged them all the way to the top. From there, had a front row seat looking out on the 5 boroughs while the NYC Hip Hop scene was still feeling the buzz from the the first commercially successful rap song, the beginning of “sampling” in its earlier forms and the formation hip hop powerhouses like The Beastie Boy’s and ODB’s Force of the Imperial Master (which would later become the Wu-Tang Clan) From there on out, the studio was to be commonly known as the “Abbey Road of Hip Hop”.

The studio received recognition as one of the most successful audio and production facilities in the world and King himself has received numerous RIAA Industry Awards.
The studio space saw high profile artists like Jay Z, Amy Winehouse, Lady Gaga and Kanye West come and go up until as recently as 2015 but seems to have gone suspiciously silent in recent years for reasons we may only speculate.