Well, there's countless unheard names in the game of hip hop – for example close friends of famous artists, managers acting behind the scenes, dancers of groups from the late 80's/early 90's, founders of small independent record labels or people who helped unknown talented and hungry MC's to launch their careers, while they remained staying in the shadow of these artists theirselves. Despite the fact having a strangely different "task" in the hip hop game, all these people had a common goal to achieve: To live their life for and by the music they love. Let me introduce a man who ain't known by many though he as been involved in the hip hop game for a long period of time. He was down with the whole Mount Vernon, NY posse (I'm sure you know who I mean) in the early 90's before he founded his own independent record label and management company "St. Nick Entertainment Inc." (so all those people who ever thought that the Rob-O vinyl releases were bootlegs get schooled right now!), he's a very close friend of INI's Rob-O, he was responsible for the Pete Rock & CL Smooth reunion 12" "Shine On Me" and he's now working as CL Smooth's manager. The man I'm talking about? Nick Taylor (see photo). Here's a short report about this Mt. Vernon, NY veteran.Nick Taylor is 39 years young and was born and raised in Harlem, NYC. He moved to Mount Vernon, NY as a teenager and put his roots down there. He was fortunate enough to meet and grow up with a great group of close friends, one of them being Heavy D. They were and are still great friends and all his friends enjoyed his successes as he shared his world with them. Heavy D is mostly responsible for Nick's pursuit in music. Being a part of that world Nick had the opportunity to learn about the music biz at the highest level. Now with the knowledge and experiences that he attained during this period, he found himself very interested in the welfare of artists and their pursuit of a career in music.
Upon the birth of his first daughter he decided that this was the career he wanted and started the management company "St. Nick Entertainment Inc." - inspired by his birth place in Harlem, 119 St. Nicholas Ave. 
Pete Rock was also one of those great friends that he grew up with in Mount Vernon. Pete was also one of Heavy D's close friends as well (and his cousin), so once he took off it opened up a bunch of opportunities for a lot of local rappers. And one of them was Rob-O and his group INI. Things didn't work out for Rob-O (and INI) and Pete (this is a story for itself), though they had some success with their Elektra released "Fakin' Jax" single. This success helped to establish Rob-O on the hip hop market because now he had lots of people checking for him. Rob wanted to pursuit his own solo career and asked for Nick's help to which he ecstatically agreed. Nick and Rob-O started by the normal procedures. Without getting the expected responses from several record labels, they decided it would be better to establish some independence from the acceptance of these fools and go at it theirselves! Nick obtained a distribution deal with a small great company outta Long Island called UNIQUE DISTRIBUTION (STRONG SHOUT OUT to APOLLO R.I.P) and they helped them by giving them a chance to make, market and distribute their own material. But this was in the mid 90's and wax began to fade, so sales suffered and that was the reason why Nick is still sitting on a few boxes of Rob-O's vinyl-only album "Superspectacular", which is a collection of all the previous Rob-O 12-inches plus a few bonus cuts. They were very limited as far as funding for the project goes but "...we are still proud of the work because that's HIP HOP 101...", Nick mentioned. "Rob-O is my man till this day and I love and respect that cat for believing in me as the person to try and help him make his dream come true!"
Nick is now - and has been for his solo career - the manager for the legend CL Smooth (see photo). "You can check for him and all of his works and that's all me!", Nick notes. He also has a sensational R&B artist from Atlanta, GA named Ray Rush. This guy recently released a new itunes song titled "I Can't Let Her Go". Check it out!Nick's still in contact with Rob-O. "I have an office around the corner from his (Rob-O) home so we bump into each other from time to time. I just seen his son in front of the building!".
Asking Nick about the relationship between Pete Rock and him, he details: "But as for me and Pete: Nah we aren't friends any more but that's between us, and the "Shine On Me" record came about because I managed to pursuade Pete and CL to get back together in 2000. And after years of come back tales the DJ and hip hop community needed something concrete to go on, so I swung a deal with Fatbeats to press up vinyl copies, so that I could service the DJ's with something new from them".
St. Nick Entertainment Inc. discography:
STN12010 Rob-O Superspectacular (LP, Album)
STN12001 Rob-O World Premier (12")
STN12002 Rob-O Gotta Let You Know (12")
STN12003 Rob-O Don't You Love It (12")
STN12004 Rob-O Wunderlust (12")
STN12005 Rob-O So Many Rappers (12")
STN12007 Rob-O Holy War (12")
STN12008 Rob-O Science The Gods (12")
STN 0001 Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth Shine On Me / Climax (12")
If you still need a copy of the classic Rob-O "Superspectacular" LP or one of his 12-inches, please contact me at abrotherwithsoul at arcor dot de and I will get that wax for you for a reasonable price directly from the man of this little story, Nick Taylor.
Have a listen to the snippets of the "Superspectacular" LP here:
Please also check out Rob-O's best of CD titled "Rhyme Pro" (Sound Of Dissent Records) and the "Mention Me / Rhyme Tighter" 12" (Sound Of Dissent Records) and CL Smooth's solo albums "American Me" (Shaman Work) and "The Outsider" (Blackheart). All releases are worth checking out! And if you still don't own a copy of the amazing "Superspectacular" LP (many tracks produced by Pete Rock), you know who you need to contact!Peace,
Benny aka ABWS & Nick Taylor
