Golden Era Records - History

History

On 12 June 2009, in the year following the label's inception, the label's founder, the Hilltop Hoods, released its fifth album, State of the Art, through Golden Era. Shortly after the establishment of the label, Vents, a MC from Adelaide, South Australia, and Adfu, a Palestinian-born producer/DJ, were signed to the label.

In November 2009, Golden Era Records signed a deal with the Funkoars, a hip hop group from South Australia—as part of the deal, the Funkoars re-released its album, The Hangover, as The Hangover: Premium Edition. Also in 2009, Aboriginal Australian MC, Briggs, released his debut EP, Homemade Bombs, with a financial loan that he received from Suffa of the Hilltop Hoods (Suffa explained in a 2012 television interview that Briggs repaid the loan in full)—the label then signed Briggs and released his debut album, The Blacklist. Pressure, also of the Hilltop Hoods, explained, in a 2012 television interview, the rationale behind Briggs' signing:

And one of the reasons we signed Briggs to the Golden Era label was... because he's just got this presence. You know, he's everywhere. He's probably the hardest-working individual in Australian hip-hop, if not one of. He's the most self-motivated dude I've ever met ... everywhere he goes, you know, everyone remembers Briggs.

In January 2012, Fontana—an independent marketing, sales and distribution company that is based within the corporate structure of the Universal Music Group—signed an exclusive agreement with Golden Era Records for the American release of Drinking from the Sun and the label's back catalogue titles.

On 25 January 2013, the label announced the signing of another artist on the Golden Era Facebook fan page—K21 (Adriano Celentano), an Adelaide, Australia artist discovered through the Hilltop Hoods' "Initiative" programme was welcomed to Golden Era with the statement, "Welcome to the squad K21!!". However, no further official public notification, such as a press release, was published. In late January/early February 2013, K21's artist profile was added to the label's website and he is described as "a powerful weapon for years to come"—K21's debut Golden Era album release is due in 2013.

The Golden Era roster performed in a music video collaboration, entitled "Cypher", that was published on the label's YouTube channel on 24 January 2013. Set to the music of "Bloody Poetry" by Grieves (produced by Budo), the video features the entire Golden Era artist roster—Funkoars, Vents, Hilltop Hoods, Adfu, K21 and Briggs—and was directed/filmed by Unity Sound and Visual. Together with the announcements that were published on the Internet, the video introduces K21 to Golden Era Records, with the artist delivering the concluding verse.

In April 2013, K21 released his first recording with Golden Era, the free EP Kid Sinatra. The EP was uploaded onto the Golden Era Soundcloud page and, as of 11 April 2013, is available as a free download (together with the cover art) on the Acclaim Magazine website. A music video for the opening song "Long Time" was published on the Golden Era YouTube channel and the video, filmed at Disk Edits and DJ Debris's Take Away Studios, was filmed by Eightlimb Films and edited by K21.